Thread: The Pigrims were not Nazis, racists, or Slavers!

I give thanks for illegal immigrants
COMMENTARY
By RICK CASEY
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 25, 2008, 11:03PM

This year, as we gather for the feast, I am giving thanks for illegal immigrants.

I have a particular group of illegals in mind, but I confess that my gratitude to them does color my view of most other illegals.

I refer to the liars, debtors, opportunists and criminals who flooded into Texas in the first half of the 19th century, and then wrested the land from Mexico.

Their story is told in A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. The author, Timothy J. Henderson, earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Austin and his doctorate at one of those well-regarded institutions back East.

He is now a professor of history at Auburn University Montgomery.

Best of intentions
So he brings both experience of Texas and an academic distance from it.

Stephen F. Austin, who brought many Anglo families to Texas, is not numbered among the illegals. Henderson describes him as "likable, handsome, hardworking, and well educated, with cultivated manners, a moderate temperament, and a sometimes unfortunate tendency to assume the good intentions of others."

He traveled to Mexico City to negotiate a pact under which he pledged to bring Anglo settlers into Texas according to rules set out by Mexican authorities.

Austin, writes Henderson, "from the outset made plain his intention to do everything by the book, and for most of his adult life he never wavered from his commitment to be a good citizen of Mexico."

He negotiated a generous deal. A head of an immigrant family would get 4,438 acres for farming and another 177 acres for livestock. For every 200 immigrants he or other impresarios brought in they would receive 66,774 acres.

There were a few rules. They had to pledge loyalty to Mexico. If they weren't already Roman Catholics, they had to convert.

Despite Austin's best efforts, Henderson says, Anglos came pouring in and most "had no intention of abiding by their end of the bargain."

Mexican law, for example, stipulated that any slaves would be free as soon as they entered Texas.

Anglo immigrants "elected to assume that this referred only to the buying and selling of slaves and did not apply to slaves brought by colonists for their own use," writes Henderson.

One Mexican general wrote that the colonists "commit the barbarities on their slaves that are so common where men live in a relationship so contradictory to their nature: they pull their teeth, they set dogs upon them to tear them apart, and the mildest of them will whip the slaves until they are flayed."

Some illegals came to escape debts or domestic obligations. Some were simply adventurers.

Some were fugitives from justice, "sporting brands on their faces marking them as miscreants." (Think gang tattoos, only not voluntary.)

Some of these, not surprisingly, continued their criminal careers in Texas. Colonists who caught them at it considered the Mexican prohibition of the death penalty to be inconvenient and carried out executions.

These immigrants not only entered illegally or violated the terms of their legal entry, but rather than keep their heads down and try to fit in, they lived in active defiance of the law.

So much so that the Mexican government in 1830 passed a law barring all new American immigrants from entering Texas.

Among the illegals violating that particular law were David Crockett, William B. Travis and Sam Houston.

For the fact that tomorrow we celebrate the particularly American holiday of Thanksgiving in Texas, we owe them and the thousands of other illegals whom they joined our enthusiastic gratitude.

I also give thanks for those illegals who have worked hard to clean up the Galveston area in the past weeks, and have shown no interest in importing slaves or overthrowing our government.

Our history shows that immigrants — even illegal ones, especially when laws are out of whack — often make things better.

You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@ chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 32943.html

I wonder, when Indians tell their children of their history....do they speak of the "white man", horses, maybe a gun and hat with no feathers stuck in there? Exactly how do they depict their history? Are they only telling of being able to read, homes better than tents...roads intead of paths? Stores instead of hunting? I'd be curiouis how liberal their account is.


Guess this is another race who was singing Kumbyah and perfect and living in peace and prosperity until the "white man came".

History is always written by the victors. And, yes, there were many atrocities committed during the writing of that history in this country, not only against native Americans but also others, not only those brought here as slaves, but those thrown into Japanese American internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Yes, appreciate and preserve your culture, but there is no reason to cleave this country into tiny pieces of ethnicity, while the rest of the world sees us as one of the most successful nations (so far) on the earthball.
And I don't care how many doctorates you hold, it is beneath dignity or education to not look at the big picture of one country instead of indoctrinating children with hatred. Al Queida does that well enough with their munchkins.

This was on FOX news this morning, they showed the children all dressed up in their costumes they made them selves, they were proud and having fun....They were showing respect for both cultures and some bitter hag (1 bitter hag) had to come along and spoil it for them.

I just remember us celibrating the pilgrams and the Indians having dinner together, now how bad can it be for people to sit down and eat together.

If you don't like our History and culture why the hell are you here...it may not all be good but it is ours and we can live with the truth...

The problem with most people is they learn nothing from history....hense, amnesty does not work.

PEOPLE LIKE THIS HAVE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. SHE IS READING SOMETHING INTO IT THAT IS NOT THERE. LOOKING FOR FIVE FEET ON A CAT. SHE IS IN THE BARREL WITH PEOPLE WHO THINK CIGARETTE SMOKE IS COMING THROUGH THEIR WALLS FROM FOUR HOUSES AWAY, PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT THEY ARE ALLERGIC TO AROMAS FROM NORMAL SHAMPOO AND SOAP, PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY ARE BEING WATCHED ALL THE TIME BY EVERYONE AND SO ON AND SO ON. THEY NEED HELP.

Liberalism is a mental disorder. Michael Savage says this is so, and phychologists have stated this as well.

Imagine waking up every day and thinking, 'your glass is half empty.' You too would be warped.

Thanksgiving. Who are you giving Thanks too?

Boil it all down, and I see this as an attack on Christianity. Only an atheist could find fault in a celebration of Thanksgiving.

One does not need to go far to find faults or problems with anything, if that is what floats your boat. Pro and con, left or right, up or down, positive or negative, light or dark. Understanding the differences between the opposing forces, and then deciding where one wishes to live their life, determines whether you see the glass as half empty, or half full.

For anyone to look at Texas' past in such a negative light and claim to be giving Thanks, when in reality just dwelling in the dark, should speak loud and clear to their true intentions,........paint the world dark, because that is where I live and the rest of the world should live in the dark with me. Misery loves company.

It's everywhere. At my children's school they don't have the Christmas party anymore -it's a holiday party.... And no religious or Christmas themed shows are put on -everything is carefully screened.

PC run a muck....