Here's a favorite flag picture..Long may she wave!!
Posted on 04/02/2006 9:08:00 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
What can one say about Montebello High School? While rallying against tougher immigration laws, student protesters lowered the American flag, raised the Mexican flag, then flew the Stars and Stripes upside down beneath it.
A protest can be chaotic and unpredictable. These students rushed out of class, their adrenaline pumping. Emotions ran high -- some were rallying against laws that directly affect their mothers and fathers.
Even so, why did they use their protest to make a statement about America versus Mexico? Among Mexicans championing immigrant rights, why is there a faction that insists on denigrating the United States? Why are some people itching for the right to live within the United States displaying symbols that suggest they find our southern neighbor a superior nation?
It doesn't make sense --- though you probably understand it as well as I do.
Some protesters blame America for the sorry state of their native country. As one immigrant e-mailed me, ‘‘We are here because it's YOU the U.S. who keeps our countries from developing, or seeking any kind of enrichment. It's you who occupy our countries, and build military bases. It's the U.S. that has throughout history supported oppressive governments to keep oppressing their people.''
Other protesters -- and they don't speak for all the protesters -- look at America as a flawed country. They see poverty beside rampant materialism. Compared to most Americans, they're more likely to interact with a racist police officer or an unscrupulous contractor or a condescending shopkeeper in their daily lives.
They see the hypocrisy in an immigration system that rarely punishes Americans who hire illegal immigrants, while routinely deporting the immigrants themselves.
They've got a point: America isn't perfect. Many Americans are as quick to point out our flaws as any of the protesters we've seen this past week. Self-criticism is one of America's strengths. We find flaws; then we try our best to fix them.
Even as we criticize this country, however, we know deep down how great it is. We don't need to say it out loud any more than we need to point out how athletic Michael Jordan is when we critique his baseball swing, or how beautiful a Hollywood celebrity is when we gossip about her ugly dress at the Academy Awards. We assume America's greatness even when we lament its politicians, or its social problems or certain parts of its foreign policy.
Could it be, however, that America's greatness is no longer something that every immigrant feels? Could it be that we name our strengths so seldom and our weaknesses so frequently that all perspective has been lost?
If that's the case, I'd like to address all those immigrant protesters who view America as a nation unworthy of admiration.
Let me explain why so many Americans resent your judgment. Let me explain why we think you're wrong. I'll ignore every strength America possesses save those related to immigration, the topic you are protesting. I'll argue that whatever our system's flaws -- and they are many -- it is the best immigration system the world has to offer, which is a pretty good argument against disparaging our citizens and denigrating our flag.
America accepts more immigrants than any nation on Earth, even if you don't count the illegal immigrants within our borders. If you think we provide too few opportunities for legal immigrants, as I do, you must still acknowledge that every country on Earth, the country of your ancestry included, provides far fewer opportunities.
Once here, immigrants enjoy more economic opportunities than anywhere else on Earth. In America, Latinos aren't even our most successful immigrant group economically, yet Latinos earn more here than they do anywhere else -- their native countries included -- and far more than, say, Algerian immigrants in France or Moroccan immigrants in Spain.
Let's take the largest Latino group, Mexicans, who last year earned sufficient funds to support themselves and their families --- and to send an additional $16 billion home to friends and relatives in Mexico. Do you realize how much that means to Mexico? Thirty-thousand dollars is an impressive annual income there. Sixteen billion is equivalent to providing roughly 530,000 Mexicans with $30,000 each. To be sure, Mexican immigrants work hard for that money.
It is equally certain, however, that they'd lack the opportunity to earn that money but for America, where the free enterprise system and low levels of corruption allow for the creation of wealth.
Do you perceive racism here? It does exist, as abhorrent as that is. Yet America is more welcoming to outsiders than any country on Earth. We protect minorities as effectively as any nation, and far more effectively than most.
Of course, you know all this on some level, because you chose to leave your nation and to come to America among all the other nations on Earth, most of which wouldn't even allow anyone from your nation to immigrate legally.
So if you are a legal immigrant, participate fully in the immigration debate. As someone who has written column upon column criticizing the current system, I'll admit as quickly as anyone how flawed it is.
If you're an illegal immigrant, enjoy the fact that though you can't vote, you can speak your mind here with impunity, a privilege undocumented foreigners enjoy in very few countries. I'll acknowledge all accurate critiques; America is far from perfect.
However, don't dare to denigrate this country. It insults us, sure, but that's beside the point, which is this: Given the merits of the American system compared to every alternative on Earth, and the unprecedented success so many Latinos have achieved here, it makes no sense to single us out for reproach.
If it made any sense, why would you be here instead of someplace else?
Just criminals taking advantage of a people led by a government which is dysfunctional...
Anyone notice that these demonstrations are happening in the liberal infested public schools and not in parochial ones.
Then take your sorry rear back to whence you came. Oh, but first, where exactly is that US military base in Mexico?
What an idiot. We pay RENT on those bases, I wish someone would let that fool know. Countries make MONEY off of us if we build a base there. As for preventing countries from developing, that is truly the most bizarre claim I have ever heard. It's not the American government a Mexican entrepreneur has to go through in order to start a business. It's not the American government that won't allow foreign investors into Mexico's oil industry. And in countries with a nasty history of nationalizing foreign investment, it's certainly not America's fault if foreign investors hesitate to invest in that country again, knowing that the next dictator or military coup or government whim will strip them of all they invested.
I hate stupid people.
They have the same mental defect that is pravalent among the Democrats. They hate the US, but they want our money.
Like the old saying goes,"DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON YOUR WAY OUT"!!!!!!!!!!
Zackly.
Yes, the teachers' unions are behind the demonstrations, too. I heard a union guy from Los Angeles Unified say, "We are teaching this to the children. We support these demonstrations." They provided buses to the students. They whup them up.
The demonstrations are happening in the liberal-infested cities, too, are they not? What plays to multitudes in Los Angeles might not go over so well in Sandpoint,Idaho or South Dakota.
Shhh, that's not allowed by the immigration zealots. It's always 16 year old Jose's fault and never 45 year old teacher union tax payer paid Zelda's fault.
Response: A symptom of the underlying spiritual sickness of Western Man; debate, discussion, different points of view. A confession of an inability to excrete.
They're quite racist, while shouting racism. They possess a populist sense of "folk" that is almost Hitlerian in scope. They're being agitated and organized by the usual, collectivist suspects.
In short, we've seen it all before, but this time, they're not even citizens, and so do not have a leg to stand on in demanding "rights" to the public treasury.
Might have something to do with the $5,000 and up yearly tuition at the parochial schools. (I'm assuming by "parochial" that you are referring to Catholic schools).
I doubt many of these disruptors' parents could afford it.
OOPS! I'd better not to give GWB any more ideas.
Maybe they don't care about Public Relations, maybe they are just stupid, or maybe they really want to take us on.
Wow! They are brazen, ignorant, ba$tards!
As this goes on I am realizing that globalism is just another form of socialism... a particularly insidious form, at that.
Well given that per capita per student public school expenditure is around $9,000. I'd rather give the parents a voucher to choose which school they would want their children to attend.
BUT of course your friends, the NEA, would disagree.
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