America, the land of opportunists, exploiters, and losers

In the early 1600’s, the first Puritans began their journey to America in the guise of escaping religious persecution.  What they were really seeking was religious ‘opportunity’.  However, once they reached a certain degree of comfort, they became zealots cloaked in cloth not so pure. Salem Witch Trials are an example of what this church and its people evolved into which begs the question: was escaping religious persecution their true motive (Most of them were living in a more tolerant Holland prior to their migration); or were they seeking a land of religious opportunity and exploitation? Either way, they became criminals through their advocation of murder.  If someone behaved like that in modern times, they would get slapped with the death penalty.

Was there something else besides religious differences that Britain did not like about the Puritans?  Maybe they viewed Puritans similarly to how we view extremist Islamics today. Has America always been a destination of troublemakers?

A century later, James Oglethorpe established the Colony of Georgia.  He came up with the brilliant idea of resettling Britain’s poor (those in debtors prisons) in the New World, aka as getting rid of a problem by putting it elsewhere.

Georgia wasn’t the only destination of troublemakers. In the 18^th century, 25% of Britain Immigrants were prisoners who became indentured servants in other colonies, filling a workforce void in the New World while concurrently reducing Britain’s prison population.

In 1980, Fidel Castro permitted the emigration of many Cubans to America (Cubans who were released from prison on purpose to embarrass our government).  As many as 125,000 Cubans set foot on the Florida shoreline before Jimmy Carter became aware of the ploy. Just another case of getting rid of a problem by putting it elsewhere.

Today Mexico pretends that the over the border flow of its mostly uneducated people is not advocated by its government.  Additionally, a significant number of these migrants carry criminal intent with them. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this form of emigration is promoted. The reasons have not changed since colonial times.

How much weight can a civilized world bear? My guess is that in order to maintain a civilized society, that figure would be around 5%. We can put the uncivilized behind bars but how many more prisons must we build before recognizing that America is now the destination of the largest “get rid of a problem by putting it elsewhere” movement in all of its history.  We bear the costs of detainment and at some point, it will break us.

Flaws exist, but I do agree with some of Obama’s immigration reform goals. Such reform acts as a filter to capture troublemakers while allowing those who remain civilized to live here with “stay out of trouble” strings attached. Hopefully we can direct our energy toward keeping the uncivilized on the other side of the border where Mexico (and Central America) can either sink or swim without drowning us in the process.