“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Dem to Obama: Push immigration or I’ll tell Latino voters to stay home

A congressman from the president’s home state is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Read more: http://www.thehill.com/homenews/house/93183-dem-to-obama-push-immigration-or-ill-tell-latino-voters-to-stay-home

1 comment:

Brad K. said...

Actually, I decided I prefer amnesty and naturalization.

I figure it is the will of the people.

For someone to occupy a residence or other kind of shelter for years - someone in the community prefers that to letting someone else use the space, or leaving it empty.

For someone to work, under the counter, for years, someone in America values their efforts.

Looking at their family values, those that aren't drug dealers and gangsters (by far the majority) - I have to say, they set a better example than some folks with kids on the local football team.

What I want is to stop wasting money on ineffective law enforcement and cruel intimidation of reasonably peaceful people. I want them all registered to vote, to work in the US, and to have their taxes withheld from their wage, just like others living here (and being victimized by punitive Federal taxes and regulations).

I want the United States to stop brutalizing and taking advantage of a huge class of people that have lived here, many of them, for generations. It is bad for out character to hate and villainize people that way. It is bigotry - because the target is the racial characteristics of Indian-descent peoples, not the nation of origin. Caucasion Mexicans and other South Americans pass without notice or hindrance - no police department goes cruising for illegals with white skin.

What I do demand, for the same reason, is that full citizenship depend on an eighth grade command of spoken and written English. Otherwise, the way these people - and other minorities - are left at the power and mercy of unelected leaders to "interpret" the workings of local and national government, to "translate" (and bias, thus control) public discourse, news, and opinions, and are unable to contribute meaningfully to community and nation.

"Press 1 for English" is nothing less than segregation, a wedge between "us" and "them". This racial bigotry, encouraging "them" to stay out of communication with the nation's discourse, is wrong. Wrong of us, wrong to them.

In a nation of universal education requirement, it should *not* be onerous to require an eighth grade command of written and spoken English to vote, to work, or to conduct business. Assimilation of non-English speaking people accelerates getting their inputs to defend themselves from intimidation and betrayal, and gains their inputs to enrich life in America.

Encouraging non-English communities empowers non-English, extra-legal leaders. It unfairly puts communities at risk of manipulation and exploitation, outside the bounds of (English speaking) law.

Anyway,I cannot imagine 12-20 million people making homes in America, according to some estimates, without some significant number of people knowing and working with them. Anything but amnesty denies what Americans have already acted to allow.