There is a simple but urgent issue to be dealt with as we grow dangerously close to another world war.  I do not believe I am exaggerating and many who know more than I, think the same with excellent credentials.  And I understand we do not want to think about it.  This is called “denialism,” and natural attitude, but a dangerous one.  And we collectively in the US are a very denialistic people.

The population of the world expands and there are millions who move and resettle to places other than their birth countries.  But there are two kinds of travelers.  One, there are “colonial settlers” like the British, Dutch, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc.  These nations and people move to other parts of the world–often with official military forces, and they go with the intent to make homes, take land, and dominate (even enslave and kill) original inhabitants of those places.  Those to whom I am sending this message, are generally “white” and descendants of those nations I have listed.  My historical heritage is German, yours from other European nations, especially Spain and Portugal and Great Britain.  We are where we are racially, financially, socially because of our historical heritage.

The other travelers are “immigrants.”  This is a crucial difference and I have been both, so I know how it works.  As a person of colonial settlerism, I have had a privileged life.  The original people of what we know were reduced by 95% eventually and I live in a state that is filled with indigenous names, but there are little or few of those orignal people.  And this was done by both Spanish and British.

But I moved or traveled to what we call Latin America, to Argentina and Nicaragua.  As an “immigrant” I took no land and did not participate in removing any people who were there before me.  I “fit in” where I went.  I met contemporary immigrations requirements–not at all easy, taking years.  I obeyed the local legal system.  I paid taxes, I spoke “the local language” and learned as quickly to blend with local culture and traditions, and in my case, I officially changed from Protestant to Catholic and for nearly 30 years I attend mass and was married according to Catholic rites.  I “settled,” intending to be in Latin America for the rest of my life.  But I was not a colonial settler, seeking to gain or take control.

This is very different to relocating as part of a colonial, taking control purpose.  As a result, when I look at something like what has happened with Venezuela, I do not take the usual side or attitude of what I see happening with Anglo-Americans or Latin-Americans.  And primarily I do not quickly respond by arguing about the nature of what happened in Venezuela according to an opinion about Mr. Maduro–good, bad, or somewhere in between.  I see a sovereign nation, Venezuela, which has been wrongly attacked no matter what.  I do not view things as a colonial settler in which I should take sides.  I am an immigrant who learned to fit in and work in behalf of my new nation and its people, as well as take responsibility for myself, not expecting to take from others, but to work with and for others.  “To join with the previous team,” one might say, not seek to conquer or use them.

As a result, like it or not, immigrants have the higher moral ground and I have seen this in its whole large context, living in the US and seeing millions of immigrants come from Latin America to make a new life and home, millions quite literally.  Many are friends and neighbors who work very diligently and contribute to the United States in such a way as to spell the destruction of the US itself if they leave or are expelled as the current and past presidents have sought to do.

We need to ask ourselves, Do we think more as “colonial settlers” or “immigrants, or at least descendants of either as we form our own opinions–consciously or unconsciously” today in 2026.  And this relates, too, unfortunately if we act as light skinned people who in world history tend to dominate and act, or as human being who are essentially the same no matter what color we are and what social class we consider ourselves to be.  If we think as immigrants, we may divert from war, if not, well, you really do know the result, and we will in all likelihood seek to “fit into” the multi-dimensional world we now live in, united by remarkable technological means.  And if there is involvement in world events or opinons towards them, we will seek to cooperative live in harmony and defend all kinds of rightful sovereignty in whatever way we can.  This kind of solidarity, it seems to me, is our only hope to escape global devastation which we are looking down the barrel of with immense technological capacity to destroy rather than survive.

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