Anyone who has lived for very long in Southern California I think sort of makes them an expert in issues of immigration. Unfortunately, like most experts, rarely do two agree totally on anything and seldom do they agree at all.
Those of you who know me well know that many of my best friends in life are Mexicans or Latinos from parts south of Mexico. I am as Anglo as a person can get. I'm second generation American-born Irish. Even though many in my circle of friends are Latino, I am not prejudiced towards the Latino culture one way or another. In other words, I do not form my opinions based on a sort of reverse discrimination against other nationalities. Some in that circle of friends who are Latino did not speak English very well or at all when I first knew them. But given the population percentage of Latinos in southern California, it only makes sense to know enough Spanish to get you by in most casual settings.
It seems a day doesn't go by that I don't read at least one article in the Editorial section concerning the immigration issue and at least one of the effects caused by the issue of immigration...legal or not. I believe most of the people on both sides of this issue who care enough to write into the local paper about this have their hearts in the right places. There are of course a small faction whom are misinformed, under-informed or simply bigoted. No amount of words will convince the bigoted to have any beliefs contrary to what he already believes.
Most of the editorial contributions come from average citizens who are fairly well informed on this subject. Therefore, rather than give you information which you probably already know, I would like to simply offer an approach to this subject which many have not thought about.
All Immigrant Groups Were Maligned
I think the way children are taught history in this country tells the tale about where we came from as a whole. Apparently guilty consciences have caused the educators in this country to re-write history a bit. Okay, they re-wrote it a lot. I remember being in history classes throughout my school years and being told how bad Hitler was and that he was the worst butcher ever to run a country into barbarism. That may be the case with one dictator. But what about the white European settlers to this country? Hitler tortured/starved/displaced/murdered 6 million Jews or Jewish sympathizers.
Starting with the original settlers to this country (whom were welcomed and helped by the natives that lived here), until around 1900, we (collectively as a country) tortured/starved/displaced/murdered 10 million native Americans! All on their own land. That’s quite an entry on a job application isn’t it? But you'll never see it taught in school that way. They called it "conquering" because it sounds better than, "we took their land and killed or displaced an entire civilization."
So the very roots of our society are entrenched in blood. But as the people kept coming from overseas, they spread out more and more until we divided into states. Now we have 50 such sovereign areas and all purport to be “Under God”. Well, I cannot speak for God but somehow I don’t see him approving of our methods of acquisition. Still, we eventually called this land ours and since the beginning have been suspicious and proprietary when any group of people tries to do (peacefully) what our founding fathers did by force.
Every immigrant group has suffered the prejudices and the hatred from people who were lucky enough to be born in this country. Those immigrant groups include the German, Italian, Irish, Polish, Jewish, and nearly every other major ethnicity.
When the Irish began to move here from the motherland, they were ridiculed by most Americans. The bigotry spewed from the editorial pages of nearly every major newspaper in the country. The Irish are moving here and not bringing anything to the party. They are users. They are uneducated. They are worthless...send them back to Ireland on the same boat that brought them. And on and on it went. Does that sound familiar? Just insert Mexicans for Irish and you see the same thing all over the editorials today.
The Difference Between a Developer and a Conservationist
It brings to mind a definition I heard once about this very subject. The story goes: Question: What is the difference between a Developer and a Conservationist? Answer: The Conservationist was here first.
So all of us that are lucky enough to be “conservationists” in that we had the good fortune to have been born in this country (or to have been brought here long ago enough that we feel this special entitlement) now turn against anyone else wishing a better life?
What if you were to wake up tomorrow and find yourself in a country whose economy has not been good since you were born and has no promise of getting better? A country whose government is not centrally powerful enough to effect the kind of changes necessary to ensure a chance at a decent life within its boundaries. But you were within a feasible distance to another country which is just like yours except for a fence that had been erected to keep the likes of your people away from it. Wouldn’t you see those people as a country of elitists? What makes them so special?
Now, let’s get you angrier yet. Let’s say that one of the best places to live in that great country used to belong to your country. Because that is the truth. When the early settlers came from the east in wagon trains etc. a certain number of them landed in what is now southern California. The Mexicans who owned the land and had built the sleepy but sufficient towns in and around the southern part of our state were very hospitable to the new adventurers. They welcomed the newcomers with open arms. A mistake the native Americans had already made.
More and more families and friends followed and soon they outnumbered the original inhabitants by many times. How did they repay the kindness they had been shown by the Mexicans? They forced them to live in a separate part of town in places like Los Angeles. This was very much like being put into a corral. The Mexicans called them Barrios and they still exist today. And today they are as they were then... a place to keep the oppressed in a continual state of underclass. The native Americans were relegated to Reservations. Same thing...different ethnicity.
Not much has changed from those early days of taking what did not belong to the settlers until now. Yet among those who would criticize our neighbors to the south, are people who came from ethnic groups that once were the criticized themselves!
What Made America Great...
I believe that one of the main reasons we as a country have been so successful and powerful is the very subject of so many bad feelings. I remember reading in the newspaper once about during the cold war, that the Soviets sent to our state department, a hardened drill bit the size of a human hair. It was meant as an indication of how technologically advanced they had become. Our state department sent it back to them with a hole drilled through it.
The relevance here is to show how it is that we are able to outperform all comers. To me the reason is that the Soviets at that time were not ethnically mixed. Even among their own groups of ancestries there was no blending. So whatever they have, is all they have to work with. But we draw from literally all over the globe from gene pools that bring something to the party with their respective backgrounds.
Let’s say that we are talking about innovations which have been introduced to the public by the automotive industry. The reason we have American car companies introducing so many new technologies isn’t just because they build better cars. It’s because the aerospace industry develops much of the automotive technologies which are adapted to that product, which is subsequently used by the average citizen.
You see how that relates? It isn’t just the auto companies. It’s the auto companies working with the aerospace companies who work with metallurgists, electronics pioneers, and on and on. If they didn’t blend, they would handicap themselves. If we as a country did not blend, the same would happen.
In closing, I would like to say that I do not take pleasure in bringing forth the dirty laundry which we as Americans have allowed to be swept quietly under our national carpet. But this false sense of entitlement has to be one of the most hypocritical traits we as a country have adopted. And I would just remind every single person living here that we are all just visitors and no one group is more entitled than any other just because they were born here.
But be careful of that. When the settlers took this land by force and by bloodshed, it was from the very people who were born here...and we were just visitors. |