What we did to the Mexicans is exactly what the Russians are now doing to the Ukraine. In Texas and California, we just moved our people in and took over. Then we invaded them and made them sign a treaty, making it official.

We treated our Indians just as badly as the Spaniards treated theirs. And maybe its not a question of whether Latins are better than Anglo-Saxons with their slaves. Maybe its just Europeans who are the real racists. The Spaniards treated their blacks a lot worse, and for a lot longer, than we did ours. But once they abolished slavery, it was over. We are still racist, a century after Emancipation we invented Jim Crow. Of course, the Indians kept slaves too, stole each other's land, and waged war on each other and the Aztecs were no wimps either. They just never claimed Jesus gave them the right.

The English managed to enslave damn near the whole world, although they didn't call it that. The French, Dutch, Portuguese, Belgians and Turks did pretty well at it too, come to think of it. And of course, then there are the Soviets, and we can't ever forget the Germans.

History repeats itself. The Israelis treat the Palestinians now just like we did the Indians because they used to own that part of the world, at least until the Romans ran them out two thousand years ago. Of course, the Jews first moved in from Egypt and stole it from the Palestinians a thousand years before that. In those days, they were called Canaanites and Philistines. I guess you could call God an "Indian giver", because he always promises the same land to two nations.

When you look at geography and history, you see ebbs and flows. Not property rights and ownership and nationality. Nobody owns land, they just take it and occupy it. And it is always temporary. The land of SW USA has been basically Spanish-speaking since the 16th century. The border moved, not the people. The political and cultural occupation by English speakers is a cultural aberration that will soon pass, a brief historical phase that will be forgotten in a century or two, except for some funny-sounding place names and architectural ruins, and an occasional kid with blue eyes.