This is not going to be my usual tone, but here it is...I'm concerned.
With the economy going south, there is going to be a (even worse than usual) backlash against the recent immigrants to our country. I am not going to put up with that silently. Here are my two reasons..
1. When our country quits its messing-around policies with their countries, maybe I'll be for tightening immigration standards, amounts, whatever. Until then, as long as we continue to make trade agreements that go like this--we'll take your....(oil or natural gas or whatever).... for cheap, then we'll sell you our (overproduced and over-subsidized by the taxpayers) corn or wheat or whatever food you eat for cheap, then your people don't have to be self-sufficient lowly farmers anymore and instead can go to your cities and work in our (American) factories/sweatshops for $2 a week so we can go into credit card debt to buy the cheap crap you've made at Wal-Mart for cheap...etc. etc. etc...
As long as we keep uprooting people from their homes, causing wars in their countries because of our greed for their valuables, sending our multinational agribusiness and corporations into their countries to cut down their forests, rape their land, etc., I'm all for them coming here. Who wouldn't want to come to this promised land? Why shouldn't we support them with our tax dollars? We've done all we can to make living in their countries nearly impossible. Until that changes...
Maybe you can blame their countries for "allowing" these things to happen. Well, their leaders are greedy despots too! And our "leaders" are all in cahoots with them. Is that the people's fault? No! And who is going to argue with the largest, wealthiest nation in the World? The one with the most nuclear weapons? The one willing to kill thousands of people just so we can drive our cars?
2. Okay that's issue number one. Number two: When Americans have a savings rate greater or at least even close to their consumer indebtedness rate, then maybe I'll let Americans blame our economic problems on the immigrants. When Americans stop using credit cards, home equity loans and second mortgages to pay for all that cheap crap from Wal-Mart or Target, and the cars and boats and even college educations, then maybe I'll see that our problems can't be coming from ourselves.
When we stop subsidizing with our tax dollars the giant agribusinesses who make millions upon millions a year, or our giant corporations who pay their CEOs millions upon millions a year, then maybe we can't blame any problems on ourselves. When we stop spending trillions of dollars on resource wars as in Iraq, then maybe it won't look like we caused our own problems.
Until then, let the people come. Let them all get a piece of this.
My daughters' best friends are from families that have recently come from all over the world. I'm glad that here they can go to school and play in the park instead of work in our American factories in Laos or Guatemala making the "Littlest Pet Shop" toys they all like to buy here for $4 a package (even though it makes me sick to my stomach thinking of who made those things, and at what cost to their lives, I "let" Rose purchase them because for some reason I still want to give her some semblance of a normal American life rather than deny her what her friends all have).
We all live in a difficult world, full or contradictions, full of beauty and ugly and child labor and children who can buy the toys that the invisible children in another country made and children who die in poorly built schools when an earthquake hits and children who attend school in multi-million dollar "palaces" complete with state-of-the-art sports arenas and more and more and more.
What fault of it belongs to those children? None. Not one bit!
With the economy going south, there is going to be a (even worse than usual) backlash against the recent immigrants to our country. I am not going to put up with that silently. Here are my two reasons..
1. When our country quits its messing-around policies with their countries, maybe I'll be for tightening immigration standards, amounts, whatever. Until then, as long as we continue to make trade agreements that go like this--we'll take your....(oil or natural gas or whatever).... for cheap, then we'll sell you our (overproduced and over-subsidized by the taxpayers) corn or wheat or whatever food you eat for cheap, then your people don't have to be self-sufficient lowly farmers anymore and instead can go to your cities and work in our (American) factories/sweatshops for $2 a week so we can go into credit card debt to buy the cheap crap you've made at Wal-Mart for cheap...etc. etc. etc...
As long as we keep uprooting people from their homes, causing wars in their countries because of our greed for their valuables, sending our multinational agribusiness and corporations into their countries to cut down their forests, rape their land, etc., I'm all for them coming here. Who wouldn't want to come to this promised land? Why shouldn't we support them with our tax dollars? We've done all we can to make living in their countries nearly impossible. Until that changes...
Maybe you can blame their countries for "allowing" these things to happen. Well, their leaders are greedy despots too! And our "leaders" are all in cahoots with them. Is that the people's fault? No! And who is going to argue with the largest, wealthiest nation in the World? The one with the most nuclear weapons? The one willing to kill thousands of people just so we can drive our cars?
2. Okay that's issue number one. Number two: When Americans have a savings rate greater or at least even close to their consumer indebtedness rate, then maybe I'll let Americans blame our economic problems on the immigrants. When Americans stop using credit cards, home equity loans and second mortgages to pay for all that cheap crap from Wal-Mart or Target, and the cars and boats and even college educations, then maybe I'll see that our problems can't be coming from ourselves.
When we stop subsidizing with our tax dollars the giant agribusinesses who make millions upon millions a year, or our giant corporations who pay their CEOs millions upon millions a year, then maybe we can't blame any problems on ourselves. When we stop spending trillions of dollars on resource wars as in Iraq, then maybe it won't look like we caused our own problems.
Until then, let the people come. Let them all get a piece of this.
My daughters' best friends are from families that have recently come from all over the world. I'm glad that here they can go to school and play in the park instead of work in our American factories in Laos or Guatemala making the "Littlest Pet Shop" toys they all like to buy here for $4 a package (even though it makes me sick to my stomach thinking of who made those things, and at what cost to their lives, I "let" Rose purchase them because for some reason I still want to give her some semblance of a normal American life rather than deny her what her friends all have).
We all live in a difficult world, full or contradictions, full of beauty and ugly and child labor and children who can buy the toys that the invisible children in another country made and children who die in poorly built schools when an earthquake hits and children who attend school in multi-million dollar "palaces" complete with state-of-the-art sports arenas and more and more and more.
What fault of it belongs to those children? None. Not one bit!
Comments
What gets me is that the people who are against more immigrants are immigrants themselves. We live next to Indian reservation areas - they have more reason than we to not want immigration - some of those towns look like 3rd world coutries.
And matriarchy, I feel the same way you do. I see all the benefits to having the immigrants, and compare it to my own ancestors getting a fresh start here, and I see the God-given beauty in the new skin colors and foods and music and culture they bring. I wish everyone saw it that way.
I have a neighbor from Honduras and she always brings the best, the BEST homemade corn tortillas to our n-hood gatherings. I've got to get over there and learn how to make them, too!