The Minuteman Project
gosh, my blood pressure was all nice and low until i read this...
excuse ME...????????? as if we didn't have enough things going on in this country to frighten any thinking person right out of their wits, now we have an armed militia, appointing themselves to keep the "rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling" riff-raff out... and what the hell is "melting pot" code for...? white, english-speaking, european origin, christian, and a few other characteristics tossed in for good measure just to insure the doors to the "club" remain closed...???
here's a couple of personal vignettes that put a more human face on the "quagmire" of "sub-nations..."
think about this... if every person in the u.s. of hispanic/latino origin, legal, illegal or otherwise, stopped working at precisely the same time, this country would shut down on the spot... big sign: CLOSED, WILL RE-OPEN TOMORROW... i remember a study done back in the middle-70's... what sticks with me is the study's claim that, if the border between mexico and the united states was to be sealed, a revolution would take place in mexico within six months...
all this blab about hordes of illegals taking away jobs from decent american citizens... bullshit... they are doing the jobs decent american citizens don't WANT and WON'T TAKE because decent american businesses are so fucking invested in the profit motive that they won't pay a living wage... and so you have 10 illegal hispanics sharing the rent on a small apartment cuz, for one, not one of them could afford to pay the rent by himself and, two, they want to minimize their expenses so that they will be able to send most of what they make back home...
THEN, when they go to send it back home, western union charges for sending the money AND takes a commission off the currency exchange rate up front... then the operator on the other end takes ANOTHER cut off the currency exchange and possibly a service charge before handing over what's left to the recipient... each transaction of $200 nets western union about $40+ and the operator on the other end nets pretty much whatever traffic will bear... 40 bucks... that's 20%, folks, just to western union...!!!
another big item that escapes most people's notice is that illegals working in this country have provided an estimated $21B SUBSIDY to the social security system in the form of the ss contribution that comes out of their paychecks, a contribution they will very likely never recover...
are they exploited...? hell, yes, they are... is bush under pressure from his wealthy contributors to keep the border porous...? damn right... (check out what the meat-packers and the fast-food industry, two of the heaviest users of immigrant labor, have contributed to bush over the last 5 years...) is he under pressure from right-wing, "america-first" groups to stop the flow...? oh, yeah...!
are mexico and other countries culpable in the fact that so many of their citizens want to come to the united states just so they can earn a living wage...? you bet they are... there's a huge gap in mexico between the have's and the have-not's... HUGE... the obscenely rich (example: carlos slim, in the top 5 of the world's billionaires) sit in their posh estates in d.f., play tennis at the club, ski in colorado, kick back in their haciendas in the country, or lounge at their seaside villas... the hardest work they do is calling the office a couple of times a day to see how their money is doing... is mexico fixing that...? no.. furthermore, i'm not even sure it CAN (see post under "Items of note...," Friday, April 8) any more than we seem to be able to fix the problem of OUR super-rich dictating how OUR country will be run...
ok, i've ranted enough but this is the kind of stuff that goes through my mind when i see despicable and dangerous things like the "minutemen" unfolding...
~takes a deep breath and goes for more coffee~ Submit To Propeller
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The Minuteman Project
Americans doing the jobs Congress won't do.
is a grassroots effort to bring Americans to the defense of their homeland, similar to the way the original Minutemen from Massachusetts (and other U. S. colonies) did in the late 1700s. Like them, we want to bring to this effort only what few personal possessions we can carry...plus our heart, mind and spirit.
This call for volunteers is not a call to arms, but a call to voices seeking a peaceful and respectable resolve to the chaotic neglect by members of our local, state and federal governments charged with applying U.S. immigration law.
It is a call to peacefully assemble at the Arizona-Mexico border to bring national awareness to the decades-long careless disregard of effective U.S. immigration law enforcement. It is a reminder to Americans that our nation was founded as a nation governed by the "rule of law", not by the whims of mobs of ILLEGAL aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders.
Accordingly, the men and women volunteering for this mission are those who are willing to sacrifice their time, and the comforts of a cozy home, to muster for something much more important than acquiring more "toys" to play with while their nation is devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens.
Future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures with no common bond to hold them together, and a certain guarantee of the death of this nation as a harmonious "melting pot."
The result: political, economic and social mayhem.
Historians will write about how a lax America let its unique and coveted form of government and society sink into a quagmire of mutual acrimony among the various sub-nations that will comprise the new self-destructing America.
excuse ME...????????? as if we didn't have enough things going on in this country to frighten any thinking person right out of their wits, now we have an armed militia, appointing themselves to keep the "rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling" riff-raff out... and what the hell is "melting pot" code for...? white, english-speaking, european origin, christian, and a few other characteristics tossed in for good measure just to insure the doors to the "club" remain closed...???
here's a couple of personal vignettes that put a more human face on the "quagmire" of "sub-nations..."
scene: sitting outside at mcdonalds playland with my 3 year-old grandson
at the table next to me was an attractive hispanic woman eating and watching over a young boy just a little older than my grandson... i assumed she was his mother... she was trying to get him to eat something but he kept running back to the slide... she had her back to me so when i said something to her in spanish, she didn't immediately realize that i was talking to her or that it was a gringo speaking spanish... it turned out that she was the boy's sister and only 17 years old... a very nice conversation ensued... she came to this country from el salvador when she was 10, illegally crossing three different borders to get here... she had a tough time in school at first because she didn't know english but, like most kids, picked it up fast... she is just getting ready to graduate from high school and has her fingers crossed, hoping the paperwork to establish her legal presence in the u.s. comes through in time for her to be able to register for the fall semester at the university here... she's a nice, intelligent and obviously dedicated woman who will no doubt do very well.. i wished her the best of luck and encouraged her never to lose sight of her dreams...
scene: a mexican "colonia" (unincorporated barrio) on the "wrong" side of a resort town
about 5 years ago, a young friend of mine in mexico asked me to be padrino (godfather) to his daughter... being a padrino in the latino culture is considerably more of an honor than it is in the anglo culture... it is also considerably more of a committment... i was greatly honored and i accepted... a little less than two years ago, my friend crossed illegally into the u.s. to work construction with his brother... he wanted to be able to better provide for his wife and family... his idea was to work for a few years here, send money home, and then head back and use the money to establish a business... his wife was against it, not for reasons of money, but for the time it would keep him away from his young daughter... last october, he was killed in a tragic car accident... he was a very good man, a dedicated father, and trying to do the best thing for his family... now, as padrino and as a person with little to no means, i am nevertheless committed to seeing that his daughter is provided for... i am honored to do whatever i can...
think about this... if every person in the u.s. of hispanic/latino origin, legal, illegal or otherwise, stopped working at precisely the same time, this country would shut down on the spot... big sign: CLOSED, WILL RE-OPEN TOMORROW... i remember a study done back in the middle-70's... what sticks with me is the study's claim that, if the border between mexico and the united states was to be sealed, a revolution would take place in mexico within six months...
all this blab about hordes of illegals taking away jobs from decent american citizens... bullshit... they are doing the jobs decent american citizens don't WANT and WON'T TAKE because decent american businesses are so fucking invested in the profit motive that they won't pay a living wage... and so you have 10 illegal hispanics sharing the rent on a small apartment cuz, for one, not one of them could afford to pay the rent by himself and, two, they want to minimize their expenses so that they will be able to send most of what they make back home...
THEN, when they go to send it back home, western union charges for sending the money AND takes a commission off the currency exchange rate up front... then the operator on the other end takes ANOTHER cut off the currency exchange and possibly a service charge before handing over what's left to the recipient... each transaction of $200 nets western union about $40+ and the operator on the other end nets pretty much whatever traffic will bear... 40 bucks... that's 20%, folks, just to western union...!!!
another big item that escapes most people's notice is that illegals working in this country have provided an estimated $21B SUBSIDY to the social security system in the form of the ss contribution that comes out of their paychecks, a contribution they will very likely never recover...
are they exploited...? hell, yes, they are... is bush under pressure from his wealthy contributors to keep the border porous...? damn right... (check out what the meat-packers and the fast-food industry, two of the heaviest users of immigrant labor, have contributed to bush over the last 5 years...) is he under pressure from right-wing, "america-first" groups to stop the flow...? oh, yeah...!
are mexico and other countries culpable in the fact that so many of their citizens want to come to the united states just so they can earn a living wage...? you bet they are... there's a huge gap in mexico between the have's and the have-not's... HUGE... the obscenely rich (example: carlos slim, in the top 5 of the world's billionaires) sit in their posh estates in d.f., play tennis at the club, ski in colorado, kick back in their haciendas in the country, or lounge at their seaside villas... the hardest work they do is calling the office a couple of times a day to see how their money is doing... is mexico fixing that...? no.. furthermore, i'm not even sure it CAN (see post under "Items of note...," Friday, April 8) any more than we seem to be able to fix the problem of OUR super-rich dictating how OUR country will be run...
ok, i've ranted enough but this is the kind of stuff that goes through my mind when i see despicable and dangerous things like the "minutemen" unfolding...
~takes a deep breath and goes for more coffee~ Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
4/06/2005
