on nine eleven

  On this day we mark a decade since the events surrounding the 11th of September, 2001. Many changes have taken place in our nation since that bright summer day, some that restrict us in our liberty, others that inconvenience to little noticeable advantage. Absent clear and defining purpose, we have foundered collectively among the shoals of short-sightedness and greed, bruised badly by the false promise of unlimited consumer credit, our public figures beating the drums of nationalism and xenophobia in tones ever more vituperative and religious, the cultural diversity of our peoples muted by creeping corporate homogenization, our inventiveness forgotten in the face of gadgets that rarely prove convenient to the economics of time, our artistic creativity lost in the mirror-maze of sequels, mash-ups, and gimmickry, our citizens willfully abusing the national flag in misguided attempts to prove to others their patriotism, that deep and pure sense of pride that shines most brightly when it is cultivated within the confines of the heart, a sense that shrinks when displayed too prominently.
  I was in Manhattan that day; I volunteered three days later in the dust and wreckage blanketing the North Cove; I lost a fraternity brother who had just started work high up in the North Tower. But, then as now, I will never succumb to fear, never believe in America-über-alles, never discriminate against someone because of their choice of religion, never accept torture as a means necessary to the common defense, never disgrace the Stars and Stripes to prove to another my love for country, and never cease in my attempts to secure the Blessings of Liberty to myself, my brothers and sisters, and our Posterity.
  My the people who died on that September day not so long ago continue to rest in peace.


Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp

on necessity of immigration

  In the founding document of the United States, that unanimous declaration of the Second Continental Congress, is found a list of the Injuries and Usurpations which compelled the founders to the Separation. While it is often argued (see here, here) that the Declaration of Independence is not a legal document, and it is for this reason that we do not celebrate July 4th as the founding of our nation but as a pleasant time to watch the sky explode, we should occasionally return to this most fundamental and important of American documents to make sure we are not repeating the mistakes of an oppressive tyrant.
  One of the Facts submitted to a candid World as proof of the Tyranny and Despotism of the English king was that: "He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migration hither[.]" This endeavor was so loathed by our revolutionaries that they included it in their declaration to the world, a declaration that started our process to statehood and that proclaimed, immutably and eternally, the right of the People to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
  Today, we again face a threat to the emigration of individuals hither, which is a threat to our economy, our collective notion of self-worth, and our continued existence as a place in which dreams can become reality. This threat comes in the form of American citizens, themselves descendant of immigrants, who think that the United States of America has an official national language (it does not), who consider this country theirs and theirs alone (it is not), who see anyone with dark skin and dark hair as a threat to their personal safety (also not true). Just as in the past, immigrants today perform those jobs (in agriculture, food service, waste-removal, landscaping, etc.) that few native-born citizens seem willing to perform. But now, instead of openly shuffling the newly arrived into crappy and low-paying workshops and letting them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, we are building continent-long fences and criminalizing large groups of aliens who come here because they cannot make enough to support their families by working in the countries in which they were born.
  Loud are the voices that call for the booting of immigrants back over our borders, voices emanating from bodies that consume lettuce in the spring and cheap apples by the bushel, bodies that eat in restaurants priced reasonably because of the illegals working in the kitchen, bodies that perambulate happily in well-manicured gardens. Incensed they are, pounding their chests and saying, This is my country, and no brown person is going to sneak in and steal my job.
  These xenophobic and confused people among us do not understand that our greatest national symbol stands atop a stone base on which is engraved an open plea for immigrants, no matter how poor or tired, to come to this nation. They do not understand that, since our nation's founding, we have been a haven for base and penniless people seeking to better themselves and to make for themselves new and happier lives. They do not understand that the founders of the United States of America took up arms against the most powerful military nation at the time because the leader of that nation was obstructing the emigration and naturalization of peoples wishing to settle here.
  We are a nation of immigrants, and of people descendant of immigrants. Immigration has allowed our country to grow even while the populations of most other industrialized nations are shrinking. Immigration allows us to consume cheap produce and to do many things that would be prohibitively expensive if not for illegal aliens working for starvation wages just to make those things possible.
  We need cheap labor in America, and cheap labor comes from unskilled immigrants. Give these people who believe so much in the potency of the American dream that they will undergo unimaginable hardships a pathway to citizenship, or at least provide them with some method by which they might more easily gain temporary employment status. Let them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps without having to live in perpetual fear of being ground down under the boots of club-wielding police officers.

  I am a Son of the American Revolution, a descendant of the ur-immigrants who came ashore at Plymouth Rock, a lover of Lady Liberty and of the principles for (and on) which she stands, and I welcome any and all persons who would like to pursue their Happiness in the country for which my ancestors fought and died.

  Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos. Andale – mucho trabajo aqui.

Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp

on nationalized religion

  In recent times, loud voices (here, here) have claimed that the creators of the American nation were influenced by Christianity, saying that because our founders were somehow influenced by that religion, that religion should enjoy a higher standing in society. Why these people cry so loudly is unclear (although they seem to be following a historical precedent – see here – by turning to religious hyperbole, xenophobia, and downright Fear), but I suspect that they are making so much noise to obfuscate the reality of the world they so dearly desire, a future fantasy of Dystopian proportions in which all religions but one are outlawed in America, all who fail to fall to their knees before the new national god or gods are beaten and incarcerated, and the liberty we hold so highly, the liberty guaranteed in our Constitution to all equally, shall be replaced by oppression generally and by intolerance for dissenting thought specifically. What other purpose could these people have for pushing for some form of recognition of Christianity as the official state religion than: to destroy the liberty of their fellow citizens; to favor one religious doctrine to the exclusion of all others; to punish non-believers for their lack of belief in one god among many gods; and to relegate those non-believers to the status of second- or third-class citizens for failing to follow one out of the many religions practiced by those flexible and profound individuals who founded these United States of America.

  Many times in its history has mankind attempted to make one religion the mandatory religion of all people. In each of these cases (England Reformation, Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Afghanistan under the Taliban), the initial religious prohibitions were soon followed by widespread murder, looting, and other acts of Domestic Chaos as members of the newly-empowered religious class fanned out across the land to punish those unlucky people who did not meet the newly-established and painstakingly exacting standards of that specific religious teaching. (This potential threat to the Domestic Tranquility requirement set forth in the Constitution therefore makes any attempts to establish religious rule in America unjust and unconstitutional.) The leaders of America have shown a lack of respect for, and a lack of an even rudimentary knowledge of history in recent years by deciding to invade Afghanistan, a country that had previously withstood invasion by the Macedonians, the Persians, the British, and the Soviets; we hope that they will do some research into the realities of specific religious rule before passing any legislation based on religious texts, and we trust that they will be inclined to preserve the Contitution and to shield it from attacks by the intellectually stagnant and theocracy-minded quasi-patriotic forces active in society today. (We also hope our leaders will strike down existing laws such as those that prohibit the sale of alcohol on Sundays in Pennsylvania, or the laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman, laws based not on a rational foundation but on writings from the biblical Old Testament, laws that violate the declared Rights of the individual to Liberty and to pursue whichever Happiness he or she decides is best.)

  To justify the claims that the founders of our nation were influenced by the Bible, our current religious extremists ( "No religion is free from extremism," declares Abdelfattah Amor, the UN's Special Rapporteur n Religious Intolerance; for examples see here and here) point to correspondences and other writings created by the founders of this nation that mention the teachings of Christianity (for examples of these writings, see here). Furthermore, they point to the establishment of the Mayflower Compact (here) as proof that this our nation was in some way founded on the Christian faith. In light of the first argument it follows logically that any religious teachings mentioned by the founders of this nation in their writings should be declared as the official state religion, which would make Hellenistic polytheim (or the belief in gods such as Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon) one of the official religions of these United States, as it was mentioned by Thomas Jefferson (here) and John Adams (here), among others. As to the second argument, the Mayflower Compact did not legally establish this Union; it therefore cannot be used as justification for the establishment of an official religion over this Union.

  In the document that did establish this nation, in the Declaration of Independence, there is made mention of the Creator and of the Supreme Judge of the world, but these terms could apply to any of a number of forces, including the Universe, the forces of Chaos, or Raven of the First Peoples (that god who stole the Sun, made the world, and spread knowledge and learning among the scattered races); to assume that by Creator our founders meant Jesus, or Yahweh, or any other deity not specifically named in our founding texts, is: to make assumptions founded on narrow-mindedness and on a penchant for exclusionary practices; to violate the constitutional mandate of securing the Blessings of Liberty (for a definition of liberty, see here) to ourselves and to our Posterity by restricting the ability of the American citizen to operate according to his or her free will (by forcing him or her to genuflect before a god not necessarily of his or her choosing).

  America does not have an official national language, and it will never have an official national religion. The establishment of an official national religion would signal: the ending of our republic; the ending of the rule of rationality and of Justice; and the violation of the constitutional parameters of Domestic Tranquility and the Blessings of Liberty.
  Join me in fighting this threat to our fine nation, so that we together might safeguard our most precious documents and maintain Liberty here and abroad. Let us give in neither to irrational fear nor to irrational judgement; rather, let us maintain the principle of Reason and practice it in all our daily affairs. There is no time to spare, but time is short.

  Stand up. Speak out. Spread liberty.

Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp