Posted by
OldRelayer on Sunday, October 28, 2007 7:00:04 AM
Let me say right off, I am admittedly opposed to amnesty as it has been
defined in the bill most recently rejected by the congress. But I
am starting to understand a little why some important people think it
is a good idea.
It has baffled me why representatives from states that are the
most likely to loose from illegal immigration, support amnesty for
illegal Mexican aliens. That is people like President Bush
and John McCain and many others. They are from states closest to
the Mexican border. I think I may have uncovered at least some of the
reason. I am reading Grant’s autobiography(a fascinating book,
very well written). Grant’s fame was of course from the Civil war
that he contents would have never happened if it were not for the
previous war with Mexico. He started the Mexican war as a
graduate from West Point as a second lieutenant. The Mexican war
may be the only time in our history that we were the aggressor to
obtain properties that rightful belonging to another country, Mexico.
The Mexican war for good reason has been played down in our history, it
was not pretty, what we did to a weaker country. Without
getting into great detail that would take several pages I will try to
paint a simple picture. Under the administration of James Polk, a
southerner which is important. The southern Democrats pretty much
controlled both the executive and congressional branches of government
during that time. What they didn’t have in number they were
always able to get their way by northern Whigs that didn’t want to
upset the apple cart(Reference: Twenty years of congress 1861-1881 but
covers more than that). It goes without saying that Slavery was
their hot button. Through the kindness of the Mexican people and
government, our citizens were allowed to homestead on Texas property
rightfully owned by Mexico, along with parts of CA and New Mexico and
Arizona. It was as simple as the Southern Democrats wanted Texas
to be brought into the union as a Slave state giving them even
more power and obviously more territory to grow.
Knowing this I think back on my childhood and how Mexicans were
portrayed. The Cisco Kid was a likable enough personality and his
side kick Pancho, but even then they were really stupid. But most
of the depictions of Mexicans were at the Alamo, where are heroes were
fighting off these terrible Mexicans. Many pictures and TV images
I remember were of evil looking Mexicans with mustaches, ribbons of
bullets on their chest and a knife in their teeth. Even after
more than a 100 years they were still portrayed as either very dumb or
very aggressive or both.
I am starting to think that without the words actually being said,
these important political people have somewhere in the back of their
mind that amnesty will some how give back to the Mexicans a portion of
what was taken.