What ever happened to "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."

CookingWithCarlo.com ^ | 01/11/2004 | Carlo3b Dad, Chef, Author

[carlo3b]

 
IMMIGRATION INDIGNATION, holy smoke! DID YOU SEE WHAT I SAW?

What ever happened to  "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."

They came here for several centuries for the same reasons – freedom and hope -- and then a Frenchman created a statue that embodied their hopes and dreams. And it embodied America's promise as well. "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

I have been watching with a bit of sadness, and more than a little concern, the debate that has been raging over President Bush's Administration proposed guest worker program. I haven't seen anything definitive yet, but I have to admit that I have some uneasiness about what is being said, and what may be done.

First and foremost, I do not wish to trivialize the genuine fear and the authentic concern that most of the protesters of the proposal have expressed. Nor do I disagree with the legitimate anxiety over what the future may hold if this proposal is actually what is being portrayed, "a blanket amnesty for illegal aliens". That being the case there would be in fact, national as well as historical principles at stake, and we must be ever vigilant in the protection of our liberties as well as our sovereignty.

"Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed."
-Mark Twain

Immigration is now and always has been a tricky affair. The delicate balance of need and want, verses can and should. We can certainly understand someone living in desperate conditions wanting to improving their lot in life. What better place to do it than the greatest nation on earth. America is the envy of the world. We are a magnet, and a beacon.

Who wouldn't choose to be free, unless as is the case in too many places, they are incapable of understanding the reality of freedom. Who wouldn't want to have wealth, if we all agreed on what wealth really is. To someone without anything to feed themselves or their children, a neighbor possessing a sack of flour, is indeed wealthy.

To a nation of plenty, it has to be understandable that a desperate and starving parent wouldn't break down a door, or cross a sweltering desert to feed their child, or a family would risk their lives in a sealed boxcar to work for a steady meal.

I must admit, and state for the record, that as a policy, I firmly believe that all law breaking must be prevented, and law breakers should be punished.. the sooner the better.

That said, I may be a candidate for a flogging I might be at most a fugitive from justice, or at the very least a shameful hypocrite, because I have in the past, and without a moment of indecision would again, give employment to someone I suspect but cannot prove, may be an undocumented worker, ..yes, AN ILLEGAL ALIEN!

I have experience with this issue.. up close and very personal...

I AM A PRODUCT OF FORMER ILLEGAL ALIENS.. Thank God.

As a young boy, I watched as my 92 year old great Grandfather, an immigrant from the bowels of depravity in Italy, as he stood in a crowded church basement and took an oath, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance to his beloved country to finally become a citizen of the United States Of America. For him, becoming a real member of this wonderful country was the culmination of a lifetime of work, and struggle and hope, and prayers.

My great Grandfather, his aged body bent from years of hard work, managed to stand tall as he listened closely to my uncle, who whispered in his ear, everything that was said from the podium. In those days, hopeful immigrants had to study and be tested to prove they knew enough about this country, and it's founding, history and government, to be qualified to contribute to it's greatness.

He had done his homework, and he didn't want to miss a word.

It was that day, in the cold damp basement, in a soft grainy light, walls decorated with flags, and with his fine and honorable family looking on, he and a large group gathered to prove that they were worthy patriots. That day this proud man who had overcome language, illiteracy and poverty, was at last to be rewarded, he was finally a real American.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, he broke down and cried for the first and only time I ever remember in his long and distinguished life. At that moment,  I remember thinking, it must be special to be an American.

Yes, my family crossed a border from Canada into the United States in the dead of night in hopes of securing a better life for their children. They suffered the pain of fear, poverty and ridicule to take a chance. What was being said throughout the world, was true, America was and still is a nation of opportunity.

I do hear the call of fears and doubt of my fellow Americans, and I share the pain when my neighbors hurt as a nation. There is real worry about the costs and loss of jobs. There are legitimate concerns about lawlessness, and precedent of the apparent "reward the lawbreakers", at the expense of the law-abiding and innocent.

"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort."
-Sydney Smith

I know we cannot be the world policemen, or pantry. We are a mighty nation built upon a foundation of hard work and sacrifice. Much of that labor was done by immigrants, many of which were here illegally not by choice but by necessity. Many, as my family, didn't do it as a thief, but as poor frightened peasants, who came without documentation because the limits on Italians were reached, and they couldn't afford to wait until the bureaucracy opened the doors again.

Upon arrival, frightened and stranded in a strange place without money, friends or family, they did the unthinkable, they prayed and began working until they were safe, solid and accepted.  They raised a family that contributed and their offspring went to war, and they became solid threads in the fabric of their chosen country. There were a few that gave my folks a boost, a chance, a lifeline until they were secure.

So now the dirty laundry, I did the same for others, but I am apparently not alone. This isn't a unique thought to bend the some rules to help those who need help when the need is the greatest.

History is replete with law breakers that did what turned out to be a blessing. There has always been a few that took the law into their own hands when it seemed that was the only way. Moses, was spared by a benevolent stranger. Thank God a man named Schindler broke the laws to save a few hundred Jews from the Nazi's and where would we be if the Underground Railroad was derailed, because it was against the law to save a slave.

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way."
-Victor Frankl

The overwhelming numbers of our newest immigrants aren't fleeing death, or slavery, and I am not Schindler, but I could see the desperation in their eyes and feel the need in their hearts. And what was I offering? A job, and friendship. A job that few Americans wanted, and friendship that has lasted decades.

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."
-Nelson Henderson

There are jobs that nobody wants and few would do, unless they had no other choice, a situation which rarely arises in our country.  But they are good jobs that need to be done. By and large these jobs are hard, thankless, dirty, repetitive jobs, at odds with a normal schedule. However, they are at the limits of those that need them.

Contrary to popular belief, almost no large companies would ever pay cash to save a few dollars, or underpay wages to a poor man because he is illegal. We never paid under the table, or less than the going rate because we were a well known company, and a scandal of that pettiness, would have harmed everyone, including hundreds of employees, almost all homegrown Americans.

  "Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim."
-William Feather, The Business of Life

Lest you think it was all one sided, these workers were solid as a rock, and usually faithful as a clock. The work ethic in other countries is as it was in much earlier times in our history. The bottom line is they needed us, and we needed them. They stayed with me and climbed the ladder in the all American tradition, and I watched them with pride, and admiration.

For those that are really concerned about these poor people taking the bread out of your mouth, unless you are a pot scrubber, or a garlic picker, you are at little risk.. And to ease your mind, I have discovered a new money making venture, one that has a fabulous track record. This one has recent and past history has never failed to pay-off. It's remarkable in it's simplicity!

Here it is... bet against the fatalist, place all of your available milk money on the person needing something, and against the person wanting to keep it from him.. in short, betting against profits of doom.

Bet the farm, or the futon, that the screams are always louder during an election year, and the spin is more spit than polish. Just like the generations that preceded us the Italians, Irish, Germans, Haitians and Vietnamese, these folks will continue to be a blessing to our country. Take a deep breath and think about it without the shrill voices whispering apocalyptic threats.

Before you make your final decision on this matter, ask yourself a simple question. What would you do if you were in their place, but first, take a long look around your home, in you fridge and in your pantry.. and just for an added effect, and take an extra moment thinking of your children. Perhaps, you'll come away with a slightly different outlook.  Then again, maybe not.. you have that right, my once removed, illegal uncles and a lot of others died for your right to be wrong..

I am proud of our President, he knew there would be anger and once again he faced the problem head on. Dealing with this now is going to save us all in the long run, and as to the near future.. remember we are free Americans thanks to our immigrant forefathers, and some day as in the past, these new Americans may well save you and your country...

  "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
-Abraham Lincoln

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency."
-Arnold Glasgow

GOD BLESS AMERICA

[browardchad]

I'm not surprised that your arguments consist of anecdotal and somewhat hysterical appeals to the emotions, since such guilt-inducing and inflammatory arguments characterize not just private debate on this subject, but also our government's lack of coherent immigration policy and/or enforcement in general.

Rather than repeated rants, why not invest some time in reading readily-available essays and arguments such as this or this or this. A simple google search will find many more articles, pro and con. Although many rely, as you do, on unsubstantiated and unsourced claims, there is much research that both avoids the hysterical and suggests reasoned, incremental solutions that have not been part of national strategy for decades, but would require some political backbone (noticeably lacking at present) to implement.

Try using facts -- not emotions -- as a basis for your arguments.

[carlo3b]

Not the same as with those from south of the border. Many still can't speak english and don't have any intentions of doing so. And their loyalty remains with Mexico, etc. No, it is not the same.

... sheeesh....""Many still can't speak English and don't have any intentions of doing so. And their loyalty remains with Mexico, etc."". . . Really? Just exactly how do you know this.. Are you a Mexican, living amongst the multitude? Perhaps you are married to a Mexican, with a huge family that refuses to speak English, living amongst the multitude of Mexicans who feel exactly the same?

Are you a Spanish teacher in the inner city, with an enrollment that refuses to learn or has no interest in learn any language because they long to be back in Mexico? Fascinating..

[dhs12345]

Pretty simple -- look at how many resist English only propositions and laws around the U.S.?

There is a huge movement against English only. Why?

And why do so many Hispanics (oh sorry, it is Latinos now) demand that Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California be returned to Mexico, if they are loyal to the U.S. I hear this every Cinco De Mayo.

The sad truth: until they assimilate like my ancestors did, they will continue to be relegated to the low-end jobs. Which by the way, they don't do all that well at either.
We have stopped ordering special hamburgers from McDonalds. They rarely get the order right because they don't speak English very well.

[Hon]

You sure are full of yourself.

[Sloth]

Yes, my family crossed a border from Canada into the United States in the dead of night in hopes of securing a better life for their children.

If our entitlement system was the same today as it was when your ancestors came, I wouldn't have a problem with immigration.

[Hon]

Some background on Emma Lazarus and her reasons for writing ""The New Colossus":

"Emma Lazarus was born in 1849 in New York City, the fourth of seven children of Esther and Moses Lazarus. Her family were descendents of Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition who arrived in America even before the American Revolution-her father could trace his ancestry back to the first twenty-three Jews who settled in New York in 1654. Her family was part of the rich society of uptown Manhattan that included elegant homes, private tutors, and literary salons. Emily received a private education that included exposure to classical literature, poetry, and romance languages. She loved reading and, as a teenager, began writing verse, first published by her family. Her poetry was good enough to attract the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who encouraged her writing. In her writing career, Lazarus published numerous poems, essays, and letters, as well as translations of major collections of poems. She was an important figure in New York's elite literary circles, and corresponded with many important American writers and intellectuals of the time.

News from Russia about the vicious anti-semitic pogroms of 1881 and 1882 kindled an awakening of Lazarus' commitment to Judaism. When she first met escaping Eastern Europe refugees, she could hardly believe they were Jews. Poor, sick, and uneducated, these immigrants were very different from the upper class New York Jews in her social circle. She became particularly enraged at assimilated American Jews who seemed embarrassed by the unsophisticated Jewish refugees. At that time, many American Jews did not want to associate with these newcomers, because they were afraid that these "different Jews" would reflect badly on the status of their own Jewish community in the United States, and would compromise their success in assimilation into American culture.

Lazarus stopped writing poetry temporarily to assist the arriving Russian Jewish immigrants, often giving them money, food and clothing to help alleviate their poverty. She organized a project to train Jews in industrial trades, which later became the Hebrew Technical Institute. She attended rallies to raise money for Russian Jews and wrote about them in poems and essays. "Until we are all free, we are none of us free," she pointed out.

Subsequently, Emma Lazarus chose to identify herself as a Jewish American writer. She began to write passionate Jewish poems and essays in support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, thirteen years before Theodore Herzl founded the Zionist movement. Her best work, a book entitled Songs of a Semite, consisted of Jewish themed poems and lyric drama that celebrated ancient and modern Jewish courage and advocated the idea of a Jewish nationality. She studied Hebrew and translated classic Hebrew poems of the great literary figures of Spain's golden age of Judaism, including Judah HaLevi and Solomin ibn Gabirol; many of her translations later were incorporated into standard prayer books. Her works regularly appeared in the Jewish press, including the weekly magazine, American Hebrew.

"The New Colossus," was written in 1883 for a fundraiser auction to build a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. This sonnet was auctioned in a benefit sale for $21,500, a sum unheard-of for a short piece of poetry. In this verse, Lazarus contrasts the Statue of Liberty with the Greek Colossus of Rhodes, a venerable warrior. Instead, the guardian of America's gateway is a strong, but nuturing woman, the Mother of Exiles. Lazarus' vision of the United States as a haven for the refugees of Europe and Russia was the inspiration for the poem, in which America is depicted as the golden land of hope and opportunity for the oppressed.

Emma Lazarus died in 1887, 4 years after composing the sonnet, at the age of 38. In 1903, her poem was engraved on a metal plaque, and attached to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Two of her life's dreams became reality in the next century: her American dream of the huddled masses of Jewish immigrants successfully integrating into American society and her Jewish dream of a Jewish homeland that would accept all persecuted Jews."

http://www.miriamscup.com/LazarusBiog.htm

[Hon]

"Her reasons were and are blatantly clear to many of us - ie, the degradation, bastardization, corruption and dilution of Christian society."

I wouldn't say that. But Lazarus was writing about people who were in a quite different situation from the illegal aliens in question today--apart from say, the Cubans.

Lazurus was writing about people (Russian Jews) who were being murdered and starved and raped simply for their religion (in pogroms).

Lazarus was taling about political asylum. I don't think many people object to that. We have a long tradition of that in this country.

[antaresequity]

Give us your poor, your tired, your legal, and your huddled masses longing to be free

[carlo3b]

Try using facts -- not emotions -- as a basis for your arguments.

WOW.. whew.. I'm glad you got that off your chest.. Now lets get back to the issue!.. 

Try this for facts.. I grew up in a ghetto..  I owned and operated a rather high caliber chain of Hotels, Restaurants, Racing farms and Cruise ships. In that life I employed thousands of people in all social and economic strata.

Lets see if this can pi$$ you off even more, I'd grab the kleenex if I were you  ...

From my emotional and heart wrenching ramblings of my humble beginnings, you now know I didn't start at that those lofty peaks, so I have a fairly clear memory of what it was like be poor, and not poor. I have a limited secondary education, consequently, I had to start at the bottom.. So, can we at least say I qualify as " informed".. are you tracking me my FRiend?

I had to actually hire people, hundreds of them at the level that ""these"" immigrants find themselves, and experience, not surmise, guess, presume, pretend, suppose, think, hypothesize, or theorize what the labor market is like. Contrary to popular accusations that are being thrown about as freely as your uninformed remarks to me.. but I digress.. the all of my applicants had to have, and did have papers, or documents declaring their personal legitimacy to hold a job in the USA. To question those papers would likely end up in court and have pickets marching at my front door.

I instituted a "Lets Get Back to Work, Mom" program at the welfare offices in Houston, with a large turnout, but a flop in it's results. I regularly held open Job Fairs, at the various State Employment sponsored events, high schools, colleges, community centers and churches, or with private head hunters. I gave seminars, lectures, speeches, and TV and radio recruitment commercials extolling the virtues of gainful employment.. i.e.: working..  that seldomed worked...

The State Unemployment Commission's vary thoughout the US but by and large (save California, sorry, it may have changed now), the folks getting checks were required to record any attempt at seeking a job. This they did with gusto.. however when it came to showing up for work, it was a disaster.. the range of excuses were funny, if it wasn't so sad!  Many of our fellow homegrown Americans were crafty at the game, and could rival a legal scholar at the labor laws, the insurance limits, recent harassment legislation, and employment clauses, not to speak of settlement negotiations. The 4th largest line item on our Profit and Loss statement was legal expenses..

Did you know that in most states working just 26 weeks a year may get you as much as 2 years unemployment compensation checks?  Too many of your fellow Americans, are so predictable that you can start recruiting a vacancy at a job 2 weeks before the 26th week anniversary date, and have an attorney and an ambulance standing by for the pending accident?

Now lets talk about "ILLEGALS", I had no real way of knowing "formally" if the applicants were presenting us with the real thing, documents.. remember this was back in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's. (I retired from an active daily role in 78, but I had to monitor, some of my ex wife's (she got the assets in the divorce, I got the kids.. hehehehe) and my kid's holdings clear into the 90's). Now I've told you already that I knew that I hired Illegals already, and I did know, because in the mid 80's President Reagan offered a amnesty program for sponsored aliens and I found out then, but I already felt that I knew some of the old timers (with me 10-17 years) were living a lie on paper.

All of those years they paid, as did I, a contribution to a Social Security number that belonged to another person. They lost all of that money, however I have no way of knowing if that other person existed or not or if they are receiving SS now. These folks were, for the most part.. hard working, loyal, dependable, and smart. They moved up the career ladder, and many eventually opened their own restaurants or small businesses, some with my down payment.

I provided them with medical and eye, and a limited dental insurance programs. I loved these people because when things were hard they were there, and when the good times rolled they got more than their rewards.. I am still in contact with many of my friends to this day and will not stop telling people about my experiences because someone else had a different opinion.. any questions? theres more but who cares.. wake up, I'm finished.. for now!

[carlo3b]

You sure are full of yourself.

..yes, I know... (that reassuring smile, deep sigh, and eyes closed).. :)

[carlo3b]

cute.. C+.. nice and brief but effective, however, a bit sophomoric.. but hey.. Thanks we'll mark you down as undecided.. :)

[antaresequity]

The more I think of this whole thing and the more I learn...the more I think we should round em up and ship them out...

And then start from scratch.

[carlo3b]

If our entitlement system was the same today as it was when your ancestors came, I wouldn't have a problem with immigration.

Won't get an argument out of me.. right on.. but it won't go away just because it's screwed up. Someone has to come up with a solution that begins to correct this problem, and it has to be federal to override the Liberal States giveaway programs and enticements.. Bush appears to be trying that.. developing.. :)

[Hon]

So your point is that it is easier to hire illegals. (I bet it's cheaper too.)

[carlo3b]

If only we could, thats an answer that won't happen and really can't. Just imagine the collapse of the industries, small and large that are employing these folks without anyone wanting to replace them. The stock market would plummet and prices would fly. Maybe we can start to faze it out, but I wouldn't bet on that no matter who is in power.

[Hon]

"I instituted a "Lets Get Back to Work, Mom" program at the welfare offices in Houston, with a large turnout, but a flop in it's results. I regularly held open Job Fairs, at the various State Employment sponsored events, high schools, colleges, community centers and churches, or with private head hunters. I gave seminars, lectures, speeches, and TV and radio recruitment commercials extolling the virtues of gainful employment.. i.e.: working.. that seldomed worked..."

LOL! Sure you did.

I'm not sure using headhunters is the best way to recruit busboys and waiters.