| In response to the April 9th entry on
http://www.xanga.com/yaninusi
No Yan, you are not a conservative, but you are crazy :)
It is true that the United States has a much more inclusive
immigration policy than its neighbor Mexico.
The United States also has a more vibrant economy, more success in
protecting its territories from foreign enemies, more jobs for all the people
who live here, a higher standard of living, a free market, a public school
system that provides people like you and I a free education, and good clean
water you can drink straight out of the tap.
Simply because Mexico may not like its immigrants, doesn’t mean the
United States should begin to follow in Mexico’s lead.
I like our water clean, our economy strong, and our culture
vibrant--for this reason, America should be more like America and welcome the
enterprising folk who swim across rivers and hike across deserts to come here
and build new lives for themselves and their sons and daughters. And hell yeah, once in a while these folks
want to raise up a flag of the old country, listen to some good music, and cook
up some food from home—fine by me. My
best friend in the second grade had (and still has) a grand old Irish flag
flying in her front yard, but she and her firefighter dad sure as hell know
what it means to work hard, live a good life, and be an American. When it comes down to it, these immigrants
are willing to do the things that many young Americans are not. They are willing to spend seven days a week
cleaning schools and offices. They are
willing to load hundred pound beams on to construction cranes. They are willing to clean the machinery in
poultry slaughterhouses. At the end of
the day, they stand up with a hand over their heart and with words in their
mouths when they hear the American pledge of allegiance—which is more than what
some American teenagers are willing to do for their country today.
Every two months or so, the Washington Post prints a
full page, multi-color tribute to our fallen soldiers in Iraq. If you have any doubt as to the allegiance
of any one group of immigrants, read the names of the fallen. Next to the Johnson and Phillips are
Gutierrez, Silva, Tejada, Gonzalez, Rodriguez, and Acevedo. Every single one of these young men and
women has given to this country something that you and I have not. You and I and Johnson and Phillips and
Gutierrez and Silva and Tejada and Gonzalez and Rodriguez and Acevedo do
however, have something in common—and that something is the common heritage of
all Americans—we really all are a country of immigrants. You who call yourself an American—you are
either an immigrant or you are the descendant of an immigrant.
The United States is a sovereign nation, and as such, has
the power to choose for itself whether or not it will welcome immigrants to
stay. The tricky part is learning to
choose wisely. I caution those who see
the exclusionary immigration policies of Europe against drawing the logically
faulty conclusion: if they do it, then
we should too. We can thank Britain for
John Locke—and maybe France for Montesquieu, but since 1776, this country of
immigrants and revolutionaries has rarely looked across the Atlantic for policy
advice from the Old World—and we have done quite well: creating out of a
hodgepodge land and people a united nation that is not only rich in culture but
is now the single most influential country in the world. I could sit here and talk on about what’s
great about America, but it is not enough to pat ourselves on the back and wall
up our borders.
So long as America is
great, people will want to come. So
long as America is great, we also have a great responsibility. We have to take a hard look at our
society—at all that we need more of—and we need to ask, where can we get
this? If that answer leads us to
the men and women who come up from the Rio Grande Valley, then we ought to
welcome them, and admit to ourselves that we need more Americans who are
willing to take the hardest work—that we need more Americans who are willing to
believe in the values of country and family.
We should stop treating immigration as if it were a nuisance—it is an
opportunity, and not just for the immigrants.
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