riginally Posted by Taichiliberal View Post
Wrong, Damo
As I told Winter, Your idea of a "homeland" may not be the same as the guy still griping about "northern aggression", or the "indian" who KNOWS his culture and land were all but wiped out and replaced. We may be a united nation, but we sure as hell are NOT a united, homogenous population.
Wrong, Taichi. Your first assumption is that I have lower pigmentation in my skin than another person born here may or may not be true, however that doesn't change that I am as much Native to this land as any other person born here.
First off, I made NO "assumption" about your pigmentation...that's YOUR mindset working. And all you're doing is repeating a belief that just doesn't bear up under examination.
See, this strikes a nerve because "Americans" want so bad to be on par with Europeans...but in many ways we're not. That was the whole point of setting up this joint in the first place.
If I wanted to be "on par" with Europeans I would simply claim some caucasion heritage from somewhere in Europe. This is just really bad home-grown psychology. Americans couldn't care less about Europe, we hardly read newspapers from Europe written in English, let alone care about how we compare in longevity to Europeans.
If what you say is true, then you WOULD NOT have so readily accepted the Shrub's labeling...because that term HOMELAND is a direct rip off of how Europeans for generations referred to their country. You get defensive because people who were here LONG before you or I (or our immediate ancestors) CAN call this their homeland based on THOUSANDS OF YEARS of a homogenous people who lived and built NATIONS here. YOU CAN'T. Saying it doesn't make it so.
Homeland is a name a homogenous population who are indigenous to a region can use....NOT the descendents of immigrants less than 400 years old. Those immigrants DID NOT assimilate with the native population....period. So like with everything else, they figure they can define whatever they wish and it's fact and law. But as I'm pointing out, that just doesn't bear up under close examination.
No, it isn't. Homeland is where you were born and where you belong, for most pale-skinned Americans, that is here. They were born here, raised here, value this land, and are native to it exactly as native as any other dude born here with darker skin pigmentation.
That is YOUR wish and belief...but the FACT is that for more years than I've been alive our Army, Navy and Air Force defended OUR NATION. That's how it was referred to in newspapers, books, magazines, movies, radio, etc., etc. The Shrub & company wanted to shift that mindset....but until you give the "indians" their due and LIVE like them instead of the REPLACED culture we've become accustomed to, this is your country, your home, your nation, but NOT your homeland.
Now, if you could find some 15,000 year old "American" that was here before any of us were born, you might have an argument.. However Impermanence has taken hold, the changes are made, and we are Native to this land, not some fictional "homeland" we've no association to.
