This Land is Mine

I watched an episode of the History Channel’s documentary, The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen – Live Free or Die Part 3. This episode chronicles the dispute between President Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett on the issue of The Indian Removal Act, known later as The Trail of Tears.

Apparently, Crockett participated in an earlier massacre of Native Americans, but the brutal destruction of the lives of these Americans affected him greatly. Crockett believed that the Native Americans had as much, if not more, right to live in America and as anyone else, and he vigorously fought against The Indian Removal Act. His dispute of the President’s plan to rid America of the “native American problem,” would result in the President’s efforts to destroy Crockett’s political reputation, which would eventually cost him his seat in Congress.

If any of this sounds remotely similar to our country’s current stand on immigration, you are not wrong. I’ve been listening to protesters and commentators saying that the act of removing children from their parents is un-American, when in fact, it really isn’t. Since the birth of this country, there has always been a faction of its people who embraced the idea of “white privilege,” and “true Americans,” to the exclusion of all other peoples. It only becomes front and center when our politics/Politians are blatantly racist.

There is historical evidence that this practice began long before this Administration. Not only were Native Americans separated from their children, during that awful time but let us not forget, slave families were torn apart as a general practice. Separating children from their parents is appalling for any reason and in any age. However, until we can begin to see each other as one race, the human race, these types of racist laws and the trampling of human rights will continue to happen.

Is it irony that this land that we call America, was stolen from Native Americans and now, almost 250 years later, our leaders think they have the right to say who can come into this country and who cannot?