Jim Morin for July 24, 2014

This wouldn’t have happened if you had just built a fence.

To the ’toon, mine too.

Such a dumb toon.Every LEGAL immigrant I know has gone through the LEGAL process of becoming an American. Awesome reward for their hard work in doing it the right way.If you can’t even follow our rules to become a citizen, WE DONT WANT YOU!

The leader of a Native American council was asked about how her people would have greeted Lewis and Clark had they known how Eastern tribes were being treated. She said the western tribes would have united to kill every white man who crossed the Mississippi River. The Native Americans of the Americas were willing to share the land with Europeans, but Europeans came with greed and avarice and used God as the reason why the ‘heathens’ had to be contained and/or killed. The use of ‘biological weapons", blankets from smallpox victims and other diseases, were given as gifts and are thought to be responsible for over 75% of the native population of the Americas dying. Whole tribes became extinct.*Now, those ’immigrants’ who killed their foothold into the Americas are seen on tv acting the way we see in this cartoon. Native American tribes are still treated as if it were they, not the whites, who are invaders in this land.It is ironic to be able to hypothesize that were the US economy healthy, unemployment below 3%, and pay at levels equivalent to the fifties and sixties for middle class workers, the children fleeing gangs and lives of slavery to those gangs would likely be welcomed and even adopted by good people. The same good people who, with jobs outsourced, with pay way below the value of work done, and the many other negatives effecting our neighbors, are standing at the border yelling at buses full of 7 to 12 year old children who have become victims on both sides of the equator.Respectfully,C.

I see this point made all the time by liberals. But don’t you think if they could, that the Indians would LOVE to go back in time and enforce “border control” on the Pilgrims? Knowing now what allowing all those Europeans to move in here caused, don’t you think they would have slaughtered every white person who set foot on the continent?

Immigration was legal in those days because there there were no laws. In more recent times there were still a lot of people who got here anyway they could and ended up blending into society. Some of my old friends who immigrated sixty years ago did so through some creative means.

@pavlovHogwash, the befeathered guy wandered here from somewhere else just like the europeans in fact many “native” americans have european dna prior to european settlements. The rest of us just waited to take the boat.

I don’t think that their DNA is relevant. They had, in fact, “wandered here”, just as those first Europeans wandered over looking for trade routes to the Orient, (or just exploring like the Vikings). The difference is, the Native Americans had established their residency, maintained the borders of their rangelands (their ‘states’ if you will) and had a culture and a civilization that spanned the Western Hemisphere.

The Europeans came and killed them, drove them out of their land, forced them on death marches (the Trail of Tears) and massacred their women and children (the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado is just one that comes to mind.)

I, myself, am glad to be here, and to born in this great country, but it is beyond insensitive not to acknowledge that my being here came at the cost of another, original culture who peopled this land.

As for the current immigration situation. On my father’s side, my great great great grandfather came legally from Germany. But on my mother’ side, my great great great grandfather escaped forced conscription as a youth (the Napoleanic wars, and no, I don’t know which ‘side’ was trying to conscript him) by stowing away on a boat, remaining hidden until the ship arrived in New Orleans, and then slipping off, somehow unnoticed, to establish and build a new life where he was safe to work hard and start a family.

So understandably, I feel for children and youth fleeing for lives to avoid almost certain conscription of their own. In fact, I think our country should view them as refugees seeking asylum rather than illegal immigrants. It seems to me that that is what our current law may be seeking to determine for them. If that is true, I wholly support that.

On a side note… It is always a pleasure when I see the “Saints for Sanity” icon. I know that I will shortly be enjoying a well balanced and intelligent post. Thank you Respectful Troll, I wish you had time to post more. If you don’t mind, I’ll end with…

Also respectfully,B.

The reason the indians didn’t kill all the Europeans is because over 90% of the indians died of diseases from the first explorers. NOT from murderous white people.… When the next group came, the land was mostly vacant. In fact the explorers found a new world with pathways and cleared land that was unoccupied and took it as a sign from God that this was laid out for them. Huh?There were No “indians” when the Pilgrims arrived?What about Jamestown? No indains there?I suppose Florida was the same way?Why do all of the rivers and other bodies of water in the east have those “indian” names? “God” gave them those names?

Take some more studies in history. The French that came to the Americas, tho claiming territory, were not trying to clear native peoples from the land. They were willing to share the bounty of the lands.The English who came not only wanted to claim the land area, they killed and tried to drive off natives.

Try this book first:‘Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong’

“This updated and revised edition of the American Book Award-winner and national bestseller revitalizes the truth of America’s history, explores how myths continue to be perpetrated, and includes a new chapter on 9/11 and the Iraq War.

Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past.

In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today’s climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus’s historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.

Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.”

I have a copy. It’s a few years old and I think 1 edition before this one, but still a great book. Explained why I was taught the history I was taught in South Africa while I was growing up. Even non-Americans can take lessons from this book.

Seems that Wounded Knee also isn’t mentioned in whatever “history” sites he’s been reading. But, as he says, the land was “mostly” vacant.

Avoiding my questions? …and I’m the one with the reading comprehension problem?

There is another issue not being addressed here. If we can get past the fact that the Europeans came here and immorally dispossessed the original inhabitants, which is true, let’s look at the state of immigration law over the years. When my great-grandfather came here from Austria in the 1880s, there were no quotas, and getting in was much easier than it is today. Now, getting into this country legally – especially if you’re from Central America – is nigh on impossible. And getting refugee status in the USA is equally difficult (unless you’re from Cuba). So, when people start talking about how their forebears came here legally, it was under a different set of rules. If my great-grandfather had been under the same restrictions placed on Central Americans, he would not have made it here legally either.

When the earliest folks arrived from Asia (probably) the land was unoccupied. As population grew, and more arrived, even those early “native Americans” didn’t all “get along”. But the simple fact is that Europeans invaded a very populated land, though not initially densely populated, and sought to murder anyone who stood in their way of taking that land, period. Just like those folks who came out of Egypt to murder Canaanites and anyone who stood in their way, because they too proclaimed “manifest destiny”.

Still waiting for the Spanish to apologize to the Incans and Mayans for all but exterminating them.

Isn’t Jim about the 25th cartoonist to make the European/South American comparison… Come on guys a little originality.