PEACE

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

BEST IMMIGRATION PLAN-LEAVE IT BE FOR NOW

IMMIGRATION

It appears the forces in Washington are determined to adjust immigration policy, each in his or her own

image. That's godly of them. However out here on the frontier; Lawrence County, Tennessee, our main employer, the factory that relocated here from up north fifty years ago, shut its doors; leaving thousands in the lurch. They produced bicycles, lawn mowers and snow blowers. The impetus for Murray-Ohio to move its plant here was the prospect of less greedy workers, who forego union representation, and would accept less than those left behind in the victorious north. Now the country folk have been repaid; the bicycle work went to Germany, the lawn mowers to Mexico, but the snow blowers stay domestic! Back up north in Indiana.

Our friends and neighbors in Lewis County, adjacent to our northern boundry, lost hundreds of Dana Corporation jobs in 2005, the hub of its economy, along with earlier closedowns of the H. I. Seigal garment factory (they made H.I.S. jeans) and the Loredo cowboy boot plant; prospects are grim.

Sen. Obama, who I heartily support for President, has lent his voice to this misguided tinkering.

Many of the remarks he made on the floor of the Senate in support of his Amendment to Bush’s amnesty bill were as camoflage: “This is not who we are as a country. Should those without graduate degrees who spoke Italian or Polish or German, instead of English, have been turned back at Ellis Island? Should the immigrants from Asia who arrived at Angel Island to build our railroads have been told that they could only come for two years because they had no hope of passing a points test? How many of our ancestors would have been allowed to enter the U.S. under this new system?”

While this has emotional appeal, is good for hispanic votes, it is obscure gobbledy-gook. In the preceding paragraph he stated: “We live in a global economy, and I do believe that America will be strengthened if we welcome more immigrants who have mastered science and engineering. But, we cannot weaken the very essence of what America is by turning our backs on immigrants who want to reunite with their family members, or immigrants who have a willingness to work hard but who may not have the right graduate degrees.”

Which is it? Do we live in a global economy or the twilight world of the Islands Ellis and Angel. When the hordes of people we ALLOWED IN arrived, we needed as many strong backs as we could get. In the Golden Book Statue of Liberty version, the squalor of poverty endured for years by the new arrivals is as nothing! They were routinely cheated on wages. They were the underclass of that day and age. Because their European complexions worked in their favor, not a few climbed the mountain out of wage slavery to professional and executive positions in just three or four generations! Standing on the shoulders of those long dead, foreign language speakers who endured hovels and abuse for their meager bread, great-great grandchildren are prospering; perhaps merging companies, outsourcing our work.

Refrain from anymore homilies on the huddled masses! Please!

Mexico’s economy receives more hard cash from its expatriate workers than it earns from its entire oil industry. When fellow Democrats start expressing their Christian charity by admitting the neighbors to the eating table; without lifting a finger to provide the resources to train and employ native born citizens so that the bounty may remain undiminished, we have a problem.

As the Senator seemed moved to harken back to the days of yesteryear, with its wide open immigration; let us not forget how hucksters bilked the Polish and Italian poor of their little, playing travel agent spinning outrageous claims of Manifest Destiny awaiting them that longed to breathe free; it bears consideration how it was then-legal and illegal immigration was not outrunning our ability to provide work. Our industry was not being packed up and sent to Mexico like the carnival.

Our task in the next election is to learn whether government will ever again act on behalf of the wage earners or the underclass. Our entire political leadership (who are using the military like a teenager drives Dad’s car) is so dependent on corporate money; whether it comes in big wads from Mr. Brownshoes in the boardroom or in modest donations via the web from those idealists still lucky enough to have a good job; it remains to be seen if Democrats will outperform Republicans in reining in the corporate excess that has brought us to such a sorry state. When Mr. Neo Con Fascist and Mr. Corporate Greed would rather import foreigners with an education instead of raising up a self sufficient generation , the greed has gone far enough. Instead of the gentle tones of empathy and reconciliation, we need to hear some hellfire and brimstone, and see some righteous anger.

When it comes to this immigration bill, the best course is do nothing. All that was accomplished in 1986 was amnesty, despite whatever good intentions, if there were any beyond cheap help. We invited millions more to come in illegally. Appeasement of illegal workers already here attracted a flood of economic refugees to reunite with them. The status of illegal aliens ought stay illegal. If it is a hardship to be here illegally, steps already exist for its remedy. They can return home and lawfully apply for entrance. WHAT MANY ARE DEMANDING IS A GUARANTEED POSITIVE OUTCOME, don’t give it to them. My sympathy knows few bounds, I don’t propose to round them up and repatriate them.

We could start providing foreign aid to Latin America with benchmarks to keep it out of the crooked hands of those who have fostered the kind of poverty obliging so many of their countrymen as are able to abandon family, culture and language, to sneak into the U.S. to face a job market that is gruesome, that even a lifelong English speaker, a graduate of American public schools cannot get ahead in. Whatever labor they find, they are underpaid and must send money home, where it goes a lot further. I bet a quarter of what has been spent on Halliburton and Iraq could go a long way to keep them folks at home doing my old job.

We have over two million people rotting in prison, the majority for non-violent and property crime. This is a four or fivefold increase in the last twenty years. A fraction of these resources could fund Roosevelt-type programs like WPA or CCC that teach skills and build self-esteem and a desire to create. In some areas half our young people are not graduating school. The hope we had growing up in Detroit was “if all else fails, I’ll work in the factory”. The whole climate of work has been altered. The hope of finding an adequate living without twenty hours of overtime a week seems slim. We have teeming prisons and empty factories, and not the least reason why is deterioration of the relationship of boss vis-à-vis worker. The golden parachuting owners make 230x what his employee does; operate like Las Vegas high-rollers, with no restraints, concern for the welfare of those shoved out of companies-back to the frontier. Accounting tricks abound, they have multiplied! Do you believe that Sears or Kmart weren’t making any money? that the carving knife had to be used on the ONLY BUSINESS VARIABLE-labor cost? by merging and dispensing with the suddenly redundant, leaving an unknown number to face a future that won’t include a job as good?