“Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona And such a fine sight to see It’s a girl, my lord In a flatbed Ford Slowin’ down to take a look at me.”
Take It Easy
Eagles
Last week found me standing on a corner in Ligonier, Indiana while visiting kin.
Ligonier, you must understand is about as rural Indiana as one can get. It was, when I was growing up, the epitome of small town rural Indiana. At about 4000 residents Ligonier once upon a time claimed to be the Marshmallow capital of the world. That industry has long been absent from Ligonier, Indiana. When I was a boy, I would attend Ligonier’s West Noble High School basketball games against whom a uncle competed in Basketball games. I am here to testify that Uncle Kevin did not compete against any Hispanics in 1972 when he was competing against West Noble High School.
A funny thing has happened to Ligonier in the last 25 years or so. A funny thing connected to the surreal reality that upwards of 30 million illegal aliens now live in the USA. That number is so huge it is hard for one to really get their mind around it. However, visiting Ligonier, Indiana (or my hometown of Sturgis, Michigan) begins to make the number concrete.
When I was a boy, and even a young man Ligonier, Indiana and Sturgis, Michigan and many more small towns like them were as white bread as one can possibly imagine. However, with the US policy of porous borders small town America now looks increasingly like what small town Mexico must have looked like in 1975.
For example in Ligonier in the 2010 census Hispanic or Latino of any race were 51.5% of the population. That was an increase of almost 20% form the 2000 census. Further, as of 2020, 23.6% of Ligonier, IN residents were born outside of the country (1.06k people). Also of 2020, 81.2% of Ligonier, In residents were US citizens, which is lower than the national average of 93.4%. In 2019, the percentage of US citizens in Ligonier, IN was 82.6%, meaning that the rate of American citizenship has been decreasing.
Ligonier, I submit, provides a window into what is happening in small town America in these formerly united States. These two links sustain that observation;
The 10 Indiana Cities With The Largest Latino Population For 2023
The 10 Michigan Cities With The Largest Latino Population For 2023
While I stood on the corner of Ligonier, Indiana awaiting my Kin’s shopping I found myself observing the surrounding as it were from outside of myself. In the 20 minutes I waited for my Kin to finish her shopping I saw, as in a strange dream the following;
I saw sundry Hispanics walking up and down the sidewalk and it was obvious as to why. From where I stood I could see more than one Mexican Restaurant and several other Hispanic business devoted to bring in the Hispanic clientele. I saw a bakery, dedicated to Eastern European baked goods immediately next door to a bakery dedicated to Mexican baked goods. I saw three ample young ladies walking with a black young gentleman. I saw sundry white chaps passing by in their pick up trucks who had beards right out of Duck Dynasty or ZZ Top. I saw the average joe white person walking the sidewalks. And to add to the bizarre and surreal there I first heard the clopping of horse hooves and then saw sundry Amish buggies go traveling by me containing the Amish folk replete with the distinct attire that the Amish wear. Now toss in the requisite tatts and piercings that has become such a fixture in modern American culture and I found myself humming,
Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ahh
But for me it was;
Picture yourself on a street in a city
Where American towns are now bastardized
Somebody walks by, you’re staring quite boldly
A community now balkanized
Restaurants selling Mexican black beans
Amish coverings on heads
Look for the girl with white in her skin
And she’s gone
Diversity is our strength we’re now dyin’
Diversity is our strength we’re now dyin’
Diversity is our strength we’re now dyin’
Because of my visit to Ligonier, Indiana, as well as previous trips to my hometown of Sturgis, Michigan I can now more easily get my head around 30 million illegal aliens now living in these formerly united States. I can see the havoc that the Biden border policy is playing with the former homogeneity of America. I can visibly see that America is now being ruled by an occupying force that is resolved on destroying America.
And I can most clearly see that the only hope of historic Americans is the rise of peaceful secession movements so that this now balkanized country might become several nations.
Observing the ethnic displacement of your own people is not pleasant. But truly, this is just what God promised to His people, what would follow from apostasy (or from mere religious lukewarmness, as a way of chastening):
https://biblehub.com/kjv/deuteronomy/28.htm
“32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand. 33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: 34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”
Your mention of the Amish reminds me that if you only have strong enough communal discipline, you can survive in even very challenging environments. That is what conservative Mennonites have done in the Caribbean nation of Belize, for example:
https://amandala.com.bz/news/the-mennonites-have-what-most-of-our-tribes-want-but-do-they-have-too-much/
““Legislating” that your children marry children of a certain skin color, as the Mennonites have effectively done with the way they treat their own who marry outside of their tribe, seems to cross a line. Some of the Mennonites who have married outside of the tribe wonder how the community can do so much business with other tribes, but lock them out when they marry a member of the community.”
Hello Viisaus
Great article except for the part where the article suggests that the Mennonites should be more loose with their restrictions.
I couldn’t agree more with your observations.
Thank you for your comment.
In crazy times like this the radical Anabaptists can reap the fruits of their neo-Rechabite separationism.
We can see this pattern from the very beginning of Amish/Mennonite history, that those folks who had more zealous faith were ready to abandon more comfortable environments for the wilderness – they were the ones that survived better and were not assimilated into the mainstream society. For the Amish people were born in the Swiss Alps when the more uncompromising Anabaptist elements literally “ran to the hills”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish#History
“Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a Schandename (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman, an Anabaptist leader. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between Oberländers (those living in the hills) and Emmentalers (those living in the Emmental). The Oberländers were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.[citation needed]
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of “fallen” believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals.”