General Discussion

My ancestors left Europe in times when everything was turning to shit there. Some of them might not have survived if they'd stayed.

The U.S.A. wasn't their land of golden opportunity, it was a land of refuge.

I have a Southern ancestor who saw the Civil War coming, along with the inevitability of conscription, so he just started walking to Oregon. His intent was not much beyond saving his own skin, and Oregon was probably attractive to him because it was "whites only" then. But he did deny the Confederacy a soldier.

My family doesn't have any Civil War history besides that, in spite of them being here in the U.S.A. at the time. Whenever things got too uncomfortable for them politically, or they found themselves in legal binds or heading for bankruptcy, they'd head west into the wilderness, just as their ancestors had crossed the Atlantic.

My grandparents fought the Nazi and Japanese empires in their own ways. My dad's dad was an Army Air Force officer and engineer who never ever talked about his war time service. He was later an engineer for the Apollo project. He would talk about that. My dad's mom worked for the USO. My mom's parents were pacifists. Their compromise was working as West Coast shipyard welders, building and repairing Liberty and Victory ships. They would not build weapons.

I sometimes wonder how my grandparents would have fared if the U.S.A. had lost the war, as depicted in Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. They probably would have vanished into the Rocky Mountain States to live with relatives.

So I can't dis Ellen for leaving, it's in my blood too. On the other hand, England might not be the political sanctuary people think it is, except that there are fewer heavily armed crazies lurking in the shadows. Not getting shot when vile right wing Christians and politicians have targeted you is always a good life plan.