If you've been following the comments at this site, you will notice that I have received a lot of blowback on my post about migrants being trafficked to Martha's Vineyard. I assume a lot of the commenters are Americans. I usually don't receive many comments from Americans. Obviously, I touched a nerve.
My response has been that the post was about means, not ends. It seems to me that many of those who disagree with me have missed the distinction between the two. Never mind that these people were in the United States legally. To send them north means that they will miss their appearance in court and risk deportation. Deportation seems to be the point.
Migration -- like inflation -- is a worldwide problem. But, as happens so often, the problem is seen from one's backyard. Yes, it is a problem that is very complicated and difficult to solve. But you don't solve it by trafficking human beings. There are laws against that.
We used to believe in a simple moral principle: The end doesn't justify the means. That principle applied in a world where good and evil were seen as two guideposts for living one's life. Those guideposts have now been replaced by Winning and Losing. Under the new paradigm, what matters is winning. How you win no longer matters. All that matters is that you win.
That, unfortunately, is the prime directive in our brave new world.
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12 comments:
Dear, dear, dear me. Your point was understood regarding your blog. Americans are everywhere. It does not surprise me that they might be interested in what is being written in Canada about them. Living very close to them based at Ernest Harmon Airforce Base in Stephenville, (proper spelling) in Newfoundland, it was apparent Americans spoke out one side of their mouth with pleasantries, while denigrating out the other. Southern Americans are uneducated about almost everything except they are the BESt country in the world. Whoopy Goldberg recently said this on the “View”. They may be “one” of the best but not the best. Out here in Alberta, Canada is the best country in the world. Albertans follow the Americans very tightly and it always grates my sensibility. If you are going to write about Americans expect this kind of attitude. Anyong
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
These people who are defending the vile tactics of DeSantis and Abbot have lost all compassion. They are forgetting their past and showing their true ugly side in contemptible fashion. You, and we do not have to apologise for our opinion. It's this attitude that makes me grateful that I don't live among them.
You're right, Anyong. I should have expected this blow back.
I agree, zoombats. We're lucky to live on this side of the border.
While I've never lived in Newfoundland, I've visited, and over the years have known many Newfoundlanders. They were wonderful people:generous, compassionate, Christian in the most fundamental sense of the word (mostly). Some have told me they liked the Americans they met in Stephenville and felt close to them as friends: close enough that American accents in that area replaced an earlier Newfoundland accent. I'm amazed, given the historic closeness, that Americans still could speak from the other side of their mouths about people who must have considered them trustworthy visitors. Maybe those Americans believed it was quite appropriate to denigrate their hosts as they did: after all, their hosts were not American, not deserving of honest treatment. Similarly, their ruthless treatment of "foreign" refugees may seem appropriate to many Americans who seem to think the "important" world and its people ends at American borders. Why not use vulnerable foreigners to political advantage? Who in the American electorate could possibly take exception to it? Somehow, someday, Americans must learn the world does not end at their borders.
CD
Unfortunately, CD, many Americans know where their border ends and they are not interested in looking at what's on the other side.
As climate change, droughts, flash floods, wars, etc. become more extreme, people will move. They will come and there isnt' much we can do about it, that would not get us in front of a tribunal in the Hague for crimes against humanity. A friend of mines W.W. II Veteran father used to say, the world is changing and people will be coming. We can't stop it. We can only decide how its going to go. Always thought that was a good conclusion.
The U.S.A. has politicians who seem to be adopting Vince Lombard's attitude, but he I do believe was talking about football, not running a country or state. People fleeing other countries because they're afraid of being murdered or they and their children starving to death, is a good reason to try to find a better life. That is what all us white people's ancestors did when they were coming to North America. Why wouldn't others do the same thing.
The problem, as I see it is the U.S.A. has states which have a lot more power than they ought to if the country is to be seen as a unified political structure. It has always boggled my mind how different things are from state to state. Much of the attitudes from Abbott and Desantos come from the ingrained racism in the U.S.A. the Civil War wasn't that long ago and the attitudes of that time persisted until today. The Americans have always lived in a country ruled by guns. Canada not so much. At the rate things are going in the U.S.A. it will be destroyed by those who are leading it, such as some of those Govenors, Congress People, and Senators. Some of them will do anything to be elected. That does not bode well for the future.
many Americans know where their border ends
Eh? Many do not seem to know there is a border. Ask Castro or Saddam Hussein or ....
There are a lot of people down there who will do anything to win e.a.f. If they attain power, they'll bring the house down.
Point well taken, jrk. Americans call that Manifest Destiny.
Perhaps I ought to have written, the upper elites of the American Forces. My mother who was English was employed in their Family Services Department. My father was Law Enforcement. Many Newfoundlanders on the East coast or more precisely, the Avalon Peninsula married many young Enlisted Americans. However, I know that Newfoundlanders are very humanitarian and will do much when help is needed. The reason I know this is I lived there having moved there with my mother and younger sister at the end of 1946. Many of those women returned to Nfld due to Ill treatment. As for the accent, the one that is mentioned in the reply; people spoke with an accent that did not sound like other places in Newfoundland before the Americans arrived Stephenville in 1939. There used to be two ferries that plied to Boston, Mass. twice a week from the West coast. People living in Corner Brook and vicinity before the IIWW spoke with an English accent or a French accent. This came about due to the fact, the French tried to claim the West coast and the Pulp Mill in Corner was owned by the British. Newfoundlanders originally wanted an economic alliance with the Americans during Newfoundlands “Responsible Government” period. Winston Churchill did not want any sort of an economic alliance with Newfoundland until the Second World War when it suited Churchill. There were two Air Force bases in Newfoundland. One in Stephenville and one in Goose Bay, Labrador. There was one Navy Base in Placentia on the south east coast. Anyong
That's a lot of American influence, Anyong.
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