Friday, April 30, 2010

On Immigration

This was in response to an email posted on a listserve I belong to - I don't have permission to print the original email, but it was pretty ugly.

The ancestors to those folks from Mexico lived on this land now called the USA for centuries before anyone from Europe or Africa showed up.  So, who is the immigrant here?

And people in the peace movement - especially veterans for peace - have done things for returning veterans.  There was once a home downtown run by some religious folks who took in homeless veterans.  They came regularly to peace actions, but they were closed down by the city for violations of city regulations.  The local vets for peace have collected furniture and household items to donate to other veterans, who were first getting a place to live.  None of us are rich, and we are not in control of how our tax dollars are being spent either.

How do you feel about the new statues in front of City County plaza to honor veterans?  That cost the taxpayers $450,000.  I think the money could have been better used to help the homeless vets, but we got a memorial glorifying wars instead.  They call it a veterans memorial.  They only glorify the DEAD veterans, because they are the only veterans who are not causing any problems at all.

And while we are not doing nearly enough for our veterans, we are doing vastly, vastly, vastly more for them than for the innocent civilian victims of our useless wars.

Those who come here to the USA to work and provide for their families - and are willing to sleep 20 to an apartment to do so - are not your enemies.  They are here because of trade policies that came from the US government that ruined economic opportunities in their own land.  They just want to live, and see their children succeed instead of cry at night because they are hungry.

But those politicians who enacted those laws that created NAFTA and other hideous trade policies, and who started these useless wars of aggression and greed - THEY SURE WANT YOU TO HATE THE IMMIGRANTS.  Because as long as you are busy doing that, you won't have time to get really informed and figure out what the real problem is - THE POLITICIANS AND THEIR POLICIES.  And you won't have the inclination to do something about it.

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