May 14, 2006

Where do I begin? Do I inform you and educate you about new immigration issues, or do I share some of the racist emails I get about the hottest topic in the land so you can get a feel for part of the dialogue in the streets. Gasoline prices may be rising, but not faster than the hate levels of the anti-Mexican crowd in America.

Let's start with the emails because as we say in the news business, "if it bleeds, it leads." And these verbal assaults cut to the bone on the immigration issue.

Some fellow I've never met sent me the following email, which at first seemed more like a quick history lesson than a racist diatribe, but he was just getting started. There are some misspellings and capitalization mistakes, lots of them, but hey, he's an ignorant racist redneck! Here goes the first one:

"Just so you know......

In brief the Mexican Constitution states:

1. Immigrants and foreign visitors are banned from public political discourse (we CANNOT let foreigners speak their mind in our USA country).
2. Immigrants and foreiners are denied certain basic property rights (we shouldn't rent to them here neither).
3. Immigrants are denied equal employment rights (save our American jobs).
4. Immigrants and naturalized citizens will never be treated as a real mexican citizen (and we'll never treat these wetbacks as Americans).
5. Immigrants and naturalized citizens are not to be trusted in public service (keep them Beaners away from my kids at school).
6. Immigrants and naturalized citizens may never become members of the clergy (gays are bad enough, we don't need Mexicans in the church pews).
7. Private citizens may make citizens arrest of law breakers (i.e.illegal immigrants) and hand them over to the authorities (pay me a reward, $100 bucks a head and I'll nail them).
8. Immigrants may be expelled from Mexico for any reason and without due process (that's why I say we do here is drive them back across the border).

Please tell me PEOPLE of the United States of "AMERICA", are we deciding on the best future for American citizens or for ILLEGAL ALIENS???? Stand up for your rights that George Washington gave us.

Enforce our LAWS- recognize Criminal behavior. Dont let "US" Americans down! Keep those dirty, filthy, rotten Mexicans off our land forever."

Such hate! Is he just incredibly angry, mentally deficient, or too stupid to be left unattended? The hour was late so I replied and basically told him to get a life, that there are many inconsistencies in how Mexico acts as opposed to how the U.S. carries out its laws. It's unfortunate, but that's life. I also suggested that he sounded like a White Supremacist in his remarks. This was his next email reply, with more misspellings and bad grammar. I have translated his lame efforts in Spanish in parenthesis:

"Go prosper in Mexico, sale it to "your" people.........

Haaaa! I knew it was you !!- So passionate- about your people!!!! Well guess what?....So am I...The American People.... Tu Cabrones (You bastards)...Ha...Tu culo muy flojo (Your butt is too lazy) ...penche indio (Damned Indians)...perdedor racialmente motivado!?! (Racially motivated loser!) I grew up around illegals thats how I know...."TYPICAL" behavior!!!! You all have guns and don't want to work. You steal everything from us because we're rich and you're not.

Im for "AMERICANS" of all races and ethnicity, as long as they're not Mexicans.....forget about what your parents taught you!!!!!

Did a white American bully you as a kid?.........if so, get over it because you deserved it as an invader into our country.

Damn Criminal Advocates!!!!!!!!! Arghhhhgghghghhh!"

Gosh, for a second there, at the end, I had visions of Snoopy as the Red Baron flying around in this guy's mind yelling "Argh!" which is probably a better way to spell it than Mr. Redneck.
I'm sharing this ridiculous diatribe with you because this represents some, not all, of the anti-immigrant mentality out there and I've got to believe that guys like this idiot are calling our elected officials and trying to make an impact. Obviously, if they sounded this demented, I hope they get ignored. But sometimes, some young intern takes the call and doesn't know any better and you begin to see why we get whacked-out results from our politicians. They think people really feel this way and hey, that's a potential vote for a re-election effort.

It was now after midnight and I didn't want to duel any more with this guy who apparently can't live in a changing environment with people who don't look like he does, so I tried to be cute and told him that AMERICA actually was an acronym where each letter in the word "America" actually stands for the first letter in Asians, Mexicans, Europeans, Russians, Indians, Croatians, and Armenians. Get it? I figured he was dumb enough to buy it since he didn't sound very educated. This was his last reply, this time with punctuation errors:

"True colors = Red-White-Blue for The good old US of A
Xaviers "People"= Red White "Green"...with envy!!! and not welcome in our land."

Oh well, now you can see why it's such an ugly and tough fight trying to resolve this issue. I've heard many of the anti-immigrant protestors and a lot of them think just like this nut. Some of the other emails were so bad, laced with profanities, that I can't share them with you here.

We have to understand that despite all the rubbish this guy is spitting out, you can not only see his anger and frustration, but some really ugly passion. I usually like passion, but misplaced passion and emotion, coupled with hate and anger, and a huge dose of ignorance, is down right dangerous.

The media has come under attack for being too friendly to the pro-immigrant marchers or not providing fair and balanced coverage. I'm angry at the media because it is presenting the recent marches and protests as an exclusive American hissy fit about new arrivals from afar.

The truth is that this is a world-wide issue, with immigrants in France, Germany and Great Britain taking to the streets to condemn their mistreatment and demanding national recognition.

Closer to home, I want to share a news story that just broke a couple of days ago about protesting immigrants. Please allow me to share some selected paragraphs from an AP story by Shayna Chabner in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"Thousands of immigrants marched through the streets, waving flags and chanting slogans demanding more rights for undocumented foreigners." We are just workers," they yelled.
This wasn't Los Angeles, Chicago or Atlanta. It was Buenos Aires, home to hundreds of thousands of Bolivians, many of them undocumented, who slipped across the border from South America's poorest country to find work in a richer country next door.
Weeks before pro-migrant marches in the streets of U.S. cities, Bolivians demonstrated in Argentina's capital last month to demand better pay, working conditions and social services after a fire in a textile factory killed six Bolivians.
In the United States, lawmakers are debating the fate of the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants. But Argentina quickly implemented a plan to improve conditions and legalize within months tens of thousands of the 750,000 illegal immigrants from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru. Brazil, facing similar problems, is implementing a similar solution. It is offering an amnesty for Bolivians who entered the country before August 2005, giving them a chance to become permanent residents.
Argentina's plan would extend to migrants most rights enjoyed by Argentine citizens, while reducing black-market labor and registering all migrants. Several thousand undocumented immigrants have lined up to begin the legalization process, which will give them better job security, pay and access to social services. Lawmakers approved the plan late last year, but put implementation on a fast track after the factory deaths.
"Argentina is a land of good will, and we want those who come here to work to feel like they're ... helping to build this country and this region into what we dream it could be," President Nestor Kirchner told lawmakers. Once workers meet identification requirements, they are granted two-year residency cards and gain access to the same public services as Argentines. After three years, they can seek permanent residency.
Opponents of the legalization plans in both countries say they will encourage more Bolivians to leave their country and increase exploitation. But advocates say the migrants have long streamed in without amnesties - and the new laws will help protect them."

Wow, does that freak you or what? Our media acts like the U.S. immigrant protests were unprecedented and now we know better. We're a "Johnny-come-lately" to this party. I know we're so much smarter and more powerful than Argentina, but they more easily handled something that we cannot seem to surround with our arms or brains. What a pity!

We tend to be so negative in this country at the wrong time. I have often said that immigrants are so woven into our economic fiber that we can't just ship millions of people back to their original homelands. Yet, some people insist that is the only solution to consider. I'm not pro-illegal immigration, I'm just pro-pragmatic solution.
Please allow me to leave you with a quote from Shayna Chabner's AP story that I quoted above. For me, it speaks to us working hard to do the right thing, for the right reasons, for a more permanent, thoughtful, reasonable, workable, and long-lasting solution. It comes from Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and he explains why the Argentine solution noted above is important.

"It will not help everyone, and change will not happen immediately," he said. "But over time, we hope things will improve ... even if it's only in our children's lifetime."

Life is too short to hate, and the problems in our America are too great to ignore. Our history of rich diversity is too precious to destroy, and ignorance of the law should not be a free pass. However, taking all of this into account, we are too intelligent and too productive a nation to lose the opportunity to come up with a workable solution that enhances our beautiful nation for generations to come.