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Posted on 04/18/2006 1:36:37 AM PDT by goldstategop
Thank heaven for the massive marches across the country by those favoring illegal immigrants. These marches revealed the ugly truth behind the fog of pious words and clever political spin from the media and from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. "Guest workers"? Did any of the strident speakers, with their in-your-face bombast in Spanish, sound like guests? Did they sound like people who wanted to become Americans?
Were they even asking for amnesty? They didn't sound like they were asking for anything. They sounded like they were telling. Demanding. Threatening.
Somebody must have told them that their Mexican flags that dominated the earlier marches were not making a good impression on television, so they started flying American flags. But such cosmetic changes did not keep the ugly reality from coming through in their hostile speeches.
These were not the speeches of people who wanted to join American society but people who wanted their own turf on American soil -- in disregard and defiance of what American citizens want.
Europe has already been through this "guest worker" policy that we are being urged to follow. They have learned the hard way what it means to have a growing foreign population in their midst -- a population that insists on remaining foreign and hostile to the culture, values and people around them.
Some European countries have learned this lesson at the cost of riots and bloodshed in the streets and lives lost in terrorist attacks. Others have only had to contend with national polarization -- thus far -- but polarization is not a small thing.
In this country, however, there are still people who refuse to learn any lesson at all. Some business interests see only an opportunity to get cheap labor. Some intellectuals see only abstract principles about abstract people crossing an abstract border.
Some tell us loftily that earlier generations of immigrants who were once thought to be unassimilable turned out over time to become as American as anyone else and patriotic citizens.
That might well be true of immigrants from Mexico, both legal and illegal, if the circumstances of today were the same as the circumstances during an earlier era of immigration from Europe. But circumstances are not the same -- and those circumstances are not going to become the same by pretending that they are.
The ugly display of grievance-mongering bombast at the illegal immigrant marches is just one of those circumstances that are not the same as in an earlier era.
When people came here from Europe, they came here to become Americans. There was no prouder title for them.
American generals of German ancestry led the fight against Germany in both World Wars. The Irish "Fighting 69th" earned its fame on the battlefields of the First World War and Japanese American fighting units were among the most highly decorated in World War II. They proved they were Americans.
The underlying tragedy of the present situation is that it is doubtful whether the activist loudmouths, who were too contemptuous of this country to even speak its language while demanding its benefits, represent most immigrants from Mexico.
Both legal and illegal immigrants have come here primarily to work and make a better life for themselves and their families. But a country requires more than workers. It requires people who are citizens not only in name but in commitment.
Americanization did not happen automatically in earlier times and it will not happen automatically today. Immigrants in an earlier era had leaders and organizations actively working to transform them into Americans -- the Catholic Church with the Irish and numerous organizations among the Jews, for example.
Today's immigrant activists and the politicians who kowtow to them have just the opposite agenda, to keep foreigners foreign and to make other Americans accept and adjust to that. It will be a national tragedy if they succeed.
Just what problem will amnesty solve? Illegal aliens will benefit and politicians will benefit by sweeping the illegality under the rug by making it legal. But how will American citizens benefit? America can lose big time.
"They didn't sound like they were asking for anything. They sounded like they were telling. Demanding. Threatening."
"These were not the speeches of people who wanted to join American society but people who wanted their own turf on American soil -- in disregard and defiance of what American citizens want. "
Exactly. And that's the way the majority of Americans see it. Congress had better wake up.
"Thomas Sowell for President!"
BINGO!
He'd be better and clearer headed than just about anyone else I can think of but Mark Steyn.
"the activist loudmouths, who were too contemptuous of this country to even speak its language while demanding its benefits..."
This is a thought worth remembering.
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to
discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance
here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we
have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
I'm taking the day off and going shopping with the wife, who's Latina.
Politicians want votes.
The public is up in arms about illegal immigration, yet the politicians still support inaction.
Ergo, the politicians feel that they benefit by getting more votes for supporting illegals.
Illegals are not supposed to be able to vote.
What is wrong with this picture? Are there that many sympathizers in this country? or are we really expecting these illegals to cast that many votes?
IMHO, this is why everyone hates the idea of proof of citizenship for voting.
In this country, however, there are still people who refuse to learn any lesson at all. Some business interests see only an opportunity to get cheap labor. Some intellectuals see only abstract principles about abstract people crossing an abstract border.
Open Borders will not help the Mexicans any. There are billions of Asians willing to come over and take North and South America. Compared to the folks coming over from Mexico they are better educated, work just as hard and breed just as fast.
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Too bad he probably won't do it. I don't think he wants the job. Sucks for us. =(
Yup. I could get behind him on most issues. I'd like Steyn better, but I think he's originally from Canukistan. I could be wrong about that though.
Absolutely! And there have been those who understood the issue for quite a while now.
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americans... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of it continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”
Theodore Roosevelt October 12, 1915
Just lots of little pompous Neros fiddling while their country crumbles under their snooty noses.
I'm glad someone else picked up on this. Many of those supporting the marches, former supporters of Cesar Chavez and the UFW are communists. I live right on the U.S./Mexican border and watched it unfold back in the 60's.
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