You’re Not Christopher Columbus
Today, Monday, October 10th, we celebrate the arrival of Christopher Columbus into the America’s, promptly followed by raping and pillaging. Some of you took the day off work, the rest of us are not afforded the luxury of a salary pay structure.
This image has been floating around Facebook today. While amusing, the artist/author forgets some key differences between the arrival of Columbus and the concept of immigration as we know it today. As a servant to society, I will do my best to make those subtle, but important differences abundantly clear.
By far, the most popular comment regarding this illustration is to equate the building of a wall by the Native Americans to the wall spanning the border between the United States and Mexico. While noble, let us all attempt to keep in mind that for the most part, the Native Americans didn’t want the “white man” on their territory either. It’s not like they met the newcomers and handed over their lifestyle, gathered their remaining belongings and herded themselves onto reservations where they promptly launched the most profitable business model possible: a casino. No, it took quite an effort to accomplish that nutshell of events. Wars were fought and many, many people on both sides died. I’m going to repeat that just to be sure you didn’t miss it. It was a war, well, many wars and battles. Landing the boat (jumping the fence) was just the first step.
To all those foreigners who wish to immigrate to the United States in the traditional Christopher Columbus fashion, I invite you to do so. You’ll probably need a large navy. Might I suggest equipping yourself with at least 3 aircraft carriers, 750,000 well-trained soldiers, boat loads of immigrants willing to work their ass off for a meager living, plans to declare independence and a well written constitution. My point is that the citizens of the United States of America are gracious enough to give you a legal path to citizenship. If you don’t like that path, you better come in with guns blazing and be prepared to die for your cause.
Of course, Columbus did not face the same formidable competition to conquer the America’s that might be required of you today. I guess that’s just part of the circle of life. Look on the bright side of things, there are lots of other nations you could attempt to colonize that aren’t going to put up half the resistance you will find here. A great place to start would be Somalia. Rumor has it that Somalia doesn’t even have a functioning government. It’s like having a shoe in the door already!
Happy Columbus day.
2 Comments
Here it is again — You stated wonderfully what I am unable to to put into words in such a crafted manner. Thank you so much.
That was a wonderful article. Very well put. The only thing I would add is that Columbus actually never set foot in what is now the United States and that the Indians and the Pilgrims lived quite harmoniously for a long time. It was really only as the nation started to grow that there were problems.
Think about it. There is the European culture of land ownership and rights based on that, where as the American Indians had no real concept of land ownership, it seems. It was all communal. I make no statement as to which culture had the better way of doing it, but you can see that eventually, there is no way these two cultures can peacefully coexist after time.
As like you, though, I welcome all immigrants here that will respect our laws as the rule of law is what makes our country so special. So….. How to Immigrate is one of those laws. lol.
JB