Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the treaty that ended the war with Mexico in 1848. Most  Americans had supported the war and accepted the manifest destiny that God wanted us to own the port of San Francisco (even Walt Whitman). It was a war that we started but lied about, much like the Vietnam War or the Second Iraq War. Mexico was not to blame, as people like Lincoln pointed out at the time. Grant denounced the war, although he fought in it. 

The first thing I learned was that Guadelupe Hidalgo is a building (like Appomattox Courthouse). I learned that Mexico signed the treaty, with a gun held to its head, because Mexico was dividing into factions, disunited and becoming a failed state with no tax base. Ending the war and getting some cash was the only way to hold together what was left of Mexico, the country's leadership thought.

I learned that the sometime President of Mexico, Santa Ana, was in treasonous communication with the American military, offering them advice on how best to win. (Amazing.)

What really matters, aside from the armed theft of half of Mexico, is that the treaty offered protections, property rights and citizenship for the Mexican citizens of California, New Mexico and so on (Mexico had citizens of all races, including Indians) after the Americans took control.

What actually happened was the Indians and the women of California lost the right to vote, nearly all the Mexican men lost their vast ranches and became second-class citizens, and all of this was winked at by the U. S. Supreme Court. (Apaches were finally granted the vote in 1953, more than 100 years later.) The American courts held that the treaty guaranteed Mexican subjects citizenship in their new country but not the right to vote. Never mind what the Constitution and its amendments said.

I was most surprised by the Supreme Court. Between 1848 and the present, the Court has ruled dozens of times that the treaty, a treaty guaranteeing property rights and signed by the Federal government, can be over-ruled by laws passed by state assemblies. The states passed laws that made it easy to take land from the Mexican owners. The Supreme Court apparently did this on the assumption that it would be good for business. Never mind that in theory federal law trumps state law. The Civil War settled that issue, but the courts paid no attention.

The local laws, in effect, made it easy to transfer lands from Mexican-Americans to the Anglos, often to the 1%. Within 30 years, the Mexican land owners (often called Dons) had lost everything. 

I sometimes think of today's Supreme Court as especially corrupt and twisted in its logic, but I guess that's not the case. Now that Latinos have become a large voting group, I wonder what will come next.

Answering Phones

My destiny caught up with me, and I agreed to volunteer at Democratic HQ for four hours a week from now until November. That is not because I enjoy answering phones or consider the Democratic party to be other than it is: a broad coalition of union, corporate and other groups. The other groups include African-Americans, gays, Latinos, women, Jews, young people and anyone with common sense.

Even billionaires with common sense understand that it's in their interest to keep ordinary people smiling and society functional. I'm one of the ordinary people, and like 90% of  America I never set out to get rich. My goal was to become a decent person. Okay, I've fallen short of that, but is there any greater myth than the claim that the American Dream is to get rich? (What about the strange claim that expressing opinions on the 'net accomplishes something political?)

Where the Modoc People Came From

In an ad for himself, the Rev. Al says, "Unless you're a Native American, you came here from someplace else."  Where does he think the American Indian tribes came from?

Humans originated only in Africa, most scientists believe, and then spread out, and the American Indians came to this continent from Asia. But I should rethink that, because Caucasians and Asians carry some Neanderthal genes. That species--the Neanderthals--apparently originated in Europe, and it has been found in Asia. It must have evolved from African genes similar to our own. That made it possible for the two species to interbreed.  But no Neanderthal remains have been found in Africa, and pure Africans do not carry Neanderthal genes. The rest of us can claim that a little bit of us came from Europe or Asia--is that the right way to look at it? 

The Culture of Poverty

Joe Klein has apparently written a column about African Americans and the culture of poverty, a term from the past. I have not read the column, so I can't comment on it, but I am interested in the term: culture of poverty. It's a difficult term. What can it mean?

The culture of poverty might be an elongated way of saying "poverty," as in "Black people are held down in our country by (a culture of) poverty."

Or the culture of poverty might be a way of saying that it is the fault of Latinos when authority figures tell them to shut up or die. People who aren't white have the wrong culture. According to this theory, wrong-culture people should submit.

Am I right that there is some sort of tie between the culture of poverty formulation and racism? Racism is the belief that the color of your skin determines how you behave. For example, a palomino runs on four legs, but a bay horse uses only the two on its left side. It has the wrong culture, and you can tell it's wrong because the horse is brown. I mean you can see color from a distance, probably. 

 

 
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A License to Kill

Deputy Erick Gelhaus, who killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez, has been put back on patrol by our mindless sheriff. Ten months ago, Gelhaus shot Andy Lopez seven times because the child was seen walking along in peaceful Sonoma County carrying a realistic toy gun (which is legal, of course).

We've seen a lot of police killings lately--from officers who patrol American streets like a jumpy occupying army. They are intent on protecting themselves from ambush and to hell with the young citizens, who make good targets. The best you can say about Deputy Gelhaus and Sheriff Doofus, his boss, is that their judgement is impaired. To arm these shaky incompetents, to send them out with licenses to kill, is absurd, but we can't seem to prevent it.

The Republicans Back a Lobbyist for Debt Collectors

In our county the 1% have learned to run their stooges for public office as Democrats. Republicans don't win. Anyone can register as a Democrat, even a corporate lobbyist like James Gore. He's running against Deb Fudge for county supervisor. 

Deb Fudge is a woman with a long record of unpaid local service as a mayor, environmental leader on various boards, etc. She's trusted.  Gore has come back to the state with no local record at all, but he has the backing of business groups and developers. The California Real Estate political action committee just gave him a bundle, as did the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Sonoma County Alliance (business leaders who try to buy every election), our beloved Pacific Gas and Electric, and the Chamber of Commerce. 

Deb Fudge, representing the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, has to get by with contributions from the party, a few unions, the general public and green organizations. So far she is losing the money race but winning in the polls. 

You might want to know for whom Gore lobbied.  He worked in Washington on behalf of a national group of debt collectors. He lobbied for many forms of alcohol and for a company currently suing the State of California to overturn the regulation of ineffective fire-retardant chemicals. Gore's one sweet guy, but if you're not already rich, don't call him. He'll call you.

(I think I'll go drive my van for a few weeks. Be back in mid-August.)

AN INVENTED PEOPLE

We Americans are quite obviously an invented people, created in 1776. We were made out of Anglo Saxons, Scots-Irish, Germans, Irish, Italians, French, Indians, Black people, Latinos, Jews, Asians, whatever. 

We don't have the dates, but I believe that the Celts were invented much earlier, along with the Huns and the Franks. The Chinese have been re-invented many times. The Israelis, of course, were invented in the last century, and the Palestinians are definitely an invented people. In fact, all of the nations, ethnicities, languages, and so on are cultural inventions. I mention this because I run into thinkers who make a point of telling folks that the Palestinians are "an invented people," as if that made them different. Actually, it makes them like Americans (or Israelis).