An excellent text I have meant to mention that documents much of the difference between our perception of California history and the reality --and what and who was behind this construction-- is "The Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Past" by William Deverell. There will be a quiz.
I suppose my friends are sick to death of me repeating the tale of North America's original get tough on illegal immigration policy, so here it is:
Unlike those poor bastards in Massachusetts who took pity on the starving Pilgrims and were rewarded for their charity with annihilation, the first north American English settlement in 1584 made the mistake of landing at Roanoke Island in what is now known as North Carolina. Unfortunately for them, the penalty for illegal immigration was capital punishment. They might have received a lighter sentence had they not burned down the local Indian village first.
The English response to the massacre at Roanoke was to keep sending more people. Eventually, the natives found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. One has to wonder how many white people need to die before their government stops sacrificing human beings in the name of profit. Hmmm... I could touch on any number of topics with that, couldn't I?
This seems as good a place as any to get to my next rant:
What were those suits at ABC smoking when they greenlighted "Fatal Contact: Avian Flu in America?"
As if they needed something to push compassionate immigration reform off the radar, all the major networks quickly jumped on the Chicken Little bandwagon.
And it makes me pissed. Mostly, because of media's spotty record over the past 25 years in covering the world-wide AIDS epidemic that has already killed millions, and continues to devastate millions more. Because they didn't pay attention soon enough or sufficiently enough, as was within their power to save untold millions or take to task those government officials who in effect got away with a genocide that dwarfs Serbia a hundredfold.
Cherry-picking which crimes against humanity make for good television is their specialty, I guess.
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I suppose my friends are sick to death of me repeating the tale of North America's original get tough on illegal immigration policy, so here it is:
Unlike those poor bastards in Massachusetts who took pity on the starving Pilgrims and were rewarded for their charity with annihilation, the first north American English settlement in 1584 made the mistake of landing at Roanoke Island in what is now known as North Carolina. Unfortunately for them, the penalty for illegal immigration was capital punishment. They might have received a lighter sentence had they not burned down the local Indian village first.
The English response to the massacre at Roanoke was to keep sending more people. Eventually, the natives found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. One has to wonder how many white people need to die before their government stops sacrificing human beings in the name of profit. Hmmm... I could touch on any number of topics with that, couldn't I?
This seems as good a place as any to get to my next rant:
What were those suits at ABC smoking when they greenlighted "Fatal Contact: Avian Flu in America?"
As if they needed something to push compassionate immigration reform off the radar, all the major networks quickly jumped on the Chicken Little bandwagon.
And it makes me pissed. Mostly, because of media's spotty record over the past 25 years in covering the world-wide AIDS epidemic that has already killed millions, and continues to devastate millions more. Because they didn't pay attention soon enough or sufficiently enough, as was within their power to save untold millions or take to task those government officials who in effect got away with a genocide that dwarfs Serbia a hundredfold.
Cherry-picking which crimes against humanity make for good television is their specialty, I guess.
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