Sixty-something woman shares ruminations as she plys the latter third of her life with the caveat that age entitles her to be absolutely outrageous whenever possible.
"We Three"
Monday, May 01, 2006
American me...
OK, I am kind of torn about today's demonstration of our kind of illegal workforce taking a day to show us all how important they are to our economy. Welcome to America, where anyone can demonstrate about anything. Actually, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, California was supposed to have an open border with Mexico, anyway. See, I am learning things in school, really I am. I feel that we need to help our neighbors. I also feel that good fences make good neighbors (that's Emily Dickinson, in case it sounded familiar). And how are these people helping if they tax our health care system, make us incur huge costs to provide bi-lingual services in our educational system, and send all their money out of the country? If you want to work here, why not become a citizen, pay taxes, learn our language? If I went to France, would they print signs in English for me? I don't think so. Really, we are much too codependent here. It is not easy to leave one country for another. It takes dedication. Anyone who truly wants to be an American can do that, with some time and some effort. I know I was lucky to be born here; I am only a third generation native-born myself.
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2 comments:
What about the money they are pouring into our economy as consumers, renters, etc - and the fact that they keep restaurant prices within reach - not to mention the countless other industries where they represent a very cheap and available labor force...
And most of them are paying taxes for benefits they don't even get to take advantage of.
Just my two cents.
All I know is that I am living and working in Mexico and it has been a complete, 100% pain in the ass to get all the correct legal documentation in order to do so. My job, by all accounts, will bring significant new revenue to the tourist area where I am living. And I pay taxes, actually quite a lot, to the Mexican government but do not receive any benefits except for those common goods like upkeep of roads. Which to tell you the truth, could use some improvement.
I have no idea what my point is. I guess it's just interesting living on the other side of the border.
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