Are we not ALL, immigrants?

[shance]

Please wake up friends.

Most if not all of us are not native to this land. We are immigrants or descendants thereof.

This is also a key question. The "ownership" society promotes a greed mentality that does little except to promote separation and fear and competition, instead of appreciating what everyone can offer to this planet.

Don't buy what their selling.

They who profit off the wars and division, want us to continue dividing more and more and more.....

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. yes we are

[MADem]

2. I am a descendant of immigrants, but I am native born

Whatever that means, really. So I don't consider myself an immigrant, unless I emigrate somewhere else.

If you look through the long lens of history, humans have always had a habit of moving around. If they weren't following the sun, or water supplies, or chow on the hoof, they were looking for other people, to either form new alliances or kill 'em and take their stuff.

[sleipnir]

3. No one is native to this land. That is the beauty of America.

Even our first inhabitants thousands and thousands of years ago left their known world for what we can only assume is a journey into a presumably better land. Our land is a land of foreigners coming to experience a world that is unique and opportunity seemingly unending. Though, the history of our land is also replete with those who would abuse this freedom and declare that certain people did not belong here or had no claim to the same dreams. We balance a tough scale of acceptance that is sadly tempered with a dark hatred. Perhaps we can rise above this and see the world of America as the first set of humans eyes must have 10,000 years ago, a vast land representing open future.

[EST]

4. No, we are not.

Once a particular family has lived here for a generation or two, or a person has moved out of the ethnic neighborhood they grew up in, the "nation of immigrants" meme just doesn't fit.
This is a sales tactic-something used to make people respond emotionally instead of logically.
I watched some of the interviews of marchers from this weekend and it's obvious that many of them, although their parents may have been in the country illegally, do NOT view themselves as immigrants. "This is MY country" resounds as strongly with them as it does for me.

[slaveplanet]

5. native born

I believe most countries cut off repatriation at the grandparent level or greatgrandparent level.

Those that don't qualify, that wish to return legally, must jump through major hoops. Most likely they would be looked at as refugees.
Once you get past the grandparent level, which country would you choose? there could be many depending on your lineage.


So no , WE ARE NOT ALL IMMIGRANTS

[harpo]

24. I was born in the US...I'm not an immigrant, I'm a natural citizen

[951-Riverside]

6. Whats your address shance?

I'd love to come over to your "home","house","land", etc and live in it for an undetermined amount of time at your expensive of course.

[shance]

16. Im sure you would*

being that you always seem to make your presence known at threads I post. :)

Hmm....I guess that's kind of like what the white man did to the Native Americans wasn't it?

[Zookeeper]

7. I've traced my family line in the U.S. back to...

1735 and I have ancestors who were Cherokee. No, I'm not an immigrant. My great-great-great-great...grandparents were immigrants. Mr. Z.'s grandparents were immigrants, but they were LEGAL immigrants.

I have nowhere to "go back to." Scotland? Ireland? England? Germany? To them I'm an American. Whether I like it or not, this is my homeland.

This is like calling a Mexican citizen an immigrant if they have Spanish blood.

Legal immigration is fine, and there are people waiting all over the world for the privilege of moving here LEGALLY...I welcome them. In 2006, with dwindling natural resources, it's even more important that our population grow in a sustainable fashion, with some planning involved. We can't do that when millions of people are illegally crossing our borders, not respecting our laws and apparently not caring about the effect their willingness to work for slave wages has on the legal citizens (of all races) of the U.S.

Forget the "wall," forget making Mexican citizens who are here illegally felons, forget forcing people to squeal on their neighbors, American BUSINESS needs to slapped, fined and put out of business if they are hiring illegal workers. IMHO, individuals need to take responsibility for this as well. If I can't afford a Union carpenter, plumber or electrician, I go on-line or make a trip to the library and figure out how to a home repair or project myself. I do my own yard work and take care of my own kids.

Flame away! :rant:

[fasttense]

10. You hit the nail on the head Zookeeper.

I see a wall as only slowing down the potential illegal (though I do think we need to strengthen our security at the borders). What we have to do is remove the incentives for people to cross the border illegally. What are those incentives? Low paying, unskilled jobs that pay more than what the going wage is in Mexico and other countries. If we held US corporations accountable for hiring illegally, I bet the flow of illegals would slow considerably.

I haven't notice any legislation being offered that has provisions for fining and closing down employers who hire illegally. Did I miss something?

[Zookeeper]

11. I don't think you missed anything.

The politicians are throwing a lot of "solutions" around, but none of them is going out of their way to come down hard on "sacred" business interests.

[Daphne08]

18. I won't flame you because you are exactly right! n/t

[PsN2Wind]

21. Your lineage reads much like mine

My paternal side was in this country prior to the revolution, and the ancestor for whom I was named was a notable patriot and fighter in that war.
My maternal side came through Ellis Island, legally, from Bohemia and homesteaded in the midwest being given nothing from the government but the land they turned from prairie to farmland.
I also have some Cherokee blood. As my grandfather said "if you look close enough at the bloodlines of those in North Carolina from the early 1800s on you are likely to find some Cherokee".

[REP]

8. Family's Been Here Since Before It Was The United States...

My grandfather's family was among the first to settle at Jamestown. My grandmother's family were johnny-come-latelies, not making it here until 1718, but some of them were helpful in starting this country. So no, I'm not an immigrant and all you kids get offa my yard.

[regnaD kciN]

9. Send 'Em Back

Little Pedro and Juanita
Arrived this morning in Reseda
On a special overnight delivery
They bubbled and they burbled and they flashed their brown eyes at us
We said check their little heartbeats and their immigration status
And if you should find they're here illegally...

Send 'em back
Send 'em back
Give 'em one good whack and half an hour to pack
Hand their cousins to the fuzz 'n stick 'em on a southbound bus
Restrict immigration, give the country back to us

Little Helga and her "vater"
Came across the rolling water
On a stormy day in 1923
And he labored as a carpenter so she could be a doctor
Now they convalesce together in the window where he rocked her
And they're burdens on the state economy...

Send 'em back
Send 'em back
Give 'em one Big Mac and serum Ipecac
On a steamer back to Bremerhaven instantaneous
Restrict immigration, give the country back to us

Send the Finns back to Finland
And the Russians further inland
Sent the Poles back to Poland
And the penguins to the Pole
Any man with a tan
Should go back to Tanzania
And Aegeans to Aegea
And Koreans back to Seoul

Well, Columbus found this nation
Had a native population
Who'd been living here since many years B.C.
Descended from a people who were noble, brave and daring
Who'd migrated 'cross the Bering eating bits of frozen herring
And spread out across this continent from sea...to sea...so peaceful and so free...

Send 'em back
Send 'em back
Put 'em on a trek Columbo couldn't track
Let 'em count the steps to China on a friggin' abacus
Restrict immigration
And give this mighty nation
Back to us.......squirrels

-- Roy Zimmerman (of The Foremen)

[Zookeeper]

20. Ah-ha! That explains it!

I had a feeling those critters were up to something (besides driving my dog crazy). ;-)

[tenshi816]

12. I'm an immigrant..

My first immigrant ancestors formed part of the original Jamestown colony.

Then I emigrated from the United States to the UK. I went full circle.

[misternormal]

13. I am a naturalized citizen, so yes I am an immigrant...

Adopted as a baby, and brought to this country as a small child.

Naturalized in 1957...

And even so... This is MY country... I hold no loyalties elsewhere.

[B Calm]

14. I'm a grandson of LEGAL immigrants!

My grandfather was a Coal Mining UNION MAN who fought for worker rights.

[shance]

17. That's wonderful you know your heritage. My question is, what

makes someone legal and/or "illegal"?

Again, I think that is a way of discriminating against people who may not have the money or connections that others do.

I happen to be third generation 'legal' as well, but in the end, our descendants all came here for the same reason didn't we, legal or otherwise.

[foreverdem]

15. No, I was born here

I am the great granddaughter of immigrants, who all came here legally, processed and documented through Ellis Island (I checked this out and found them all).

I have nothing against immigration if it is done legally. If for no other reason, than that of national security.

[pitohui]

19. no as a matter of fact i'm not

i was born here, as were members of my family on my dad's side for a minimum of hundreds of years and in the case of my native american ancestors, tens of thousands of years

no land can tolerate an infinite increase in population

no land has an infinite carrying capacity

those who ignore science threaten to destroy us all, and i care not if the science-deniers pretend to be on the side of some scribbles written on a statue a hundred years ago, i know what they're abt, they're abt cheap labor, slave labor, and when this land is dead and dry, they will move on and leave their abandoned slaves to die of thirst and hunger in the exhausted land

over-dramatic, i hope so, but it all comes back to reality-based thinking

and reality tells me that no labor force can stand infinite number of competitors and no land has a carrying capacity to withstand infinite number of inhabitants

it is not 1880 any more

you have to draw the line somewhere, the courageous decisions by definition require courage

let's leave the appeal to cheap sentiment to the know-nothings, thank you, on this site you need not assume that we have left our brains in dry dock

[Cleita]

22. This is the new wedge issue for the election that is

replacing the abortion wedge issue and I'm appalled at the DU'ers who are falling for it.

[Cobalt Violet]

23. No, I was born here.

It's on my birth certificate.

[shance]

27. As I was too. As were my father, mother and all of my grand parents.

And some of my great grand parents.

However, we are visitors upon this land just like everyone else. No one "owns" this land really, other than the fact that we have all bought into an "ownership" mentality, which of course creates all the wars and feuds going on.

[coalition_unwilling]

25. We are all Iraqis (n/t)

[shance]

26. Absolutely. We. Are. All. Connected.

Thanks for posting.

[bigwillq]

28. Only the last two generations

in my family (me, sister, cousins) and my parents (aunts and uncles) were born in this country.
The rest are immigrants.



I am all for as many immigrants that want to, to come into this country.

[guinivere]

29. Agreed.

The only real natives of this land are the folks that got stuffed onto reservations.