The Melting Pot

   The great America; land of a handful of free, home of many dormant brave. At one time the term "melting pot" meant that everyone was welcome. Through the 20th Century, things began to change. The Europeans were being welcomed to our shores to start new lives. A bit later, the Japanese became a problem for our government, were stigmatized through propaganda, and subsequently confined in "camps" . Rings a bell, doesn't it? No matter; they were humiliated, but eventually they were freed. The end of WWll is too hard to imagine at this point, but you know what happened; another proud act of grossly disproportionate force.
   Next, a group that currently represents around 13% of our population began to insist upon being melted with the white people. They were met by the klan, George Wallace, and who knows how many others. The people who resisted this movement have now gone down in history as assholes. This insistance for the freedom of equality finally caught on. The victory of The Civil Rights Act made the melting pot concept a little more real. Thank you Dr. King.
   The Bush ll era brought us a new brand of hate, with 9/11 at it's bloody center. This event was a launch pad for the holy war burning in his DNA, and also had to do with "strategery", and being the "decider". In the end, he made Islam, and the overwhelming majority of it's peaceful followers live in fear; in the melting pot.
   Presently, there is a war going on to make another exception to our melting pot. Mexico. For some reason, racism keeps popping up, and the only thing that changes is the race. The headlines causing the uproar are telling us that people from Mexico are crossing the border of poverty into promise, and are somehow infringing on the American dream. The worst part is that many in this free nation believe the headlines. W started the fence, but there is no fence that can lock out liberty or a better life. If we hadn't stolen a piece of property a bit larger than Texas from them, the trend could reverse soon. They are slowly reclaiming that property, so the "melt" is well under way. Another foul to the melting pot.
   Every time an effort has been made to reverse our melting pot, it has left a residue. Much like the Jim Crow laws did despite being repealed, his spirit lives on even beyond the South, though living in the deepest part of it, I see the inequality too often. It is intrinsically bound to Southern culture.
   Now we are faced with a few options. If we are truly a country who welcomes every race from any country, yet remain trapped on the islands of our homes, we are actually all frozen; separated, segregated, situated. So far the most unifying force has been the many follies and blatant lies of our ruling body. They want nothing more than for us to stay divided; the lines that divide us do not matter to them. Left or right, centrist or extremist, Christian or Muslim, Black, white or brown; it makes no difference, and it will either change like whiplash or continue to be the perfect incubator for them to keep hatching oblivious taxpayers. How long will it take for us to believe the conspiracies that have made theory a thing of the past? Which one of their bills will ignite the fire to a temperature hot enough to melt us into one people?