Tuesday, February 11, 2020

History Being Destroyed by Trump's Boarder Wall and What it Means to History


I normally try not to get political, but lately there has been so much going on I just want to redo our whole government. Trump’s (or Lord Dampnut if you prefer) boarder wall has been controversial. It just got taken to a whole new level. In Arizona the contractor for Lord Dampnut’s wall has destroyed part of a native site by blasting it (Carranza). Even a historic preservation officer pointed out the significance of this site before the blasting started to a U.S. Representative, Raúl Manuel Grijalva (Carranza). Grijalva is a member of the Democratic Party and with the current leadership, even if he had tried to address these issues they would have been dismissed. This is also a great example of how the current administration entirely dismisses experts in any field and just does whatever it wants to. They could have gone around the site, but decided it was better to blast through it. Lord Dampnut has also threatened to destroy historical sites in Iran, so no one should be surprised that he is willing to have it done in his own country.


Not many people may have heard of the Tohono O’odham people that the site belongs to even though the traditional area that their people lived in covered a huge area of the American southwest and parts of Mexico (“History & Culture”). These people were first repressed by the Spanish and then by America when we took over their land. This repression continues today with the government’s current action against them.

So what does this mean to Colorado? Colorado is full of historical/cultural sites and by the current administration setting a precedence that historical sites do not matter, any site could now be destroyed with no repercussions by the government. It is up to American citizens to protect our history when the government will not. I believe that everyone should educate themselves on the history of the area they live in and do all they can to protect that history. This also means using your vote to stop people who would destroy that history. Even Jason Momoa has worked to use his power as a celebrity to bring awareness to a historical site threatened in Hawaii. Right now space science is very popular and I love things related to space, but do we need to build another telescope on a sacred mountain. We could just address other issues like light pollution so that other mountains could be used. These are choices that we make, and I believe that people are just not thinking about all the options or what this destruction will mean to future generations. When we destroy something, we can’t get it back.


                                   Actor Jason Momoa holds the hands of his children, Nakoa-Wolf Momoa, left, and Lola Momoa, as he is welcomed with a hula while visiting elders and Native Hawaiian protesters blocking the construction of a giant telescope on Hawaii’s tallest mountain, at Mauna Kea Access Road on Wednesday.

Now to get really political. The Islamic State and ISIS have been known to destroy historical sites and artefacts. The world views these as acts of terrorism. Trump’s threat against Iran could be seen as a war crime (Beltrán-García) and the destruction of the Tohono site could be seen as a form of local terrorism. This issues needs to be addressed and with Republicans in power this will not happen. These terrorism charges will either have to wait until he is no longer President and hopefully the normal courts will be able to do with this, or the next round of impeachment happens and these charges could be placed. At the same time the President is just one person and it is also his supporters in Washington that need to be held accountable for their crimes. The people need to file suit against the contractor for carrying out terrorist actions. But no one will. This is the sad part. As history screams in pain from its destruction, no one will take the actions needed to stop it.


Works Cited:

“History & Culture.” Tohono O'odham Nation. Accessed February 11, 2020. http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/history-culture/.

Beltrán-García, Sergio. “Trump's Threat to Destroy Iranian Heritage Would Be a War Crime | Sergio Beltrán-García.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, January 6, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/06/trump-threat-destruction-iran-heritage-war-crime.

Carranza, Rafael. “Sacred Native American Site in Arizona Blasted for Border Wall Construction.” Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, February 9, 2020. https://news.yahoo.com/sacred-native-american-arizona-blasted-043614389.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca.



More on where Lord Dampnut comes from:


More on Raúl Manuel Grijalva:











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