Do you know the cause of everything that is wrong with our country? Well, I do. I have thought about this for awhile and have come up with three reasons. Not two and not four. Three. The first reason is a guy named Jose. The second is a guy named Pedro. And the last reason is a lady named Maria. Everything wrong with our country can be blamed on Jose, Pedro, and Maria. But there are solutions.
Of course, to properly implement the solutions, there will be some sacrifices. If we don't want these three to return to our country and annoy us, we will have to change the way we have been doing things. If you keep up with the news, you will notice how Republican politicians are always talking about how great the United States is. ("Best county ever" or "We are so smart that we should tell other countries their business" or things like that.) Democrats never do anything like this. In fact, they always contemplate why our country isn't as good as France.
For once, the Democrats are taking the right approach. If you were Jose or Pedro or Maria and you were looking for a new place to live, why wouldn't you want to move to the "best country ever?" I mean, I would. So why do we keep unofficially inviting them over? If we started hyping France up as the "best country ever," wouldn't you think that Jose and Pedro and Maria would choose to illegally immigrate to France? I would rather France have a problem with illegal immigrants than us.
Okay, I am taking off my sarcasm hat now. Sometimes I leave that on too much and confuse people. People sometimes think that I am a Republican who's scared of his own shadow. ("I am not a frady cat Republican but I play one on my blog!" ) Immigration is something I care about a lot. It is both personal (my mom was an immigrant) and practical (if people want to come here and work hard, by jove, let them!) I am a lawyer who is going to be hanging out his shingle in the next week or so with my sister. Since passing the bar, I have been doing some pro bono cases. All immigration.
One of my beefs with the anti-immigration crowd is the idea that immigrants can't possibly love our country. Um, wrong. For example, compare me (born here, took the United States for granted for around the first 28 years of my life) to my mom (left her whole life behind to come live here.) It is really no contest. My mom lived under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. I have always lived under democratically elected leaders. (Looking past the 2000 election. That be a story for another post.) My mom really became a student of this country. I slept through high school history classes. My mom marched in anti-abortion rallies. I stayed home and played video games.
I came across some questions from the United States citizenship test today. Hence this post. Let me give a little context about myself. I have a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in education, and a law degree. I taught high school history for almost four years. And I can't say I got all these questions right. Yet people coming to our country are studying to know our country's history. History that most of us probably don't know. History that I am pretty sure the most anti-immigrant hordes don't know.
Let me make an offer to the immigrant haters out there. If you can pass the United States citizenship test right this moment, I will shut up about immigration. If not then I think you have some studying to do.
Friday, January 25, 2008
The United States as a Gateway Community
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2 comments:
hey Thomas.great post. I agree with you on this subject. I am not a big time send 'em back republican. I lived in Arizona for 5 years and Bush and McCain are right on this subject. There are white people who will not do jobs mexicans do especially in 120 degree weather. White people bitch and moan and want time off and higher pay for much less work than a mexican will do, legal and illegal. Not to mention the idea being that we would know who these people are and then question why the rest didn't sign up for a guest worker permit and then go after them. It would be funny to watch the mass deportation attempt offered by those with this extreme idea. Of course now it is rhetoric and of course they know it.....they can always blame the other party for a lack of action and failed promises. Nikki
I am from Houston. When I would drive around in my old neighborhood there, I would see many Mexican yard crews out there every day. I knew a few of these guys in passing. And were they ostracized in our neighborhood? Not at all. They were a regular part of neighborhood life, akin to the cable guy.
It must be different for you and I, Nikki, being around Mexicans and seeing that they are just ordinary people. Some good and some bad. But who out there among us aren't that same exact way?
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