I see a lot of postings on Facebook, clickbait I’m told, and that name fits as I do sometimes click on them. I have gotten better at recognizing them and simply ignoring them. I will still leave a comment or two on those postings although I rarely click on the post to read the entire story. Yes, I am responding to the bait without reading the substance of the article or claim and verifying the validity of that. Not spending my days doing research! I see this social media as entertainment not as an educational platform. I take everything I see and read on there with that proverbial grain of salt.

This morning I was seeing that meme declaring how much of America used to belong to Mexico. I see a lot of those type of claims from various groups. The indigenous folks topping the list. The claim being we stole the land. We always being white Europeans, the oppressors of the world! I’m not upset by that, I’m not a European, I’m an American. Well, Americans are just as bad, if not worse if you are white. Black, Latino, Asians, Indians or any other hyphenated Americans are free of any guilt or accusations. They’re good.

So I was thinking about all this land claiming stuff and just who owns the land. By what authority does anyone own the land? The answer is quite simple really, the ability to defend that claim. Yes, just like in those old western movies the land is taken and held by force, or the ability to do so. It has been that way since the very beginning and I suspect that it will never change. Land is property. Property is bought, sold and stolen. Sometimes property is given as a gift.

Legal title to that property is issued by whatever “government” pledges to defend that property. Ever wonder why the government here in the United States has a legal avenue called, eminent domain? It allows the government to seize private property for public use. In the famous case of the Bundy ranch, they refused to pay a fee to the government for grazing their cattle on public land. The court disagreed and an armed confrontation took place. Who won? The cattle are still grazing on the land. It was a legal fight and Bundy eventually won. You could say the public defended that land. The public owns the land, the government even said so.

All I’m saying here is the land doesn’t belong to anyone. Land is controlled by whoever has the ability to defend that land. Governments change and so does the control of the land. It makes no difference if land is controlled by a tribe, a clan, a club, or a country, the importance lies in being able to defend that property against all comers. If you can’t do that, you lose the land. That is unless you decide to sell it, barter it away or just abandon that property. Then it “belongs” to whoever claims it next and defends that claim. That’s how it works, doesn’t make a bit of difference who had what last week, last year or in the last century. What matters is, can you defend it today.

Started out as one piece of property divided by oceans, later divided by men. Still being fought over, sold, traded and conquered. Who owns what?