Ellis Island: Why it's even more relevant today
When I visited Ellis Island recently, there was a huge sign over the main exhibit hall telling me that their featured permanent exhibit was entitled "The Peopling of America".
Think about that for a minute. "The Peopling of America." Who could
possibly resist visiting an exhibit where the word "People" is used as a
verb? Certainly not me.
Only a tiny first part of this gigantic exhibit even causally mentioned that perhaps
there might have been a few indigenous people who happened to live here
before the settlers from Europe showed up and murdered most of them.
But then the extensive exhibit got down to brass tacks and began to tell
us the story of how the real "Peopling" of America began -- once
those pesky Indians had been shoved out of the way. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-american-genocide-benjamin-madley/1122747231#/
Since Columbus arrived, according to this exhibit, the "Peopling of
America" had been a good thing. Even all those poor tired unwashed
non-English-speaking 19th-century immigrants yearning to breathe free
who had landed on Ellis Island with their hearts in their throats had
been a good thing -- even though the settlers already here clearly didn't think so.
But now, apparently, the "Peopling of America" is over. According to
Washington DC, I.C.E. and the U.S. Border Patrol, America has now become all
"Peopled" up. No more room at the inn. No vacancy. Sorry. Go away.
Or die.
As far as I can tell, this is why the current Euro-centric "People"
of America today seem to be so terribly afraid of our new immigrants --
that maybe karma really indeed is a bitch. They're afraid that what goes
around comes around. That just as their ancestors had "Peopled" the
American Indian to near extinction? They are now afraid that their own
Euro-centric arses are gonna also get "Peopled" to near extinction too
by this next wave of immigrants from Latin America -- immigrants who are
only following the trail of their stolen treasures back to the very
thieves who stole them. And that would be us.
And now we are seeing a whole new set of Ellis-Island clones springing up
all along America's southern borders -- but these new ones are far more
crueler and meaner and low-spirited than the original Ellis Island ever
was. Not just facilities for clearing new immigrants but actual
concentration camps.
Let's finally change history, make amends, welcome these new immigrants, start a new trend -- and do the courageous things now that our ancestors were too set on genocide to even consider.
PS: I gotta admit that the Ellis Island cafeteria did serve an excellent old-fashioned roast beef dinner -- and it was cheap too. Plus the ferry ride over from lower Manhattan was totally fun.
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