Search “squatters” on twitter/X. One more consequence of invasion of the U.S. southern border. Private Property is under attack. A part of me “identifies” with squatters, since I don’t like to think of myself as a “property owner,” given that none of us humans actually “own” the living earth under our feet. And yet, this was the civilization, no, actually this is the political system I was born into, and so come to not only expect, but to assume as real. One now being shredded to smithereens, given that the laws, which formerly held it’s various obvious parts in place, no longer do. All part and parcel of Pluto’s thoroughgoing death (and rebirth?) of the U.S. as Pluto slowly grinds through it’s first ever return to its natal place when this nation was born on July 4, 1776.
This nation which I love. What we call “this nation” which removed native peoples from their land, actively murdered them with poisoned blankets, starved them by decimating their buffalo herds, broke every treaty we created with them, and forced them, ultimately, into tiny patches of this land, the patches we, the colonial settlers, deemed too poor to be of any worth.
I’m reminded of the strange young woman who moved in here two years ago, relying on my good graces, only to prove to be a squatter herself, on a very profound level. When, after much contention, I pleaded with her, in desperation, “But this is my home!” she leveled her gaze at me, and intoned, “THIS IS OUR LAND.”
This woman “identified” as “indigenous,” i.e., native American, though she was clearly black. It was my enculturated “white guilt” that invited her in in the first place, thinking to give her a bit of a respite from what seemed to be a difficult, wandering life.
And now I see that Jared Kushner wants to move out the people out of Gaza and then “clean it up”, because it’s “very valuable property.”
Think about it. As long as we perceive the world in terms of scarcity, we will be tempted to treat others as objects.
Here’s what Celia Farber has to say about this advancing phenomenon.
