Issues
This Slate.com article details a day spent patrolling the border country in the South of Arizona with the Minuteman Project. If you don't know anything about these people, they're a group of (mostly) men, white and over 50 who fear and detest the people whe come into this country illegally. It disturbs me that these people can't get the idea through their heads that there's very little they can do to stop the onrush of immigrants, and more importantly, there's little that they should do. Immigration is what feeds this country's growth. Undocumented workers (to use the current political jargon) do a large number of jobs, create wealth in their home countries and subsidize our Social Security system. Without that large amount of money flowing into Social Security, the people out in the desert couldn't cash their Social Security checks to keep themselves out there.
Of course, they feel that they're out there strictly to make a point, but I have to think that that viewpoint is held by a minority. You don't get the number of people they have there (500 or so) if they don't feel they can do any good. It's the same impulse that drives people to get a lynch mob together to take care of the local "trouble-making" minority.
This kind of thinking incenses me. What is it about Mexicans coming here that makes old white people crazy? What's disturbing is that the people who are coming across the border only want what the people watching them already have: a better life for themselves and their families, freedom to live the way they want, free from the crushing poverty at home. America's promise has always been that people can work hard and get ahead. Well, if the illegals want to take jobs that are offered them, who can argue that they're doing exactly what the Minutemen's ancestors did only a few decades ago? The only reason to be out in the desert is to close the door of opportunity. This has been tried before and always fails. I like to think that America's ultimate sense of fair-play will overrule these idiots in the desert. Let them sit there until they sweat through their wife-beaters and camoflage pants*.
*ok, that was uncalled for, but what's a blog without a little unfair humor?
posted by Josh @ 4:41 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
some of the immigrants entering illegally already have u.s. criminal records and are just coming back from deportation.
a number of the house-burglaries and car thefts (petty crimes, yes, that can be committed by anyone and are) are committed by undocumented workers gone awry.
the whole amnesty thing might make a few things better, since:
being "undocumented" tends to make a person a not-so-great citizen when the statistically-gonna-happen things happen such as: domestic abuse, car accidents and drunk driving-related car accidents.
what i mean is that they are afraid of deportation and hence don't report their bruises and pain, don't stop when they've crashed into your car and don't show up in court when they are out on bond.
i'm basing this on real events.
of course, if you are a documented guest-worker-type working towards your citizenship or even just wishing to keep your money-making status, you are probably going to try to stay off the crime-radar anyway. so amnesty won't change that.
in my moments of entitlementness, i have been wishing for a bone from the congress to balance out the amnesty thing: let me buy property in mexico.
i've only entered there legally and haven't broken any laws that i don't normally break in my home country. i promise i won't even work and steal anyone's job. unless you want me to teach english as a second language, which i have demonstrated ability to do.
and i can't afford land here.
and i want to live somewhere i can get avocadoes for 50 cents a pound. where it's warm and the people are friendly and they have more ocean-access. and they have deposits on glass bottles and where graffiti is actually no big deal.
Here are some links that I believe will be interested
Hmm I love the idea behind this website, very unique.
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