Don't fear the 'meegra

[PornoDoggy]

You know, the funny thing about this entire discussion is that is it profoundly American. The same conversation could have taken place in the 1840s - although obviously in a different forum. I suspect that a lot of the people harumphing the illegals today came from illegals - the main difference being, those illegals happen to be German, Irish, Italian, Polish, or from any of a dozen Slavik countries.

It's probably only been 50 years or so since Southern and Eastern Europeans were considered White, fer cryin' out loud. The first bitter controversies over bilingual education raged in cities like St. Louis and Milwaukee - a hundred years ago. The same thing raged over Spanish in the west at the same time, and into the 30s.

There have always been folks afraid of immigrants in America, at least since the 1830s. Some are just sad people scared of anything that ain't just like them. Some of them just have to have somebody to hate or be afraid of to make them feel better about their own sad, pathetic lives. Odd thing is, the fucking country seems to have survived the invasion du jour that was going to destroy our civilization.

When I was a kid I used to go to a candy store that sold local (St. Louis) weekly newspapers in Italian, German, and Polish. It was a city neighborhood - so, of course, the younger residents (my Dad's generation) bolted to a the safe, bland, boring 'burbs. The place got pretty bad for a long while, but it's made a comeback with a vengence in the last ten years.

Of course, some asswipes might get their tender sensibilities offended if they went there. Some of the signs in the stores aroudn there are in three or four languages. You can occasionally have to wait for a shopkeeper to get a younger relative who speaks English in addition to Arabic, Vietnamese, Thai, Spanish, or Croation.

The descendents of the fucking wops, the dirty kikes, the polacks, and the huns sit in the bars and coffee houses up there and bitch about the foreigners taking over their neighborhood, too.

[sarettah]

Just for the record. A mere 20 years ago, the same discussions took place.

The result of that was "immigration reform" (as they are seeking now) and pretty much a blanket amnesty for 2.8 million illegal immigrants.

Apparently that did not destroy the country.

Reagan's words and deeds regarding immigration were equally expansive. At a ceremony at Ellis Island in 1982, he spoke movingly of immigrants who "possessed a determination that with hard work and freedom, they would live a better life and their children even more so." As with trade, Reagan's record on immigration was mixed. He signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which included stepped up border enforcement and sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. But that legislation also legalized 2.8 million undocumented workers. More immigrants entered the United States legally under President Reagan's watch than under any previous U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt.

Like President George W. Bush today, Reagan had the good sense and compassion to see illegal immigrants not as criminals but as human beings striving to build better lives through honest work. In a radio address in 1977, he noted that apples were rotting on trees in New England because no Americans were willing to pick them. "It makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do?" Reagan asked. "One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters."

http://www.cato.org/dailys/06-24-04.html