Posted on 01/31/2013 2:27:22 PM PST by Oberon
I met Paulino at the nursery farm where I worked summers during college, shearing Christmas trees. This was about 1990 or so. He was about five foot six and 140 pounds soaking wet. In his late twenties, he was in the US illegally, but he drove a truck he’d bought with cash and rented a pretty nice house not far from the nursery. He paid for the house, the truck, and the beer he’d stash in the water cooler for after work with money he made from the nursery.
Paulino could work rings around most of the white college boy summer help, and that’s how he got his foot in the door. Not content with a single working man’s wage, he lined up a half-dozen other illegals to work for him, and provided an entire work crew to the nursery on a contract basis. The nursery didn’t have to worry about who was documented, Paulino paid cash, and everybody was happy. All seven of them could work rings around the rest of us, even when they were only coasting.
The six men on the shearing crew were Mexicans, but Paulino was from El Salvador. He was in the US because he was AWOL from the Salvadoran army, who had forcibly conscripted him just out of his teens. One day he saw his chance and took off running for the jungle. Guards took potshots at him as he fled and Paulino was hit, but he made it to the woods and kept running. It wasn’t safe for him in El Salvador any more, so he stayed on the move until he made it to the US. His wounds healed up, but he still had the scars, the only bullet scars I’ve ever personally seen.
Now, I’ve been around guns all my life. My father and grandfathers had them, all my uncles were hunters, and most of my male cousins on both sides of the family owned, handled, and fired guns on a regular basis. All of them knew how to handle guns safely. All of them knew how to avoid a negligent discharge, and all of them knew how to handle the gun so that if it did go off no serious harm was done. If the mere fact of having guns around were a real risk factor for injury or death, my family history should show multiple gunshot wounds and at least one fatality within the latest three generations.
Yet the only person I ever knew who had bullet scars was Paulino... shot by his own government.
We need a much better, legal, front door for immigration. I do not want amnesty, but I understand the incentive to come to America.
We simply cannot absorb all of Central and South American that want to come here.
A good legal system would allow a lot of good people in and relieve a lot of pressure for illegal immigration.
It is pretty disgusting to be on a conservative forum and have a large number of people pretending to be anything but what they are.
Simply will never agree with the open borders crowd sailing under false colors.
Well your nose needs adjustment. I did my part to defeat communists in Central America - how about you?
I never did find myself outside the U.S. I did vote for Ronald Reagan twice.
Interestingly, my Sister used to go down to El Salvador at least once a month. She was just a secretary for the U.S. Army and I have no idea what she was doing down there but the Army wasn’t letting her take a weeks leave or maybe two every few weeks unless they had been authorized to do so. Her husband was an agent for one of the U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies.
My family has been in Florida since at least the 1700s and I like a lot of Cubans, but they came here legally.
Was that comment meant to apply to me?
Yes it was, you among others.
If I am wrong, I would like to hear what your views are.
You're so wrong I don't give a good fart in a high wind what you think. Feel free to enjoy the rest of your life being you, without any further input from me.
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