There are two things that is likely occupying the minds of most US citizens this week. They are the political rhetoric of the immigration debacle and for most, Thanksgiving Day. It is ironic that today most US citizens are celebrating a holiday centered on immigrants occupying a country and reinventing it in their own image thereby displacing the native inhabitants. It is ironic because to most the irony is lost on them as the immigration debate is ongoing.
The fact is that immigration is the nexus to the continuing evolution of the human experience. Many people reading my first paragraph are so angry by now that anything else I add will be completely lost to them. Just as immigration is the nexus to human evolution it is also the most polarizing issue in humanity. The fact is that immigration causes society to evolve. As a result, immigration displaces a way of life and changes it. I believe the change is good for humanity but change brings about fear and because of that fear immigration issues brings out the worst in all of us.
To the Native Americans immigration was the destruction of their way of life. To some the “destruction” was for the good of the world while for the natives it was detrimental. Evolution destroys one thing as it creates another. Because of this, immigration has always been resisted by the native populations that for the most part are themselves natives to the lands they call home.
Unfortunately this simple fact is lost and the immigrants who created the holiday that is being celebrated across dinner tables tonight is ignored. Even more hypocritical is that many, if not all of the fruits and vegetables on the dinner table tonight were harvested by the same immigrants that some of those eating them want excluded from the “American Dream.”
These are simple facts but the anger of displacement and change is so engrained in many people that many are enjoying their meals tonight ignoring the place immigrants played in their meals.
To those that made it all the way to the end of my blog today I wish you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I am mindful that the Constitution of the United States let’s me express my opinion as unpalatable as it might be to some of you, it is one of the things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.
