This is My Father's World - From Freedom: The Case For Open Borders - By Joss Sheldon

 

EVERYTHING HAS ALWAYS BEEN MOVING 

The ground beneath your feet is also on the move, albeit at a rather pedestrian pace… The science of “plate tectonics” tells us that Earth’s lithosphere--its two outermost layers--is comprised of seven or eight major “plates”, as well as several smaller “platelets”. These have been moving across the planet’s surface for 3.4 billion years. Sometimes, these continents come together, to form a single supercontinent. We’re talking about the likes of “Columbia,” a landmass shaped like a piece of pizza, which formed two billion years ago. Columbia broke up into smaller continents, which then reunited to form “Rodinia”. This process repeated itself--resulting in “Pannotia”--a supercontinent located around the South Pole. The most recent supercontinent was called “Pangea”. It formed around 335 million years ago, was home to the dinosaurs, and broke up after another 135 million years--forming Asia, Africa and the Americas-- continents which continue to migrate today; travelling just under ten centimetres a year. (Li et al, 2008). (Read & Watson, 1975). 

Plants appeared on Earth a fair while after the continental plates--just under half a billion years ago. And you’d never guess what: They also move around! Their seeds are so light, they can be carried by the breeze--in rivers and oceans--within birds’ stomachs, claws and feathers. They’ve been known to make some rather long expeditions… Around 1.4 million years ago, a seabird carried the seeds from acacia trees in Hawaii--either in its stomach or in its wings-- before depositing them on Réunion Island, eighteen thousand kilometres away! (Le Roux et al, 2014). The chances are that only a few seeds survived the journey. They took root, multiplied, and began to evolve. But plant migration doesn’t only occur when a few plants travel alone. Sometimes, a great number of plants move together... The most recent Great Tree Migration occurred at the end of the last Ice Age, ten thousand years ago. As the ice receded, the trees which had survived in more temperate locales--further from the poles, at altitude, and in protected pockets of land--began to spread across the newly unfrozen terrain. Fossilised pollen shows that oak trees migrated across Scotland at a rate of one kilometre per year. Beach trees moved from one side of the Great Lakes to the other. Norwegian spruces circumnavigated both the North Sea and the Baltic. (Bridle, 2022). It’s not quite the acacia. These trees didn’t travel eighteen thousand kilometres in a single journey. But they experienced a mass migration-- moving together, along with their peers.

~~~

Once Sheldon introduces all who are world citizens in today's reality, he quickly and, almost, lovingly begins to share about the world in which we all live: Planet Earth. Again, he moved backward historically showing the concept of how the earth has changed. How the creatures of earth had changed... In doing so, he erases little prejudice in acknowledging the science behind how the earth was formed. Indeed, I personally have never found it contradictory to talk about evolution... It exists. Period. Nor does it exclude that God was the creator. After all, man invented time. often, in order to study what was found as evidence from the past... We learned that "Adam" was to be the shepherd over all of the animals--to even name them. We also learned of Lilith, Adam's first wife... So it is not difficult to understand all that might have happened about which nobody was able to record...

Sheldon talks about migration during the beginning of the world, providing bits and pieces of research to help readers to think back on some of their school teachings or, perhaps, be the first time that some will have explored earth's beginnings. It's a wonderful story that you tend to sit back and relax in its exploration...

Things like those birds who often assisted in spreading seeds from plants in different parts of the world. And, as they traveled, brought varieties of new types of plants here, there, and everywhere. I remember one year when I came out my door and looked toward a flower bed to my right. For the first time, I saw two new plants that had not previously been there. They seemed to have grown overnight. But, I saw that they were evenly spaced where they were, Perhaps, I realized, birds had fed on my other plants and had dropped the seeds. But, they were trees that would grow higher than would be safe, so we transplanted them. They didn't like the relocation and died, sadly...

After the exploration of our animals migratory and reproduction actions, Sheldon turns to the scientific exploration of man's historical migration. For, surely, we must accept all of the newest scientific data on humans... DNA, for instance, as being the basic components which make up our bodies... 

However, this is a central part of Sheldon's, as he explores...the...early...migrations of humanity.

NO-ONE IS INDIGENOUS: Borders attempt to divide us – to say that we’re all inherently different – that some people belong in certain places, whilst others belong elsewhere. And yet our biology disagrees. We all have longish legs, dexterous hands, and oversized brains. We all have lungs, kidneys and bladders. This remains true, no matter where we were born – whether we’re American or Mexican, British or Polish, Indian or Pakistani. There’s no such thing as a “British gene.” Mexicans and Americans have the same DNA. Our genetics are universal... 

Can you believe that? I can... Consider a simple match test for somebody like me. Is my blood a different color than my Black friends, my indigenous friends, et.al.? No, it's not... Later in the book, there is a reference to the Tower of Babel...

Whether or not you choose to believe the Bible's story, or not, we do know that people became who they are, based upon the location in which they were born. Continuing along these lines, Sheldon simply presents the scientific changes that occurred to those who were originally born in one land, Africa, then to migrate out from those lands, following their desire to see other lands, to enjoy the world that surrounded their homes... But, no matter where the original individuals traveled (or were placed by God) they continued to evolve to adjust to the particular land in which they had chose... Yet, continued to have the basic genetics, the basic DNA composition that every single person on the earth has!

Many who are in America, including me, are incensed by a man who is campaigning on what would happen if he were elected again in 2024... Certainly a threat to our democracy. But, when you stop and think about it, whether through early migration or by having God place people across the world He created, it is quite clear that there is NO way that blood can be contaminated... Simply because we are all created equally... While my emphasis on the above is based upon my own knowledge, here's how Sheldon uses a parable to explain the theory.

It’s a run-of-the-mill American chat show. Two guests are sitting on upholstered chairs, which have been arranged at a ninety-degree angle – half-facing their host, and half-facing the studio audience. The show’s presenter, Trisha Goddard, is sitting on a matching chair-- wearing a tight-fitting, blue-and-black ensemble. Peering over the top of her glasses, Goddard reads from a golden certificate. She’s addressing her guest, Craig Cobb--a racial separatist who’s attempting to establish a white-only enclave in North Dakota. Cobb is relatively handsome for a man his age, with flowing grey hair, and a tidy beard. Dressed in a regal-red shirt and tie, he exudes the confidence of a man who has total faith in his philosophy: That black and white people are like “Oil and water”, and that “Oil and water don’t mix,” “Craig Paul Cobb has undergone DNA testing,” Goddard begins. “To determine his genetic ancestry. It is 86% European, and, err...” Hahaha-hee-hah! The second studio guest, a black woman who is wearing a colourful hat, leans back and emits a joyous chortle. It’s contagious. As she slaps her thigh, the audience amplifies her response-- hollering, clapping and stamping. The second studio guest encourages Goddard to continue. “Give it to him,” she cheers. “Give it to him.” And Goddard is only too happy to oblige: “14% Sub-Saharan African.” Cobb emits a nervous smile, as the audience continues to cheer. “Wait a minute,” he protests, as cheerily as he can. “Hold on...” “Wah-ay!” Goddard cheers. “Ho!” But Cobb remains defiant: “This is called ‘Statistical noise’.” Goddard leans forward, nodding furiously, whilst her eyes bulge out from their sockets: “Sweetheart, you have a little black in you.” Cobb repeats his refrain: “Listen. I tell you this: Oil and water don’t mix.” But Goddard is already on her feet, leaning into Cobb’s personal space, and offering him a fist pump: “Hey... ‘Bro’.” She offers another fist pump, and Cobb declines again. But it makes little difference. The science has spoken: This proud American is 86% European and 14% African. Oil and water do mix. They’re mixed up within his DNA. But there’s another fact, implicit in these results, which goes unmentioned: Eighty-six and fourteen add up to a hundred. Cobb is 100% European and African. He’s not even the slightest bit Native American. He’s the descendant of immigrants – a guest in another land. There was nothing particularly unusual about Cobb’s DNA… A study conducted by genealogists from the Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with 23andMe, asked Americans to self-identify their ancestry. They were categorised as “European Americans,” for example, if they selected “Not Hispanic,” if they also selected “White,” and if they didn’t select another category. Of these self-identifying “European Americans," which would’ve included the likes of Craig Cobb--3.5% were shown to have at least 1% Sub-Saharan African ancestry. In the south, one-in-ten people who self-identified as white, had some African ancestry. But very few had any American DNA. On average, only 0.18% of their DNA was Native American. The other 99.82% had come from immigrants. It was actually those people who self-identified as “Latinos,” and only as “Latinos,” who had the highest proportion of local DNA. 18% of their genetic makeup was Native American. They were a hundred times more American than people like Craig Cobb. Let that sink in for a moment: The people trying to cross over from Mexico into the USA, were over a hundred times more American than the likes of Donald Trump--the people who were trying to stop them. The descendants of immigrants, with massive amounts of foreign DNA, were pointing their fingers at people who did have some American DNA, and saying “You’re too foreign. You can’t come in.” The science would beg to differ. (Bryc et al, 2015). 

At that point I had to smile. Perhaps you've noticed that our writer is a Brit who is speaking out about our past-president--but I want to quickly say that he also talks about the former blond PM in his homeland as well. LOL The key point is that when somebody lies, there will always be people who know they are lying, because they know they can prove the truth... 

Do we need to explore this further, I don't think so, do you? The Constitution says that we are all created equal and to be afforded the same rights. Science says that we are all, basically, the same, differing only based upon where we were born... And, most importantly, those who believe our God created all of us, must surely accept that He sees all of us as His Children. Not to be rejected, no matter what color our skin... Opening our borders is the least we can do to meet the needs of our neighbors...