LOU DOBBS IS A RACIST

LOU DOBBS IS A RACIST

I keep watching Lou Dobbs and what keeps coming to mind is, “He’s really scared of Mexicans.” I intend to watch a little bit more before I truly declare he hates Mexicans, but every episode I watched discussed the failure of the U.S. to keep Mexicans out. He’s afraid everyone’s going to have sex and there will not be anymore white people. He doesn’t say white people, he says Americans. If you’re born here you are an American. You’ll still be called a Mexican by whoever hates you because you look like one and probably speak Spanish, but that doesn’t make you NOT AN AMERICAN! The other reason I think he’s a racist is this: if an Hispanic and a White person have a child…what race is it? If you have an answer, you might be a racist. On the Daily Show they had an author who said that Americans were “short-sighted” when it came to History, and he’s right. It was not that long ago that Americans decided that if you had even a drop of Black blood in you, well, then you’re black. During Jim Crow it was if you carried 1/32 percent African Blood. (www.jimcrowhistory.org) What makes this racist is that the obverse is not true and it should be and if it isn’t the only reason can be that you think one race is pure and the other is not. (It’s not just Lou Dobbs; there are several news reports that bring up that Hispanics will make up the majority of U.S. citizens by “future date to be scared of”. This doesn’t make sense for the reason I mentioned above. If Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and other “Hispanics” are just having kids with each other then this makes sense. But if I have a child with a white woman, can I call my kid white, or because I’m an impure race is my child doomed to be Hispanic. –See 1/32 rule above)

Now I know Lou Dobbs has a lot of “reasons” for keeping Mexicans out of the U.S. and some of them are valid. However, I can’t hear any of that because he talks about Aztlan (sp?) and how there are people who want to give this country back to Mexico. REALLY? There are people in Texas who want it to secede from the Union and for Texas to become its own country. I think they’ll have the same amount of success, don’t you?

And as to the belief that they refuse to assimilate. I think this is sometimes true, but I would say it is rare. The first generation usually clings more to its roots, but the next generation is more Americanized and the one after that even more so. As I look at my own family: My grandparents speak only Spanish, my parents speak both, and my sister and I had to learn Spanish and neither is fluent. (My sister can carry a conversation; I can barely put together a sentence). This is generally the way it goes for all immigrants. I’ve met several Asians (Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese) who cannot really carry on conversations with their grandparents, because they can’t speak their “native” tongue.

Even if it was true that immigrants aren’t assimilating, what’s so wrong about that? I’ve seen what assimilation has done to this country; a nation where no matter what city you go to everything is the same. A nation of McDonalds, Chili’s, TGIFridays, Targets, Best Buys. Everywhere you go there they are. Why travel? Every city is starting to look exactly the same. But not the border towns. I went to the Rio Grande Valley a couple of weeks ago and ate at 4 independently owned restaurants that were cheaper and better than the blandness that is taking over this country. And I didn’t have to seek them out, as you have to in Austin or Houston; it’s where everyone goes to eat. Maybe we need a little less assimilation. Maybe we need a few more people doing their own thing. I don’t think Mexicans are a threat to this country. Like the Irish and others before us, a hundred years from now people will wonder what all the ruckus was about. At least that’s what I hope, and will continue to hope even after they’ve put me into an internment camp.

Bush's immigration speech

George Bush unveiled his 5 point plan for dealing with immigration. Now I have many feelings about his 5 point plan, but the one the American people should really focus on is: How much is this going to cost?

1. Strengthen our Borders – the cost for this point alone must be astronomical. He wants to hire 6,000 more employees. If you paid them minimum wage that would still be over 60 million a year (tax payer dollars), for every dollar over minimum add another 12 million a year. Not to mention the cost for these infrared cameras, motion sensors, the cost of building fences, and roads. Then add the additional cost of sending everyone back, not just to Mexico, which would be cheap, but if someone comes from Cuba or Chile or China we’re (the taxpayers) going to have to pay to send them back there. For this proposal alone the cost goes over a billion dollars.

2. Temporary worker program - It’s one thing to say we need new Ids for all workers. Easy to say that we want to set up a system for workers and employers to get together, but who’s paying for it. A new office or upgrades to the currently existing INS offices is going to be required. More employees will most likely need to be hired. A new government agency will have to be set up to help immigrants who wish to work legally here in the U.S. find employers who want to hire them. Essentially a Federal temp agency. And we’ll be paying for it.

3. Employer accountability – In order to hold employers accountable for hiring illegal workers, you need people to investigate the claims. Once again hiring more people or tasking already over tasked law enforcement with that duty. At least this one could possibly pay for itself with the fines we could levy on employers who violate the law. But it would still probably only break even.

4. Illegals here could earn citizenship – Once again, without increasing the number of people in the federal government, nothing is going to change for those illegals who have been here for years. If those who are going the legal route get to go first in line (and that already takes a long time), then I don’t see those who have been living here for 20-30 years illegally trying to become legal citizens when they would have to wait even longer, work even harder and pay a penalty. THEY’RE POOR YOU MORON! If they had money they would enter the U.S. legally!

5. Which I could only understand as NO HABLO ESPANOL! I didn’t hear much on point five except that everyone must try to speak English. I agree with this one and I think GEORGE W. BUSH should be the first who has to pass an English test for citizenship. That would solve all our problems. Once he’s declared not a citizen then we can legally take the Presidency away from him. HOORAYY!!!

I believe we need strong borders. I believe we need to do something about our immigration problem. But this is just too expensive, and wouldn't really solve the problem. At a time when we have a tremendous deficit and owe money to foreign countries do we really want to get deeper in debt. And remember that as the number of Federal employees goes up so does our tax burden. Whatever happened to Republicans being for smaller government. To co-opt the phrase most often used in local elections: "This plan costs to much, does too little."

- j.r.