Recently, just fifteen miles from
my home, the city of Murrieta received the first of what is to be
thousands more people trying to immigrate to the United States from
Central America. Their arrival has resulted in numerous protests,
angry meetings, and plenty of name calling back and forth, none of
which has done any good.
There are plenty of people to
point the finger of blame at but the people coming here from Central
America, many of whom are kids traveling alone, are not to blame.
After all, they are just seeking what our government claims is every
human's right, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. Most Americans, myself included, are unable to imagine
the lives these people are leaving behind. They seek the American
dream just as countless others who boarded ships from Europe and Asia
have done in the past. We are a nation of immigrants and to forget
that is to turn our back on our own history.
Still, I understand the anger and
frustration of people who want to know why their city is being used
as a processing site for people who do not speak our language and who
in many cases will receive assistance paid by American taxpayers.
Still, calling these new arrivals ugly names, blocking their buses,
and carrying signs with derogatory statements is not a solution.
Those who are angered over this should aim their anger at others.
Lets start the blame by looking at
one of our nation's finer moments, the Mexican/American War, a war
our government went to great lengths to force so we could grab what
we felt at that time was the prime parts of Mexico. While most
Americans have forgotten about this war, Mexico never has and never
will. Why should they when they were forced to surrender half their
country to a U.S. Government who believed it was their God given duty
to conquer and develop the land (manifest destiny)? However, the
mistake we made after sending troops as far south as Mexico City, was
not that we retreated to the Rio Grande. The thinking then was the
river made a great natural border that would separate the two
nations. No, the mistake was we did not take all of Mexico leaving
us with a tiny border to guard today. I mean, if you are going to
fight an unjust war, at least have the intelligence to think long
term and protect the best interest of the United States. Our
government has failed to realize the determination of an oppressed
people. We never thought they would risk drowning in a river or
dying in a desert to enter a country for a better way of life. They
also never fathomed the cost of protecting a southern border as long
as ours is today. If they had, today, the United States would end at
the Panama Canal.
Today, our government also spends
billions of dollars to send soldiers half way around the world
claiming they are bringing freedom to oppressed people but will do
nothing for those closer to home. If we do not want people from
Central America and Mexico entering our country illegally, then
wouldn't it make more sense to spend what we do on our wars abroad on
rebuilding nations next to us? Our government has a history of
taking for granted our southern neighbors and ignoring what goes on
inside their borders and then act as if we are under attack when they
want to come grab a slice of the American dream.
Another government to blame is
Mexico. After all, it is not in their interest to keep these Central
Americans from entering the United States. What do they care if
Guatemalans, Hondurans, and others flood our country by the thousands
every day? It costs Mexico less money to let these people cross into
the U.S.A. than it does to round them up and send them back home.
For this to happen would require a solid working relationship to
exist between our two governments and again, all you need to know as
to why this does not happen is a little war that took place between
us in the mid 19th century.
We should also be angry at Texas
for crying to the feds about not being able to handle the numbers
flooding their border with Mexico. Just exactly who said it was a
good idea to fly plane loads of Central Americans to California to be
processed so they can go elsewhere will probably never be fully
known. However, no one in Texas has a problem passing their problem
on to another state. So much for our states being united.
We should also blame ourselves.
There was a time when many white Americans were willing to do the
work that is now done by migrant workers from Mexico and Central
America. In the 1970's, while a teenager from an affluent home in an
affluent community in the San Francisco Bay Area, I used to do jobs
that are now done by Hispanics. I mowed yards, painted houses,
installed sprinklers, and cut trees as a way to earn as much as
twenty bucks a day (minimum wage was $2.25). I then landed a great
job sweeping out a ware house and moving merchandise for a local drug
store before heading off to college where I cleaned bath rooms,
hauled trash, and trimmed hedges at Chico State. My wife worked
harvesting grapes in a vineyard as well as cleaning up after patients
in a nursing home. Most of the people we know today talk about
experiences doing similar work, work that today is done by our
southern neighbors looking to have a better life than they have back
home.
I get the frustration over our
newest batch of arrivals. However, rather than cursing at them we
should be demanding our leaders find a way to make them want to
remain in their country. We should be spending more money protecting
and guarding our borders than we do the borders in nations half a
world away. We should have courts that support laws that do not
allow illegals from taking our kids places in college, getting
drivers licenses, or receive benefits that the working tax payer can
not afford. We should be questioning those in our nation who are here
legally and who do nothing but drain our social services because they
refuse to contribute to our country. However, to gather in large
crowds and chant phrases of hate toward people willing to die for a
better way of life only shows a lack of compassion and ignorance on
the part of Americans.
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