Timmer’s “upside-down, and subject, American flag” pic, and more, can be found here. As I stated here, I understand what the protesters are trying to say; but I find the way they have framed their argument incredibly stupid.
Particular among their faux pas is the “stolen land” argument. And, although any Californian student of our history can’t help but be ashamed at the way our forebears wrested the land from the old grantholders, to use that argument, our Mexican-American cousins would have to also concede that the land was previously “stolen” from the Native Americans. (Admittedly, most Mexicans, and even moreso, Mexican-Americans, have a high percentage of “native blood.” But that almost exclusively is from other tribes, further to the south.)
In this comment, I made light of Timmer’s making the same case I am covering here, by mentioning the Israelis. But that’s only humorous because the idea of “their ancestral homeland” has currency with so many of the same people who would deny this land to those who have come before us. Indeed, the Israelites “stole” the land from the Canaanites, who moved northward, crossbred with the “Sea People” (most likely Minoans), became the Phoenicians, and became the most powerful empire of the transition from the Bronze to Iron Ages (not to mention great friends and trading partners with the Israelites). Now, many of their progeny are “Palestinians”, and living in far greater squalor than their “Israeli-Arab” cousins. Crying over lost land, like any embrace of victimhood, gets one nowhere.
And I grow weary of idiotarians, like Kathy McKee, saying that Mexico is the “5th richest” economy in the world [she’s wrong about that, it’s between the floundering France, and California (even without California, the US is still #1)], and they “should take care of their own.” Well, applying that standard, we would have excluded the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Ashkenazi Jews… . What those “student protestors” should be saying is that immigrants are the embodiment of the American Dream. They should chant loud and clear the words of Emma Lazarus:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
The “answer” to the illegal immigration problem is simple: Increase quotas to reasonable levels (or eliminate them entirely), and eliminate the obviously racist and xenophobically inspired red tape for Mexicans, and others from “those” nations, to come to the US (even as visitors).
Oh, and as for “amnesty”, once one admits that the law, as it stands, is an ass, it becomes much easier to swallow.
Sorry to bring this up, but you post is getting close to being too personal. My wife is one of “those” nationals. We have been waiting to meet again since being married. If nothing changes she will be able to see me again in 2011. But we are totally dependant on “nothing changing”. If your implicit proposal were enacted, changing the rules to allow current illegal aliens priority; I would not be allowed to sponsor her until 2051. By that time I will be dead.
Comment by Peter North — 20060401 @ 0439
Pardon me, Peter, you have me TOTALLY wrong. What I am proposing is not the weasel-word shit being traded like currency by the pond scum on Capital Hill. What I want is to let everyone in who can pass a background check (whether they are here already or not) And, process them in a prompt and streamlined manner - without the bullshit that is just made to restrict entry artificially, and create more government jobs.
Most Americans don’t realize that, just for a short tourist or business trip, although they both supposedly fall under the same classification - [WT (tourist) or WB (business) Visa Waver], Mexican visitors to the US have to jump through hoops for months on end. Canadian visitors only have to show their Driver’s License. That is nothing more than flat-out racism!
Comment by Kevin L. Connors — 20060401 @ 0459
Oh, and my best wishes for your prompt reunion with your wife. Your case sounds like another which demonstrates how frickin’ dysfunctional the system is.
And all the politicians are speaking of these grand things, which will really just be a change of the fringe around the border, without getting to the grass-roots issues which really matter.
Comment by Kevin L. Connors — 20060401 @ 0742
Is it really a racism ? Or do the Canadian visitors go back home in larger numbers that the Mexican visitors? I would agree things need to be changed though. I know several Mexican engineers who would be very productive US citizens IF they could jump thru all the hoops to get in.
Comment by buzz — 20060401 @ 1034
The thing your friends need to get in on is the H1-b visa. There’s a move on to vastly increase them. I’m not really familiar with the process. But, as I recall, a company here in the US has to apply for them.
Comment by Kevin L. Connors — 20060401 @ 1107
The best way to handle the problem is to start enforcing the laws that are already on the books that should keep illegals from getting jobs. Take the fines from the first busts and use them to finance futher investigations. As the numbers of fines against the employers mount they will stop breaking the law by hiring illegals. We can accelerate or slow down the process to keep the transition from an illegal immigrant labor pool to a legal immigrant pool as smooth as possible. Illegal immigrants can become citizens by paying a small fine and admitting that they broke the law of the land. Anyone who claims that they have a right to break our laws gets sent home.The “small fine” should be 10% of what they have cost the taxpayers, for some of them that will be over ten thousand dollars. That will make it clear to all that everyone has paid a huge price for illegal immigration, and it is not going to be tolerated in the future.
I don’t know about your hometown, Kevin, but I have lost two of them (mine and my wife’s) to illegal and legal immigration. Almost none of the stores, markets, schools, churches or neighborhoods are anything like they were when I was a child. The signs are in different languages and the people like doing business with their own, which freezes out a lot of Americans. I am not saying that change is bad, but going from 95% white to 20% white in 20 years is very difficult to adjust to. I go for days without hearing English spoken on the streets or buses. I don’t understand why it is always considered so bad or xenophobic to want to hold onto a little of your past. I liked where I grew up, but now I am living in a another country, and I didn’t move. It is extremely hard to deal with the constant sense of loss. Some people see numbers like 30 million immigrants and they think, hey 10% of he country isn’t bad. Well, in some parts of the country it is way over 10%. The Ameicans in those parts get hurt and no one cares about that. Sorry for the length of the post. I hope I was able to make my case clear.
Comment by tyree — 20060402 @ 0452
I wouldn’t worry about the length of the comment, tyree. Whatever is required to get a fully developed thought out is OK. But wasn’t that long anwy.
But anyway, aren’t you from Long Beach? I’m from Westminster (although I’ve lived in several cities around OC). And, of course, things have changed radically over the past three decades, but it has far more to do with the (mostly legal) influx of Aisians, not Hispanics. Westminster in particular has a strong Hispanic heritage.
But change is a good this, the alternative being stasis and decay. Most people would say that the changes in Long Beach have been a good thing: All the new development around CSULB/Belmont has been upper-middle or richer (and mostly white) folks. Most of the old (largely oil related) industry between the airport and Signal Hill has been supplanted by newer, cleaner operations. And, while some are alarmed by the influx of gays, downtown has improved markedly since the ’70s (remember The Pike?).
Of course, the North Side (except Bixby Knolls) has become almost exclusively Hispanic. But it’s still a very clean and vital suburban area.
Comment by Kevin L. Connors — 20060402 @ 0913
I was born in Garden Grove and now hail from Anaheim. My mother-in-law grew up in Long Beach back when they used to have an Iowa State Fair. I never got a chance to visit the Pike, but I still spend as much time as I can at the piers up and down the coast.
Little Korea is about a block from my childhood home. There is nothing left (except for Brookhurst Hobbies)to visit anymore. My wife grew up in the Parish in Anaheim where I now live. There are two people at the Church who remember her from when she was a student here. Change is better than stagnation, but too much change, too fast leaves the locals with no community. I know all the stuff about how hard the illegal immigrants work and everything, but I work hard too. I just wish that with all this talk of immigration and illegal immigration there was a little bit of consideration given to the people who lost so much so that the newcomers could have a place to live.
We have lived in the same neighborhood for 19 years. Every year we invite everyone on the block to our place for big 4th of July BarBQue. One family from our block shows up (Vietnamese with a husband still serving in the USAF). I have had exactly two invitations extended to me in that time. They all have their own communities, their own people, their own languages. We still get over 60 at our BarBQue, but they are family and friends, not neighbors, and some of them drive 50 miles to get there. There is a certain loneliness that comes from having the only American flag flying on the whole block on Independence Day. I can’t tell you that last time I saw kids playing with an American style football. I like where I live, I just don’t understand why it had to change so fast.
Comment by tyree — 20060402 @ 1640