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Good Morning Visionaries:<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica">Crabtree: It seems to me that your notion
of the Gospel with regard to illegal aliens is flawed. Do you believe
that should a thief break into your home it's your obligation to give him
a hot meal and pay to have the hand he cut breaking your window stitched
up? Maybe some dental care for him and his family while he's there? Heck
as long as he's sitting on your sofa why not arrange for a little in
state tuition at the local diploma mill and offer to pay expenses not
covered by grants.<br><br>
</font>Crabtree should be smart enough to tell the difference between a
thief breaking into a home, and homeowners inviting them into their
homes, yards, businesses, orchards, and fields and paying them slave
wages. Crabtree admits that he reads at most only two paragraphs of
my posts, so I'll re-post a relevant part of my column "Long Live
the Braceros" with the entire column following.<br><br>
There is an argument by analogy against immigrants that is making its
rounds on the internet. I will offer an edited version and then
give my critique.<br>
<br>
<i>Let's say I break into your house. Let's say that when you
discover me in your house, you insist that I leave. But I say,
"I've made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry
and swept the floors; I've done all the things you don't like to
do. <br>
<br>
"I'm hard-working and honest. Not only must you let me stay, you
must add me to your family's insurance plan and provide other benefits to
me and to my family. If you try to call the police or force me out, I
will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that
proclaim my right to be here.”<br>
<br>
</i> The main problem
with this analogy is that, although they cross the border illegally,
these people are warmly invited into American homes and employers gladly
hire them without checking their papers. The last thing they are doing is
calling the police. These Americans are breaking the law just as much as
their workers are. Some growers have admitted that they could
mechanize much of their harvest, but they say it's cheaper to hire
immigrant labor.<br><br>
<div align="center"><b>LONG LIVE THE BRACEROS: <br>
ESSENTIAL GUEST WORKERS NOT FELONS<br>
<br>
</b>By Nick Gier<br>
</div>
<br>
In 1958 I got my first job picking pears in my hometown of Medford,
Oregon. With 10,000 acres of orchards, Medford is called the Pear Capital
of the World. When I was growing up there was an annual Pear Blossom
Festival, and I would march with my accordion band alongside a float
decorated with pear blossoms. Later I thought that this probably looked
as amazing as the cello playing Woody Allen "marching" with his
school band in his film "Take the Money and Run."<br>
<br>
Except for a few migrant families from the South, I was the only white
kid in the orchards. Most of my peers thought I was crazy taking on such
demeaning work. My crew boss thought that I was saving money for a
"jalopy," and he was mystified when I told him that I was
saving for college.<br>
<br>
Most of the pickers were Mexicans hired on the Bracero
Program. I was paid 12 cents a box and one day I picked 150 boxes,
not bad earnings for a 14-year-old 48 years ago. I was not sure how
much the Mexicans were being paid, but at least they were legal. I was
not because I lied about my age to get the job. I will also get my social
security from that job; but, even after fighting in the courts, the
Braceros were denied the benefits from the deductions from their
wages.<br>
<br>
The Bracero Program was started in 1942 because of the severe labor
shortages during the war. More than 4 million Mexicans crossed the
border legally, and they helped transform America's orchards and fields
into the most productive farms in the world. The program ended in
1964, but the demand for this labor was higher than ever, and millions
more began to cross the border illegally. <br><br>
Insert material above.<br>
<br>
Testifying at a recent Senate hearing, New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg stated that his city's economy would collapse if the estimated
500,000 illegal immigrants were deported. He also predicted that
this would happen to the national economy as well. <br>
<br>
The Republicans who wish to criminalize these workers' existence are the
largest recipients of campaign money from employers who rather would pay
illegal workers less and provide no benefits. The original Braceros
worked and lived under miserable conditions and suffered brutal
discrimination, and, sadly, those conditions have not improved much since
the 1940s. <br>
<br>
Larry Kudlow, writing for the conservative journal <i>National Review</i>
(4/4/06), praises the Bracero Program and urges Congress to expand the
ridiculously low unskilled H-2B quota from 140,000 to the millions of
visas that are needed for our service and agricultural economy.
<br>
<br>
Kudlow also reminds Americans that "illegals have [paid] $7 billion
to Social Security and $1.5 billion to Medicare. They are contributing to
our wealth, not reducing it." He also adds that "only 10
percent of illegal Mexicans have sent a child to an American public
school and just 5 percent have received food stamps or unemployment
benefits."<br>
<br>
It's high time to recognize the contributions of these hard working
people, face the economic facts, and stop the fear mongering that has
demonized a group of people who have enhanced an already great nation of
immigrants.<br>
<br><br>
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<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
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