Perspectives and Entitlement? what makes us better?

You know I was thinking about something lately, with all the politics and election and so forth (and all the complaining that comes with it)... you look at the two extremes, and i think there's usually a balance between them. it seems as though people get such a sense of entitlement that they never look at the other side.

for instance, I've heard a lot of complaining and seen a lot of groups, political jokes, and so forth on the idea that you have to "press 1 for English". that you shouldn't have to or whatever cause "this is America and English is the language of America". sounds right at first. but look at it from another side...

so, i press "1" for english. what do native americans press? "1" for english cause we eradicated their NATIVE languages after we got here. they don't even have a choice. americans sent and often FORCED native american kids to go to boarding schools where they were taught to "kill the indian, save the man", beaten if they spoke their native language, and otherwise mistreated. (this was WIDESPREAD, if you want names of books on it i will be happy to supply them to you, i took an entire class on native american history in the 1900's) and native american parents who resisted were either barred from food, violently forced to comply, or otherwise manipulated ... so my question is... weren't Europeans the illegal immigrants to America? why is it we're so focused on the petty English problem, and no one ever even mentions the native American problem? Europeans stole their land; they still have land issues between native Americans and "Americans"... but yet i never knew ANY of this existed until i took that class (just cause i needed a history credit). and i grew up in public school, private school, AND home school...

so my point is this... why are we so focused on ourselves? we act as though we are so much better than the people who come here illegally. we would most likely do the same in their situation. think about it... they're very poor most the time, the u.s. makes it quite easy to sneak in, and there's a better hope for their family. i think i'd take that. Not that it's right. But I think anyone would be tempted by that.

so this isn't to say illegal immigration is right, or that it doesn't need to be stopped. And yes, some illegal immigrants are feeling the same sense of entitlement that whites are. But then again, if we're both feeling the same incorrect entitlement, how is either of us any better? I'm not excusing it, I'm saying, stop judging. you're no better. you don't know what it's like to be in that situation. the only reason you are an American, unless you're native American (who by the way were not given complete citizenship until 1914 and even then were segregated/discriminated against as other races/groups of people were until the 1950's... and they were the ORIGINAL inhabitants), is because your forefathers came to this country with no right to the land, and killed/subdued all the Native Americans. ever heard of the idea that native american's were given blankets as a "gift", but come to find out the Europeans poisoned it with smallpox? yes, they were that cruel and corrupt. they even paid people per Indian killed for Indians who had done no wrong, violence, or anything. The only stipulation was that they were Indian.

the point of this isn't to make whites feel guilty, cause i know i and everyone here, had nothing to do with this mistreatment. But it's to make you realize, you're no more of an "American" than anybody else. Yes, we need to stop illegal immigration for security reasons. The government really does need to know who is and who isn't in this country for security. We need to tighten the border security. We need to either make illegal immigrants citizens (who would then pay taxes, so who cares?) or deport them and fix our legal immigration system. BUT, we are NOT better than them. We probably would've done the same. And we are not any more American than them. We are here by a screwed up, tainted wave of immigration that was much more ruthless and cruel than any of the illegal Hispanic immigration. We should be looking to help immigrants be here LEGALLY, help people learn English (cause English sucks as a language to learn), and just be accepting and merciful. We need to stop hating, stop feeling entitled (cause we aren't), and put ourselves in another's perspective for once.

Like i said in the beginning, there is a balance. Yes, illegal immigration is a huge problem which needs to be fixed. But instead of focusing on the victims of the system (us and the immigrants), we just need to fix the problem and stop blaming. It's the system's fault, not a particular person. We aren't better. Feeling so entitled is just dividing us. Jokes are just immature and do nothing. Who cares if we have to press 1 for english and 2 for spanish? you could be in a worse situation and be forced to learn a difficult language you never even heard of, and you didn't even move anywhere! (Native Americans) America was invaded by the Europeans. it's over now, but at least maybe we could feel some sense of gratitude that that's not us and maybe want to help somebody else? yes, immigrants need to learn english, but that takes time. Try learning the english language the day you get here (which is very random and sporadic) after knowing a romantic language all your life (which makes ALOT more sense). and most people definitely do not have access to learning english in their former country.

But my point is, pressing 1 for English shouldn't even be the FOCUS... why are we wasting so much time on it? We need to fix the system and start caring for people outside our own closed circles. Let's just deal with it, take measures to protect security and stop missuses of the system, and stop focusing on who has the right to be here and who doesn't. Cause no one but the Native Americans really do anyway.