Here is a very hard truth: If our goal is the enormous task of sealing the border with Mexico and all of South America, it can be done. WE can build electrified fences to discourage a majority of would-be Americans. But we must also learn how to be vicious and treat any and all captives with such cruelty and spiteful consideration that they would never again chance brave scaling our fences; their fear must outweigh their hope. Death, should always be a safe option. It is the only way. Otherwise, poor folks will find a way around any obstacles we build. It’s called desire; a completely human emotion. But then again, so is fear. AS a liberal back in the 60’s, I paid little attention to the plight of Mexican farm workers and their fight for unionization in the fertile valleys of California. These folks dutifully crossed our borders each season to labor in the fields picking fruit and vegetables for starvation wages and working incredibly long hours with no benefits. When their labors were done and the season and the fields abandoned, they were ushered out—back to even worse poverty and conditions in their native lands. But men and women, some say great men and women, such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta changed that equation—somewhat. They made great inroads in safety and fairness for the farm workers, and they gave them something else—they gave them courage and confidence that their rights were the same rights that all people had fought for and deserved and, eventually won, for their children and grandchildren. The African-Americans had demonstrated to them that any struggles against a white establishment had to have, as part of the recipe for change, breaking the rules set by white folks to protect white folks. At the end of each harvest, more and more Mexican families began defying the government of the United States and took refuge here. They found jobs as domestics, and waiters and roofers with Id’s furnished by criminals filling a need. Business such as slaughterhouses and logging and mining, where labor was needed to fill dangerous jobs, welcomed the influx of cheap labor; meanwhile society and big-business looked at what was going on with a wink and a nod. A generation has passed. In 1975, if you were to see a Hispanic walking down Sullivant Ave. you might stop and gawk at the strange human. Today, drive down Sullivant Ave. and half the businesses are owned by Mexican-Americans. These second generation families work in better jobs and are better educated and their grandchildren will do even better. Some say 11 million illegal immigrants have caused a sea-shift in the American labor movement—and they have! Unions in the 60-70’s knew that America was transitioning from a manufacturing economy to a service economy and so started trying to organize white-collar workers instead of warehousemen and production workers. Opening up opportunities for Latin-Americans to grab low-paying, non-union jobs and taking away entry level jobs where heretofore young white and black people received their skills training. Kids graduating from high-school could no longer rely on companies giving them their training. Those jobs were taken by new eager brown faces who didn’t mind working long-term at minimum wage. Schools of every kind opened promising training for menial jobs at low wages and they were flooded by eager white and black kids who took government subsidies and took out loans to get educated for jobs that their mothers and fathers wouldn’t have even considered taking: nurse’s aide or cooks. The American standard-of-living has dropped substantially; real wages for the middleclass have remained flat for 40 years. Here’s the news: more Latin-Americans are coming. Coming in droves. They have seen what their cousins and uncles and brothers have accomplished. They are coming no matter what; damn any walls that we might build, they are clever enough to short-out the fences. So, here we are. Big-business want them here. The Democratic Party want them here. How about you? Are you ready to sell out on all those glorious promises of America and get rid of all these undesirables? Hitler, had the same problem with a group of nomads that took advantage of a social-democratic state and prospered in Germany. He came up with what he termed—the final solution. Is that where we are? If we do nothing, then we must all pay the price of stagnant wages and a reduced standard-of-living for our children and grandchildren. If we do something—it must be decisive and brutal, otherwise there is no deterrent. Of course, there is a better way. I might write about that tomorrow. But then again, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about porous pavement.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 10:40:40 +0000
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