I'll bite. Please enlighten me as to why I should tread lightly.
Everyone who was born on this dirt are Americans. America has a history as how it came to be. Good or Bad, it still has a history.
I'll bite. Please enlighten me as to why I should tread lightly.
Everyone who was born on this dirt are Americans. America has a history as how it came to be. Good or Bad, it still has a history.
Here I gotta disagree...If you're saying that being born in the United States automatically gives you citizenship, that's NOT how it's supposed to be. It has become this way only by bureaucratic fiat, not by actual rule of LAW.
Now, back to your actual point - History is HISTORY. For sure, there are different perspectives, and nobody can say now what the TRUTH really was about a lot of things that happened even as recently as 200 years back.
But to erase the recorded history simply because you don't like what it says is never a good idea.
For instance - I'm essentially of German descent. But you'll NEVER see me trying to erase the records of something as culturally and sociologically damaging to the Germans as the Holocaust! It happened. It SUCKS that it happened, and I feel sorrow for those who were caught up in that madness, and anger at those who participated, but no matter how far the pendulum swings, I'll never condone erasing that tragic picture.
So erasing the fact that people in this country were once owned by other people is wrong, and if we remove all mention of these people, we will fail to learn from that situation.
To take it one step further,
I am the son of a former slave.
My grandparents and their children were captured and sold as slaves near the end of WWII by the Polish. They escaped, and were recaptured 6 times. At one point my grandfather escaped and tried to raise money to buy back his family.
Certainly this wasn't the same as the generational slavery that people have experienced all over the globe, but it's still slavery.
Do I hate Polish people because if this? NO.
Do I feel like my life is worth less because of my personal connection to slavery? NO.
Do I think someone owes me or my family anything as a result of that slavery? NO.
After the war ended, my grandparents finally made it to a British refugee camp, and after a few years made it to America.
I'm pretty sure they spoke no English, but a distant relative had signed paperwork helping them immigrate. There were 6 of them with little more than the clothes they wore. In spite of arriving with nothing, in a land that had recently defeated their homeland, and in the face of constant bigotry, they tried to raise their family. My grandparents worked 2 and 3 jobs each, both sons served during Vietnam, and by the time my grandmother died of cancer in 1993 she had almost $1million in assets.
THAT is what America means to me. The freedom to do what it takes to either succeed or fail, based on your own abilities.
So to all of those 'entitled' assholes out there, I say: "Nobody owes you shit. If you want something, it's a question of HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT???"