I often see graphics on the Internet, in social media and webpages, that catch my attention. I don't agree with them and think they are incorrect. Here is an example:
"European Christians Built this Nation." ????
First, the word 'Christians' is merely a lump sum statistical term and vague. The fact is that Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Quakers, Puritans, Presbyterians, Mormons, Southern Baptist Black Churches, Jehovah's Witnesses, Fundamentalists, Mennonites, Church of England, Revivalists, Community Churches, Christian Scientists, etc., don't agree with each other, and often despise and condemn one another. Shite and Sunni and Sufi Moslems do the same today in the Middle East. The fanatics in these denominations have a long history of harassing, torturing, and murdering "non-believers" in their illusions.
Yes, those wonderful European Christians (British and Spanish) and Islamics began by kidnapping, shipping, and enslaving millions of Africans in the Americas, and kept exploiting slave labor until 1870. Those slaves help build this Nation.
Yes, those kindly European Christians decided to exterminate those savage heathen Native Americans. They helped unbuild America.
Yes, those hardworking and mean European Christians (i.e., Catholics, Lutherans, and other Protestants) wildly cheered for a loud mouthed demagogue who promised to "Make Germany Great Again". Their foolishness resulted in the genocide of 6 million Jews, the ruin of Europe, and 60 million dead from WWII.
Many of those closed-minded Christian Europeans, especially the WASP, bigoted, racist and violent KKK contingents, hated Catholics, Jews, Blacks, Moslems, and foreigners.
Many Americans were noted for their independence, self-reliance, and favoring a secular state and religious tolerance. The ongoing urbanization of America in the 20th century has made us seek new ways of governing ourselves and some shifts in values. For example, women were denied the vote by 'Christian' macho men and churches until 1920. The Civil Rights Act was not passed until 1964.
Over the years, those hardworking and poor immigrants, from all over the world, that came to America (and their children and grand children) supported, voted for, and paid taxes for public schools, welfare, Social Security, health care, homeless shelters, sewers, colleges, environmental protection, police, Medicare, courts, social services, libraries, scientific research, roads, parks, museums, etc. Those immigrants knew that America was a better place to live and they paid for the opportunity with their taxes and their lives in our military services.
Most immigrants to the USA, of all races and religions, are decent, generous, and compassionate.
My Italian grandparents immigrated in 1905 to Los Angeles and succeeded. Their children went to public schools, public colleges, used roads, followed business laws, they enjoyed the use of many public facilities, they paid their taxes, collected Social Security and Medicare, and helped build America. And many poor immigrant folks voted Democratic, were pro-union, or Socialists.
Yes, there were many decent and generous European Christian immigrants that helped build America. But they never did it alone!
I think that decent Americans continue to build a kinder and better secular Nation today.
However, the sub-text, and the wrong assumption and claim, is that immigrant white folks who worshiped at my local church, and think like I do or my parents did, really did actually build America. Balderdash!
Many European Christians and Islamics have hated and feared each other for centuries. It is no surprise to see that slip into the graphic above. I dislike Islamic Sharia laws, and I dislike Christian Moral Majority "Sharia" laws. Both want to force their religious practices and customs and petty rules on the rest of us hardworking, and law abiding citizens who support a secular government.
The "welfare" inclusion is of course the same old sub-text of not wanting welfare for those lazy blacks and rapist and drug dealing Mexicans (the latest Takeaway Trump version), and Moslem immigrants or citizens who are all radical Jihadis; while conveniently ignoring and forgiving those poor unfortunate white folks who worship at my local church and need welfare to help them get a leg up in hard times. What is good for the holy white goose is not OK for the discolored or mixed gander.
As for 'Bitching,' it seems like a sneering phrase used to describe the opinions of people who don't agree with you, e.g., if you disagree with Mr. Trump's lies and takeaways, then you are 'whining' and 'bitching.' Debating and discussing politics and values has a long and honorable tradition in America. We have listened to Republicants whine and bitch and proselytize for the last eight years; it is now payback time, but with the truth this time.
When driving home from work one day two years ago, this is what I saw. A local red-neck rifleman, probably a "Jeffersonian," spray painted on the side of a bridge over Interstate 5 the following: "Lynch Obama." [One can't know for sure who the perpetrator is, since he hides like the coward he is; but a local Red Bluff racist redneck is most likely.] He most likely sits in a Christian Church on Sundays, with other white European Christians. Many of us are not thankful for these belligerent European Christians doing their clandestine political bitching. This freeway is flanked by posters and signs with pro-Christian warnings of hell-fire, and anti-abortion crosses. Thankfully, a state CALTrans worker removed the racist graffiti from the concrete bridge wall a few days later.
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