The Deeper Issues in Whitman's alleged treatment of Housekeeper > http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-1002-rutten-20101002,0,3630778.column > Missing the Whitman story > > The media are ignoring the deeper issues in the gubernatorial candidate's > alleged treatment of a former housekeeper. > > Tim Rutten > > October 2, 2010 > > > > If you're following the gubernatorial campaign, you've heard little else over > the past few days but the back and forth between Republican candidate Meg > Whitman and her former housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz Santillan, an undocumented > immigrant. > Calbuzz, a smart and irreverent website devoted to California politics, > caught the essence of the coverage: "The latest dramatic chapter of the > governor's race finds the campaign of one of the richest women in > California threatened by the comments of one of the poorest. Finally, a > political story TV can understand." > > Actually, a political story that much of the media which has yawned and > rolled their eyes through most of this campaign can enthusiastically > misunderstand might be closer to the mark. There's nothing particularly > remarkable about the fact that the billionaire former EBay > chief executive and her neurosurgeon husband employed an undocumented > immigrant. At some point, most Californians knowingly or unknowingly employ a > worker without papers or do business with someone who does. Merely going out > to dinner, having your car washed or hiring a contractor to work on your > house makes that so. > > What really ought to concern people most are Diaz Santillan's allegations > that during the nine years she worked for Whitman and her husband, they > repeatedly forced her to put in more than her agreed-upon hours without > compensation and refused to pay her mileage even though she had to use her > own car to perform household errands. Whitman denies all this, but she does > agree that she fired Diaz Santillan within days of the June 2009 conversation > in which the housekeeper asked for help in legalizing her status. That may > not be labor code-style mistreatment, but it's an odd way to treat somebody > who'd worked in your home and taken care of your children for nearly a decade > and who Whitman herself describes as "a member of our extended family." Lots > of tough love, one surmises, in that house. > > Diaz Santillan alleges that Whitman fired her in a phone call, saying: "From > now on you don't know me, and I don't know you. You never have seen me and I > have never seen you. Do you understand me?" With that, according to Diaz > Santillan, Whitman hung up. > > "She was," Diaz Santillan said, "throwing me away like a piece of garbage." > > The facts of Whitman's relationship with Diaz Santillan remain to be sorted > out, but we already know for certain that undocumented workers are treated > like garbage exploited as if they weren't human beings. They're forced into > the shadows; darkness makes them vulnerable to every form of mistreatment. > > The night the Whitman story broke this week, Cardinal Roger Mahony delivered > a soberly compelling lecture at USC's Institute for Advanced Catholic > Studies. His topic was the pressing need for comprehensive immigration reform. > > Mahony speaks labor as fluently as he does Spanish. The problems of working > people, particularly immigrants, have been a primary pastoral focus of his > long priesthood. He knows the issue in all its dimensions, from the halls of > Congress to the garment district shop floors and the fields of the Central > Valley. > > Comprehensive immigration reform, he argues, is both a moral and an economic > imperative. The essence of our current situation, Mahony says, can be grasped > by envisioning two signs posted along our southern border: One says, "Help > Wanted;" the other, "No Trespassing." > > It's an unworkable push-pull that demands, among other reforms, a > well-administered guest-worker program to meet continuing labor needs, and a > registration and restitution process for those already in the country without > papers. In other words, precisely the sort of reforms that would make > unlikely the kinds of abuse Diaz Santillan alleges she suffered in the > Whitman household. > > One of the realities Mahony cited was the fact that at least 70% of America's > estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants already live in so-called > blended families that is, those in which one or more members is a citizen > or legal resident. The percentage well may be higher here in California, > where fully one-third of all workers are immigrants. > > The human and economic complexities of such a situation are unlikely to get > much of a hearing in a round of "gotcha" media coverage. But they would if > the media compared the realities of Whitman's own household with her campaign > speeches denouncing any path to citizenship for undocumented workers and > urging more raids, fines and suspensions of business licenses for those who > employ them. > > >
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