Some thoughts on race and illegal immigrants

A friend of mine and fellow Middletown Democrat, Bill Stevenson, was in attendance last week for the special session of the Middletown Human Rights Commission, which was called for by Mayor Scharfenberger, to discuss the racial impact or fallout over what he thought was the Courier's acceptance and agreement with the views of columnist and fellow blogger Art Gallagher's use of the "N" word.

While the Commission was convened for the purpose of addressing Gallagher's MoreMonmouthMusings diatribes over race it was not limited to just a discussion over the "N" word. 

Residents in attendance that night were also concerned about how persons of Hispanic decent that reside in or happen to pass through Middletown  are percieved to be illegal immigrants and not welcomed in the community. 

The following thoughts on the subject were passed along to me by Mr. Stevenson and I thought that they were true and right on target:

"There have been and continue to be, many letters to the editors on the subject. One frequent argument was that "my ancestors came here legally".Well for much of our history there was really no such thing as illegal immigration because we let anybody in and when we did put on any restriction, it was to bar disease carriers & those who would be a burden because of not being physically able to work. I believe that it was in the 1920's that we established quotas that favored northern & western Europeans and barred Chinese. I remember being taught in school back in the '30s that we didn't want Chinese because they would work for very little which would lower our standard of living.

One of the frequent arguments is that these people don't speak English - that they must learn English & English should be our national language. This reinforces a very embarrassing fact about the U.S. The fact is that most of us do not speak or understand any foreign language. Most Europeans are at least bi-lingual or greater and the second language is most frequently English. And contrary to what they would have you believe, many of their ancestors did not learn much English - they lived in ghettos & worked in sweatshops where English was not a necessity.

Another sad fact is that most of our ancestors came from Europe or Africa or Asia, while most of these illegals' ancestors came from right here in North America. And as far as English is concerned, please note that Puerto Ricans speak Spanish; a high percentage also speak English and last time I checked, Puerto Rican citizens were all U.S. citizens.

Also - 4 of the 10 largest cities in the U.S. have Spanish names - Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego and San Jose. And there are 5 states with Spanish names - Florida (flowery), Nevada (snow clad), Colorado (red), Montana (mountainous), & California (after an imaginary paradise in a Spanish novel).

Of course, the reason for the large number of Spanish names in the southwest is the fact that this area was once part of Mexico, which we stole from them by one means or another. Many of the Mexicans in this area did not immigrate to the U.S. They are descendants of people who were already here.

The real opposition to Mexicans is not that they are illegal. The real reason is that they are not white and they are numerous. Most of the other arguments are phony. We shouldn't be spending one cent on a wall. What we need is a system that gives them a passport/ID that allows easy passage & tracking (similar to EZ-Pass). Then all we need is to set up, with the Mexican government, a background check, a database & a set of rules that they must follow. Obey all U.S., State & local laws. Pay all taxes. Register with local authorities where they rent. Have limited job security (citizen preference).

Comply with this & they will not be harassed. Break the rules & risk jail time & deportment). Of course, protection should be given against undue penalties for minor infractions."

 

I would like to know your comments on the subject, pass them along and I will post them