What happened to that hippie-era free love?
http://blog.al.com/times-views/2010/09/ricky_thomason_what_happened_t.html
September 12, 2010
by RICKY THOMASON
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ "You vill show me your papers, now! Vhere are you
goink? Vhat is your business there?"
You just know in your heart that Alabama won't rest until it fights
for its right to share the huge legal costs that Arizona is set to
incur because of the immigration debacle, aka the Hispanic Panic.
Jerry Jeff Walker can have another hit, "Up Against The Wall You
Brown-necked Mother."
I don't pretend to know what the best answer is to this deal. I am
pretty sure the "pack'm all up and ship'm back where they belong
isn't the answer because the economies of North America would go
beyond recession, speed through depression and rush headlong into
total collapse.
Fruit would rot on the trees, veggies in the fields, and chickens
would cost ten bucks each if you could get them.
We'd be stuck with Taco Bell again as a barely recognizable facsimile
of Mexican food: in other words, a disaster.
The thing most people won't admit is that it was the greed of the
American industries that caused most of this mess.
The usual suspects who own the food chain had billboards in Mexico
recruiting workers and even paying for their way here, or busing them
in with jobs guaranteed.
People, with all this furor over the Ground Zero Islamic Center, a
group of Christian nuts in Fla. planned to burn all the copies of the
Quran they could find, even after Gen. Davis Patraeus asked them not
to because it would endanger the troops,
Americans abroad, and at home. We have seditious idiots on radio and
TV inciting the stupid and one of their favorite talking points is
illegal immigration.
We all need to take two steps back and take a deep breath. Remember,
prejudice is the illegitimate child of fear and ignorance.
Anyone watch the TV series "30 Days"? The premise is to put people in
situations far outside their comfort zone and have them live there for 30 days.
They've had a rich couple attempt to survive on minimum wage for a month.
An atheist lives with a fundamentalist Christian Family for 30 days.
While still unsure about heaven, she knows hell is real. A Christian
lives for 30 days with a Muslim family in Dearborn, Mich.
A director spends 30 days in a Richmond, Va. county jail. Too bad it
wasn't the Morgan County Jail. He'd never eat another corn dog as
long as he lives.
Two 30-year-old friends do their time in a Missouri eco-village with
no modern conveniences.
A really interesting episode ran this week, I'm watching as I write
this. A rabid, anti-illegal immigrant from Cuba spends thirty days
with a family of illegals.
The guy is a Minuteman, according to his wife, and is one of 7,000
volunteers who patrol the US/Mexico border coyote hunting.
They cannot arrest or accost anyone, but they can call the border
patrol. I'm sure the border patrol loves having the help of 7,000
Barneys armed to the teeth with Tek-9's, M-16's and 500 rounds of
ammo each. How they bribed the dude into doing the show would be
interesting to know.
He doesn't hide his feelings about the family of eight living in a
500 sq. ft. apartment, and has to make his daily bread as a day
laborer. He's furious that two of the kids were born here and are citizens.
As a native born Cuban, he fits the profile far too easily to
advocate laws that would demand our police stop and check his papers
every time they see him. Something tells me that he would be incensed.
Even his chunk of ice heart thaws a bit when he sees the mother
collects aluminum cans all year so the kids can have something for
Christmas this year, unlike past years they did not. He said he
cannot help but like the mother.
She exudes caring and warmth. I'm not sure how it ends up, but I am
sure that when we walk a mile in the other guys' shoes things take on
a different hue. It's one of those "more light, less heat" things.
Didn't some hippie once suggest that we love one another?
--
Ricky Thomason's e-mail: [email protected]
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