Do we have the right to enforce the sanctity of our humanity?' Individuals, organizations, politicians, and self-labeled Americans have had the audacity to raise the question: Does America not have the right to enforce the sanctity of its borders?

It has become the question-slash-response to the need to control the aliens from the other world: the third world.

The painful cover-up, a.k.a. those skeletons in the closet, which have been left out of their arguments, must now be told to the world to judge the hypocrisy and sheer arrogance of the privileged sector of American society. This sector is not only ungrateful, but quickly tends to forget the human 'cockroaches' it has stepped on, killed and used to achieve its comfortability.

Therefore, it seems that the oppressed must teach the oppressor his/her own tactics of oppression.

The American government has no moral or historical right to enforce any border, for it has invaded physically, culturally and psychologically every so-called third world nation in existence.

As Americans, we are taught a history that depicts us as winners, as victors, as manifestly destined rulers of the free world. As Americans, we have entered forcefully, or otherwise, every part of the 'civilized or uncivilized' world. Flashbacks of Panama, Bosnia, Angola and Taiwan.

As Americans, we have stolen the lands inhabited by Native Americans and now claim them to be our own. Yet we so arrogantly ignore this as ancient history. Flashbacks of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

As Americans, we have taken coolies, slaves or debt-peons from their respected lands and brought them over in chains to plow, rake, and build our empire.

As Americans, we salute, honor, and claim as our ultimate rights those hailing from the constitution. The same constitution created by Anglo-Saxon, elite, heterosexual, racist, sexist, classist men who, for the most part were slave-owners. The same constitution built on their ideology that we as Americans, are legally bound to honor, abide, and be controlled by in all its forms.

Inclusive of this creation came a legal system in which we are forced to legally swear to one religion's holy book. Whether we were Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Agnostic or other, we must all swear to the Christian bible in a court of law. We as Americans, somehow consider this to be religious freedom.

We as Americans, have benefited from exploiting the labor of many for the profit and greed of few.

We as Americans, have always learned historical facts of our ripe fruits of conquest and have thrown out the rotten apples who questioned our supremacy. We've dismissed those who dared question our legitimacy on this continent, in this hemisphere, and this country.

We as Americans, proudly salute the American flag and are willing to go to great lengths to defend it. We as Americans, would justify, rape, murder, mass destruction, and even the dropping of the atom bomb for the sake of retaining our power. Flashbacks of Japan.

We as Americans, would lie, distort the truth, and teach young people a false mythical imperialistic history of conquest shadowing it with the vision, wonderful and enticing as it may be, of democracy.

We as Americans, have learned, and taken up a 'paternal' attitude towards other so-called nations. We would be willing to set up military bases in their country, to protect them, from them.

We as Americans, have control of the global economy and can regulate the worth, the prices of goods, of minerals, of food, and of human beings based on our need.

We as Americans, control the norms, behaviors, actions, myths, legends, and tales of the world by invading it with our antennas, our television sets, our VCR's, our films and our beliefs.

We as Americans, fear change.

We as Americans tend to be liberal, that is, to merely scratch the surface while evading to struggle over questions of principle for fear of creating tensions or becoming unpopular. We fear confronting our own contradictions.

We as Americans, can not hear the complete other side. We only know our side.

We as Americans, are right. That is, if we were to ever be wrong, we would repress, oppress, seek and destroy what we fear the most: our ignorance of the world.

We as Americans, are hypocrites. We as Americans, are our own worst enemy. We are our turmoil.

Who are we, as Americans? Historically, politically, economically, socially,',' we are: ONE. The rest of us have screamed: "WASH ME, WASH ME, for the closer I am to YOU, the closer I am to being an American." We are White, Anglo-Saxon, heterosexual, elitist males.

Who are the illegal aliens? Who are the creatures from the other world. Women. People characterized as having 'color.' The poor. Those with distinct characteristics: darker skin, stretched out eyes, foreign tongues, 'back-ward' cultures, and vaginas. The 'crooked': the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans- gender. Deviants. Freaks.

What can we, as Americans do? We as Americans can, should, and have the right to ask this question: Does American not have the right to enforce the sanctity of its borders? Yes, we do.

We as Americans, can, should, and must continue to imprison physically by building more jails. Culturally, by plugging more micro-chips in the brains of human beings in the forms of televisions, movies, and antennas to be remotely controlled. Economically, by chewing and spitting out more workers, at the cheapest of wages, for the growth of our world-wide corporations.

In education, by teaching a false patriotic history blinding the masses of youth today. But, as we are seeing today, if they escape all these chains of oppression, what must we as Americans do? Deport, prosecute, crush, step on, scapegoat and kill, all illegal aliens.

What do we, the non-americans, the third world people, women, the aged, the poor, the 'colored,' the different, the foreign-tongued, the deviant do?

We as people of the world can, should, and must ask ourselves the following:

Do we not have the right to enforce the sanctity of our humanity?

Written by: Cesar A. Cruz

Cesar A. Cruz is an internationally renowned poet, educator and human rights activist. From marching 76 straight miles to hunger striking for 16 days, Mr. Cruz has dedicated his life to fighting injustice. His relentless drive and passion has touched the lives of many, and his writings have received praise from activists and scholars throughout the world. Author Rodolfo Acuna sees "Cesar as one of the new martyrs of our people." Acclaimed author and activist Luis Rodriguez depicts Cesar's writings as filled with "fierce insight and righteous rage." But Mr. Cruz shrugs off the accolades with a humble smile and a thought. "I'm not important; we're but seeds of social change. Our role is a simple one;'To comfort the disturbed, and to disturb the comfortable.' Nothing more, and nothing less!