I have been thinking for days this question: What if all the "We want the "Legal and Illegal" Mexican Migrant Workers who are, among many things, brutalizing our schools with that demonic language of theirs" got their way and all the illegals were deported overnight? What if the Feds could find a way and did it and all the Mexicans, and believe me when I say they want all the Mexicans out of Dodge, were gone? What if this happened when you got up tomorrow morning? I am sure that there would a cacophonous jubilee as not seen before in human history. I think there would be a lot of men (and who knows maybe some women) dressed in cowboy costumes, six-shooters strapped to each hip, and of course confederate flags the size of Long Island flapping in wind. When all the celebration got over with just what do you think would happen? Let me ask you a few questions: 1. The Minuteman and their supporters blame the rising cost of health care on the alleged fact that illegals get free medicine and care. Do you believe for one stinking moment that the cardiologist, the neurologists, the oncologists, and every other "ologist" you can think of would suddenly lower their $150.00 office call fees overnight because of the disappearance of the illegals? Do you think that you would be able to walk into your Family Practice Doctor's office and only have to pay less than $15.00 for an office call like you can in Mexico? Do you think you would suddenly be able to get your pap smear, gynecological exam, and mammogram for less than $99.00 like you can here in Mexico? Do you think the cost of a hospital stay would overnight drop from a million dollars per second to a few bucks a night? Is this what you people are actually thinking? 2. The Minuteman and their supports accuse illegals of: "...corrupting our political and social institutions, favoring political and social radicalism, agitating for more transfer programs, and so on." Do you people really believe that fruit pickers and hotel maids who live in constant fear of detection of their illegal status are going to raise that kind of hell and risk getting their illegal status revealed? And do you really expect the world to believe that they have the intellectual sophistication"?MOSTLY ILLITERATE, ILLEGAL MEXICAN/INDIANS"?to voice such concepts as "political and social radicalism, agitating for more transfer programs..."? 3. The Minuteman and their minions believe that illegals "refuse to conform and Americanize." Exactly to what "standard of Americanization" do these Minuteman mean? The American-Irish, the African-American, the American-German, the "what ever I want to be at the moment culture"? 4. Are you really going to start paying $21.00 for a head of lettuce instead of what you are paying now? Or, perhaps, $6.00 for "An" apple? Just where will farmers, hotel owners, and merchants suddenly get the money to pay for sky-high wages, benefits, that organized American Union workers will demand to pick your fruit and make your beds? This is presuming, of course, that your college educated kid, right out of the University, wants to do those jobs as the Minuteman folks claim. (Please read the following written by Jacob G. Hornberger and reprinted by the kind permission of Bart Frazier Program Director The Future of Freedom Foundation.) America's National Culture on the Border by Jacob G. Hornberger, June 2000 People who rail that America's "national culture" is threatened by immigrants never explain which national culture they are referring to. I recently visited my hometown of Laredo, Texas, which is located on our nation's Southern border. In grocery stores and department stores half the signs are in Spanish and store employees greet people in Spanish. There are a few pizza parlors and even a Chinese restaurant, but they can't compare to the many restaurants selling enchiladas, menudo, chalupas, and tacos. Laredo, which today has a population of 155,000, was founded in 1755 by a Spanish officer named Don Tomas Sanchez de Barrera y Gallardo, who named the town Villa de San Agustin de Laredo, after a town in Spain. Today, San Augustin Plaza is located a short distance from Laredo's two downtown international bridges, which connect the city to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (population 300,000). One of the major downtown streets in Laredo is named Hidalgo Street, after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the father of Mexican independence. Another is Iturbide Street, named after Emperor Agustin Iturbide, the first ruler of independent Mexico. During my recent visit to Laredo, I noticed that the streets in a brand new residential subdivision had been named after coastal cities in Mexico, such as Puerto Vallarta. After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, Laredo refused to recognize Texas rule and for a time served as capital of the Republic of the Rio Grande, which consisted of a coalition of three northern Mexican states and southwest Texas, which were themselves revolting against Mexican rule, unsuccessfully. As part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican War in 1848, the war by which the United States acquired the northern half of Mexico, Laredo officially became part of the United States. (At the same time, Nuevo Laredo, on the other side of the Rio Grande, was founded by Mexican citizens who wanted to remain in Mexico rather than live in the United States.) The long-established culture in Laredo has been one in which people informally converse with each other in either English or Spanish (or Tex-Mex, a peculiar blend of languages in which the conversants slip back and forth between English and Spanish, sometimes even within the same sentence). The local Spanish television channel and the Tejano (mixture of English and Spanish) radio stations seem to be at least as popular as the English-language ones. Generally people are indifferent to the particular language being spoken, and everyone is accepting of those who speak only English, sometimes even marrying them (as my mother did). But even the English-only crowd speaks a little Spanish when they visit what was once Mexico. After all, when was the last time you heard anyone say that he personally saw St. Anthony and, after traveling through the Pass, visited St. Francis, and ended up visiting the Angels (San Antonio, El Paso, San Francisco, and Los Angeles)? Oh, did I mention that for more than 100 years, Laredo has had the largest bash in the country celebrating George Washington's birthday? Sixteen fun-filled days every February, including a grand parade with George and Martha Washington and their court in colonial garb on floats, the Society of Martha Washington Pageant and Ball, the Princess Pocahontas Pageant and Ball, Noche Mexicana, Caballeros Cocktail Party, Streets of Laredo Jamboozee (including such musical groups as "Tommy and the Tomcats" and "Javier Molina & El Dorado,"), fireworks, street parties, and a fantastic Jalapeno Festival (including, of course, a jalapeno spitting contest). If those who are dedicated to preserving America's "national culture" are referring to the culture in Laredo (which really is located inside the United States), they'll find plenty of support among the citizenry of this great American city located on the banks of the Rio Grande. Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation (http://www.fff.org/) in Fairfax, Va. I am compelled to ask once again, "exactly to what standard of Americanization do these Minuteman mean?" |
