Tuesday, March 28, 2006

I Hate Them Because They're Mexican...

...or so those who protested in Dallas/Ft. Worth would have me believe.

Ridiculous protests like these just baffle me. We had students walk out of my school today (and schools around the Metroplex), joining protests, the purpose of which most of them probably didn't even understand. But aside from those who thought it was just an easy excuse to get out of class, the angry reasons shouted into TV camaras from those who took the protests seriously truly got under my skin...I paraphrase here...

"Man, these people wouldn't have anybody to wash their dishes, sweep their floors, fix their houses if it weren't for us! And now they wanna tell us we gotta leave, man, it's racist!"

"I'm proud of being Mexican! And now they tell me I'm a criminal because I'm Mexican!"

No, dear...we're telling those who completely disregard the rules of this country, who sneak in and take advantage of the free public schools, the health care system, the tax-free wages--all the while contributing nothing in return in the way of taxes--that they are, in fact, criminals, for this is what they are. Last I checked, acting as though the laws do not apply to you was the definition of a criminal. Were I, as a white man, to ignore the dreaded date of April 15th and simply not pay my taxes, I would be a criminal, for I would, in effect, be saying to the government, "I'll take all the benefits that this country gives me, but I'm above all this "contribution" stuff; why should I have to give anything back?"

No, damas y caballeros, all the arrogant slogans, the "Aquí estamos, ¡y no nos vamos!" signs ("Here we are, and we're not leaving," for you monolinguals ;-)), only point to a sickening trend in American thought that excuses an entire personality type--the mooch, be s/he Hispanic, white, black or plaid--from being held accountable for the ungrateful act of taking, taking, taking, and feeling no obligation to give anything back to a country that, wealthy though She may be, can only do so much with such a drain on Her economy.

I, for one, hope that the fence goes up and the border guard's increased. It'll save these guys from doing something the government should have been doing all along. I'll repost what I feel needs to be done (which was originally posted in the "these guys" post above)...and which, thankfully, seems to be in the process of being done! Nice surprise from Congress...
"Like I said, I'm for immigration, but done properly--Properly being comprised of two parts:
  1. Tighter borders to keep out illegals--which apparently isn't (and won't) happen to an effective degree, hence the justification for civilian groups like this one to (for now, harmlessly) draw attention to it like this. Then (to continue in my dream world) once borders become heavily guarded and it becomes very difficult (at best) to come over illegally, we need to move to step two:
  2. Easier, more efficient processes for admitting, registering and naturalizing legal immigrants. The complaint that they're draining the economy? Solved, as we tax their (normalized) wages, which contributes to the economy. The fact that they're stealing "our" jobs? Solved, as now there's a lot more to lose for companies to hire naturalized citizens at pennies a day...not the case when you hire a bunch of illegals who can and want to stay below Uncle Sam's radar. Now one person=one person; an immigrant fills only one position instead of a nameless mass taking over positions citizens would normally fill."

3 comments:

RC said...

Great post thanks for sharing your insight...very thoughtful and well put...

had my own situation in ft. worth i blogged about today...

ahh...the non-protesting students at my school where just as clueless.

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Gotta say, Bryan, I disagree with you on the fence. We will spend billions of dollars putting it up, and they will just find a way to climb over, tunnel under, or cut through it. There is no way we can hire and pay enough Border Patrol guards to watch 2,000 miles of fence to keep a few illegals out.

You may feel that illegal immigrants are criminals, yet as the law stands now, it is a violation of civil law, not criminal law, for them to be in the USA. Thus they are no more criminals than someone who does not pay their credit card bill on time.

Can you blame them for wanting to come? If I lived like 70% of Mexicans live, I would want to leave too. And until we come up with a reasonable and enforceable temporary worker system that requires them to pay taxes on their wages, it is going to keep happening like it is now, and no number of fences or Great Walls is going to stop it.

Fr. David said...

Bryan,

You know, I was just gonna post on this. Think I will...