Friday, September 21, 2007

I Disagree and why.

So, read all of this:

CHEAP TOMATOES - A Reality Check!
This one tells it like it really is..............Hope you read it all...........

This English teacher has phrased it the best I've seen yet. CHEAP TOMATOES?This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent. From a California school teacher - - - "As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of: I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower socioeconomic and income levels. Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools.Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm not talking a glass of milk and roll -- but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK) I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial.. I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK) I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less then 3 months who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them "Putas" whores and throwing things that the teachers were in tears. Free medical, free education, free food, day care etc., etc, etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements? To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs. Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc, etc. For me, I'll pay more for tomatoes. We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won't have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return? There are many hardworking Hispanic/American citizens that contribute to our country and many that I consider my true friends We should encourage and accept those Hispanics who have done it the right and legal way. It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third- world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about "politically correctness" that we don't have the will to do anything about it. If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know. CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about? Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage. Consumers don't want expensive produce. Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs. But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, and a lie. there is no such thing as "cheap labor." Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 free. He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent. He qualifies for food stamps. He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care. His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school. He requires bilingual teachers and books. He qualifies for relief from high energy bills. If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI. Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare. All of this is at (our) taxpayer's expense. He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance. Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material. He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits. Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his. The American taxpayers also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean-up. Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people. THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD BE ADDRESSING TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR EITHER PARTY. 'AND WHEN THEY LIE TO US AND DON'T DO AS THEY SAY, WE SHOULD REPLACE THEM AT ONCE! THIS HAS GOT TO BE PASSED ALONG TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE OR WE WILL ALL GO DOWN THE DRAIN BECAUSE A FEW DON'T CARE.

This is what bothers me about it, if you'd like to complain about the government programs, then I am with you. The drain on tax payer dollars is absurd and I tend to think that about 90% of the government programs anyone could name. Post-New Deal, we're swamped with useless expenditures that are nothing but a drain on our country, and an unwelcome one at that. But I don't see the problem with immigrants and I don't see the problem with the $5 or $6 and hour that he makes. If there is a complaint that is valid here it is in regards to the unearned benefits of a non-taxpayer getting tax-funded benefits. But shouldn't the issue be the tax-funded benefits themselves?

To complain that someone is not a citizen but is getting the rights of a citizen, but then to also say that the person should not be MADE a citizen, well that seems foolish. Make citizens of these people. Make them pay taxes as citizens. Let them decide, as voters, whether they want to have their income taxed and spent on food programs, or if they'd rather write irate e-mails about whomever we're not letting into the country next.

Honestly, this just strikes me as a racist argument, and one that is not at all new. It's been around since there have been immigrants, and I suppose it's not going away.

3 comments:

Pitrone said...

In retrospect, I love the phrase, "Swamped with expenditures that are a drain..."

Hi, I'm Owen Pitrone and I'm a writer.

Kate Pitrone said...

If we did not have those government programs what would happen to all of those people, including illegal immigrants, who are dependent on them? The American people seem to LIKE having an abundance of social welfare programs. What do we do about that? In a democratic nation, the people elect the legislators who put those programs into place. I agree that those programs pose a drain (choose your allusion) on the working person that is appalling.

Any given person might desire and find an excuse for government programs they happen to like. We, as a family, are much more accepting of the programs like Medicare and Medicaid that benefit Ami and have (in the past and maybe in the future) kept her alive. All sorts of people have similar programs preferences or desire to see expansion of benefits to meet their requirements. Until the American people are politically willing to give up that dependency, I do not see what is to be done about it.

As to this matter, this person from California is on the front line of the confrontation between illegal immigrants and America. This looks as much a battleground as anything else. Only part of the argument in "Cheap Tomatoes" is about the waste, part of the complaint is against the ingratitude of those who come in illegally, as unwanted guests, and complain against the accommodations, wasting what is given and demanding more. It is as if someone broke into your home and when you offered them your family's dinner, trashed it and and made public complaint against you for not offering more.

We can't do anything about the greed of the average American, but we may be able to do something about that of those who come in illegally.

You and I both know immigrants who we would be happy and proud to call Americans and who we would welcome as neighbors over some of the native-born American neighbors we have no choice about. Many of us look askance at the type of people described in the essay who are as pigs in a parlor. We can do nothing about some, but surely we can do something about those who are here illegally. Come uninvited, make a stink, and you should be put out.

That seems simple to me.

Anonymous said...

I find the idea of entitlement by birth to be an interesting perspective to look at the devaluing of classic structure. Classically one could assume that, “I was born here and am like all those born here”. This is way out of bounds in America today. Is the devaluing of citizenship an effect from the cause of post-modernism, post-colonialism, globalization, or simply the natural relaxation of boundaries that comes in a multicultural democracy? Take each of those perspectives individually and it is possible you could form an argument to explain and justify illegal immigration. There is no Sparta for the Spartans, or America for Americans. It is more like Rome. Maybe a closer look at their citizenship rules would be in order.