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Last saved: 05/06/2010
Links: /media/music / acdc.txt

Response to Gary's Facebook post about Arizona law and immigration problem

While I understand and appreciate the argument of this well-heeled lawyer from New York, please understand he's only showing one side of the problem. Yes, people are breaking (our) law by crossing the border illegally. The other part of the problem is that owners of landscaping firms, construction businesses, restaurants, and big agribusiness (and many others) hire undocumented workers because they know they won't complain, can get away with paying them low wages and can skate on taxes and health care - leaving that bill for the emergency rooms (us). This is creating a demand which migrants are risking their lives to supply. Blaming migrants for disrespecting our laws is probably disingenuous since hungry people will do what they can to feed their families - but greedy business owners (and a voracious American appetite for drugs) has created this problem - they wouldn't be here otherwise. The Russian guy doesn't mention that you can't walk here from Russia and so only the rich can make it here anyway.

its not as simple a problem as our friends at FOX would like everyone to believe. The reality is that during WWII the US and Mexico established the 'Bracero program' where about 500,000 Mexicans migrated to the US to work on farms while US males were at war. The program lapsed in 1964, but of course the migration didn't - it was, by then a way of life. Since US jobs pay about 10:1 to Mexican jobs the migration is almost entirely economic. Since that time the US has resisted any kind of bill to authorize the migrant workers and Mexico decided that if doing nothing about it was the US desire, why should they stand in the way? Mexico has an official "policy of no policy" on this issue. After all, a lot of this money goes back into the Mexican economy! Why should they worry about it? In the 80s, reactionary laws began to get put in place by the states and those who were formerly migrants only, soon decided to become legal citizens to avoid getting in trouble (laws like the one in AZ turned migrants into "immigrants"). Now the "circular" migrants who really lived in Mexico most of the year were settling down and bringing their whole families up. This problem is the same problem its been since 1964 its not new at all - the only difference is that now Mexicans are coming for all sorts of jobs not just agriculture so people see them. Until the US (on a national level) decides to make a legal way for these people to come here and work and easily go home again, we will never solve it. Walls won't solve it neither will poorly thought out NAZI-like programs of stopping people in the street demanding their papers.

Of course stopping people on the street and asking them to prove they are a citizen is fascist. I'm not denying there's a crime problem along the border, but we're already free to check resident status on criminals. Sometimes I feel like I fell asleep and woke up in a foreign nation.

Hopefully the AZ law will force Obama to move the problem up on the priority list so we can actually start work on fixing the problem. Of course, then you'll hear nothing on FOX except why Obama is wasting time on immigration when he should be creating jobs (and since when did it become governments responsibility to create jobs? That doesn't sound like laissez-faire capitalism to me!)

Here's a way we could solve the problem without Congress getting involved: All those people out of work could just drive down to Huntington or Farmingville every day at 6am and stand on the corner by 7-11 and wait for day labor jobs. They'd have to actually work for the money but with all the competition perhaps the migrant workers would just pack up and go home.

Last saved: 05/06/2010
Links: /journal / AZimmigrationlaw.txt

Response to Gary's post on the CA Kids who wore American Flags on Cinco de Mayo and were sent home from school.

A quick aside which is somewhat relevant to the discussion: I remember in 1982, 4 kids came in dressed as KKK goons (my district was about 16% black at the time which was about the national average, but for Long Island's massively segregated schools it was high). Somebody got offended and they banned dressing up entirely from then on. What if some kids decided to wear swastikas? Or better yet - tattoo themselves with Nazi symbols? At some point somebody is going to get offended whether you like it or not.

Donning an American flag shouldn't be an issue in an American school - except of course when it is not worn appropriately. I remember someone being sent home for having the flag sewn on to her bum. It was considered disrespectful. In the context of the recent immigration issue, certainly what the kids did was provocative, but I don't this it could really be proven disrespectful - but a school is no place for making political statements.

What I think is funny though is that Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican victory over the French in 1862. Perhaps if the kids really wanted to rile up the Mexicans they have chosen to wear French flags?

Personally I'm offended by green beer on St Pattys Day, but I won't raise too much of a fuss about it.

@Gary: You know I agree with you that the administration was flat out wrong on this, but surely you can see how expressing pride and opinions can offend people who aren't of the same socio-economic background? Like when I say this is a white nation - statistically that is still correct (though perhaps not for long). Should I wear a 'White Pride' tee shirt to school on a day we're celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. day? Surely you can't tell me there's anything wrong with being proud of my race? MLK was a great civil rights leader for blacks, but I'm a pasty white guy. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be a problem for some people. Perhaps almost like I am going out of my way to make a statement that something that is important to them is worthless. Going out of your way to show disrespect for someone's culture isn't American. Perhaps its even a little bit like how non-Christians must feel when America is referred to as a "Christian nation" because it implies that if you are not Christian you're not really a true American.

Last saved: 05/06/2010
Links: /journal / cincodemayo.txt