Report this comment

pags

Posted by: pagsnm on Mar 23, 2009 9:02 AM

This was a well done video and a fine piece of propaganda. The isssue is not immigration but illegal immigration. The video fails to point out that before the Roosevelt administration, the USA did not have social structures in place to support its citizens in need, social structures that were greatly expanded under President Johnson's Great Society legislation. Thus, both legal and illegal immigration costs the taxpayer money when it did not do so to such a degree previously. Secondly, the conflicting metaphors of the "melting pot" and the "mosaic" or "tapestry" raise the question of what it means to be an American. The statistics are that over 50% of illegal immigration is from Mexico. There is a sense of entitlement that many Mexican nationals hold, that they have a right to come to the USA. Another 25% of illegal aliens come from Central and South America. Thus over 75% of illegal immigration is from Hispanic nations. Today, there are those in the Hispanic community who believe that it is more important to be Hispanic than American. There is a great gulf between the attitudes of the "old" immigrants, those who arrived before the days of multiculturalism, and the "new" immigrants, those who arrived during the 1960's and later. I include in the group of old immigrants those Hispanics whose roots go back many generations and who are in every sense of the word Americans. They are often silent, but not necessarily supportive of illegal immigration. Another issue is that of respect for the law. Not since the great debates concerning slavery and the convoluted arguments of the defenders of slavery have such illogical arguments been used to defend a social situation that is essentially a breaking of the law(s) of the nation. The bottom line is that we have over 12 million individuals in this country who are here illegally. Many of these individuals also have broken laws concerning the use of fraudulent documents and motor vehicle laws. We have accepted the idea that the end justifies the means. Because so many of these individuals share a common cultural orientation and a common language, they are preceived to be a highly visible threat to American culture and the English language, both adhesives which bind us together as Americans.
The question of illegal immigration has become a devisive issue which will require the wisdom of Solomon to resolve.
The comments I read on both sides of the issue are often hateful and racist. The video would have done us a greater service if it had presented both sides of the issue.

---

• Reply
• Post a new comment