Michelle Bachman Scares Me.

I saw a clip (shared it on Facebook) from CNN tonight of a speech that Congresswoman, and Tea Party Caucus leader, Michelle Bachman R-Minnesota gave a few days ago. It was truly disturbing to see what this woman does NOT know about the history of this country.

I passed all my classes in high school, I have a college degree. I love to read history, but I have to admit that there is a lot I don't know, or remember, about the history of this country. I'll admit that until I went to Lexington last summer and stood on Battle Green, where the fight for my country began, that I did not realize that the British Army had been an occupying force in Boston for 5 years!

Paul Revere wasn't telling the world that the British were, HERE. Like they had just shown up. He was telling them that they, the British had finally gotten word that the Colonists were storing their guns and ammo in Lexington and Concord, and they finally decided to come and take it away from them! I didn't know that whole story until I was, comfortably in my 50's.

I had relatives on both sides of the Civil War. It's what happens when your family is from West Virginia. Got a, "Great" a couple of times, Grandfather, Tobias Ray Stickley buried in the Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney, West Virginia and his stone says, "First Virginia Calvary, Stonewall Division", and just below that, "CSA". Confederate States Of America. He wore gray in that war. He was wounded in the first battle of Bull Run, fighting for, Stonewall Jackson. Another West Virginian who fought for the south, and sat out the rest of the war in West Virginia. You can talk about States Rights, but this war was about Slavery, and it's the only way we ended Slavery in this country. Sad but true.

I have cousins who grew up in a big house in Burlington, West Virginia that was built so long ago, it had a Slave quarters upstairs. Accessible only from a stairway outside the kitchen. No other direct access to the house. Shared a balcony with the attic access for the white folks. I know a little about Slavery.

Two years ago I took my family to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Only then did I learn that if you were in First or Second Class of the ship from Europe, you didn't have to go to Ellis Island You got dropped off in New York City with a nice, "Have a Nice Day" and you were sent on your way.

If you were rich enough to afford those tickets, well you got in. No questions asked. Color/race/religion/country of origin/skills or not. Didn't matter.

THIRD Class? Known as, "Steerage"? Not so fast. You were going to Ellis Island.

Once there, if you were a pregnant woman, you were put in quarantine until you had the baby and then, if you didn't have a husband here, who came in in first or second class, with a skill, you were sent back home!

Everyone who came into Ellis Island was made to walk up a stairway that made you make six turns. That was so the Immigration Officers, all at the top of the staircase, could see if you had a limp or a back problem. We don't need no, "Gimps" in our country!

Ellis Island was a sieve to catch poor people and send them home to Europe. Sitting right under the big, green, lady with the book open to the part about, "Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free..."

I guess the rest of the quote would be, "Just make sure they some money in their pockets and a skill we can use and don't have a limp. Or you just take them the fuck home!"

Any Mexicans reading this will find it familiar. No?

So, to get back to Representative Bachman. I watched her going on and on about how no matter what your skin color, race, nation of origin, religion, once you set foot on American soil, you were treated equally, right from the moment you got here. And how the Founding Fathers, (even the ones who owned slaves, like Jefferson and Washington, whom she seems to have forgotten about )fought tirelessly, or was it tooth and nail? To abolish Slavery right from the word, "go"!

In, Jefferson's case it might have been penis to vagina combat, based on what has come to light lately. His Black descendant's, I mean.

Either way, she is WAY off! The Founding Fathers made their living because of Slavery. Prior to machinery, cotton, hemp, tobacco and corn were a very labor intensive way to make a living. The labor force was small. the Indians weren't interested, what with having to make a living on less and less of THEIR own land. So it was Slavery or NOTHING!

Until 1860, when all, "heck" broke lose and 300K to 600K (depending on which history book you read) Americans killed each other for the next four years. Oh, and a PRESIDENT! The one who freed the slaves.

No "Founding Fathers" died that year. They were all comfortably dead, since they had signed on to the declaration of war in 1776. And they ALL had Slaves!

So, Michelle Bachman, United States Representative from Minnesota, you are wrong about equality being bestowed upon you the minute you arrived. You are wrong about the color not having an effect )short of, Chrispus Attucks were there any Black people in American History who just kind of, "showed up" without being brought over forcibly in slave ships?). You are wrong about everything. You are a perfect example of the Tea Party Movement. And I hope they keep putting you on TV to represent them.

I admit I don't know it all when it comes to history. But I'm not in Congress! Nor am I asked to make impromptu speeches that will be shown around the world on the Internet and other places, to show that your political party is right. Boy you must feel stupid. Or, I bet you don't. You don't have the capacity to feel stupid.

if Sara Palin makes, Coco The Gorilla seem well spoken? Michelle Bachman makes me and expert in American History.