The Dead White Men of times past have spoken out in favor of more immigration. Cicero, in his Republic, has a conversation in which there were rumors that two suns were seen in Rome. Religious leaders would plant these kinds of superstitions and rumors in Rome all the time for political purposes, just like people do here today. In response, Cicero, speaking through the mouth of Laelius, a Roman statesman, said that we should not worry about such things as rumors and superstitions.
Take my advice, then, my young friends, and don’t worry about the second sun. It may not exist at all; or, as it has been seen, let it exist provided it does no harm. In any case, we know nothing of such things and even if we come to know a great deal, that kind of knowledge will not make us better or happier people.
Michelle Malkin’s latest smear against the protestors against HR 4437 is a perfect example of why this axiom is true. Why should I care if the neighbor next door flies a Mexican flag on his porch every day, celebrates Mexican holidays instead of American holidays, or posts La Raza bumper stickers on his car? Whether he is here legally or not is between him and the government. All I care about is that he is a good neighbor and plays by the rules.
“Aztlan is a long-held notion among Mexico’s intellectual elite and political class,” Malkin wrote in her column Wednesday, “which asserts that the American southwest rightly belongs to Mexico. Advocates believe the reclamation (or reconquista) of Aztlan will occur through sheer demographic force. If the rallies across the country are any indication, reconquista is already complete.”
In fact, Gillard points out that this is only held by White Supremacist groups and fringe groups:
A simple Google search shows that the people talking about Aztlan and reconquista are predominantly not Mexican (though there are some radical fringe groups) but white supremacists.
In fact, Alex Koppelman writes that when the mainstream Latino protestors are calling for liberation, it is a spritiual liberation, not a violent struggle such as the Soviet Revolution was:
Why? Because Aztlan and reconquista these days aren’t, for the most part, ideas held by Mexicans: they’re ideas held by white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The myth of reconquista stems from a misreading of one of the founding documents of the Chicano movement, “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan.”
In much the same way that the Black Power movement meant the words “Black Power” in a metaphorical sense, that is, as a call to African-Americans to recognize after years of being stigmatized that they too were people with something to contribute to society, “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan” was an appeal to nationalism as a means to achieve a greater self-awareness and self-esteem.
Exactly. Just like the Irish continue to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Afro-Americans celebrate Kwanzaa, or any number of ethnic communities in New York or LA continue to maintain their cultures and customs even in the middle of a new land.
Doing this is important. It is a way for foreigners to support each other and to provide each other with a sense of home away from home. It is also a matter of maintaining their identity and a sense of who they are. The Latino protestors should be praised for celebrating their heritage, not scorned on the suspicion that they MIGHT be illegals.
Enabling false rumors to spread like Michelle Malkin’s is unamerican and totally contrary to our values as a country. Our Constitution provides that people should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. When people trample on this principle in the name of fighting communism like McCarthy did, bashing special rights for gays, or scream that hordes of Mexicans are about to swarm across the border and take away our cherished way of life, this plunges the country into a state of fear. Neighbors turn on neighbors, people get fired from their jobs who have nothing to do with Communism, and this country turns into a police state. It is a logical extension of the illegal wiretaps and the Patriot Act that Senator Feingold has fought so hard to stop.
Bush cannot credibly turn around and insist on a guest worker program in order to distance himself from that. All that serves to do is keep the country in the same bondage of fear that it was from terrorism. The guest worker program is only a bandaid and totally ignores any meaningful solutions to the problem. All he is doing is trying to play the same old politics as usual so that his right-wing allies like Malkin can continue to scream and whip up fear.
