In 1492 Columbus landed on an island, enslaved the people, and set up his own government.
And so the ripoffs began.
In the centuries to follow ships sailed west from Europe plundering whatever countries they could find, white people taking over the brown, black and red.
Cortez marched into Mexico and enslaved the Aztecs. Pizarro took South America. The French seized Canada.
These righteous ripoffs eventually took over South America, Mexico, and the east coast of America, replacing each country with its own, signing a treaty every time.
White people taking over the world, legally.
England landed on the East Coast and set up a colony. In time, the colonists got restless to break out again and take over something.
They called their new country America and these Americans readied to head west and take over the entire continent, continuing the westward push of ripoff and plunder started by Columbus years before.
In wagon trains they rolled westward, killing peaceful residents as they went. Sometimes they made the people walk thousands of miles to get out of their way, but most times they just shot ‘em.
They created states as they went, always writing up laws to legitimize their land grabs.
When they got halfway to the west coast they saw that a good portion of the continent was the country of Mexico. No problem, just another obstacle in the way.
The Americans marched into Mexico and took it over, and to make their robbery legal they wrote up a treaty and everything was fine. They stole land that became Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and California, business as usual for land-grabbing Americans. They wiped out the Indians and that was it.
The entire continent was theirs. They dusted off their dirtied hands and looked from California to Maine and saw that it was good.
They turned to the west and saw one more jewel they had to have — Hawaii.
It took the Americans just one afternoon in 1893, and by suppertime Hawaii was plucked and taken. They made it legal like they always do, it’s a trick.
Today we have a council woman worried if it was legal to take over Hawaii. Was it rotten? Yes. Was it legal? It doesn’t matter. History shows that America only uses the word legal to legitimize stealing countries and kingdoms. It is a pathetic oxymoron, “legal theft.” The whole country was stolen.
The subject is meaningless; to use it to duck out of a public office is ridiculous.
Picking at obscure legalities, twisting treaties to weasel out of a commitment, taking undeserved money from people are things America did to Hawaii in the devious takeover. Ironically, it is what our self-righteous council person is doing to Hawaii right now.
Get off it, Ms. Ruggles, and get back to work.
Dennis Gregory writes a bimonthly column in West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com
