I just don't want them coming to where I live and trying to change our way of life. There's a bumper sticker I've seen that reads, "We Don't CARE How You Did It Up North".
Read it. Learn it. Don't forget it. And you'll be welcome.
That should be this countrys immigration policy for foreign nationals and Americans migrating within the country. Polite people with manners would respect that.
Don't bring what you ran away from to my home.
Did it ever occur to you that maybe some of those people moving south and west might have direct experience with what doesn't work and could be helpful in preventing you folks from making some of the same mistakes ????
Bumper sticker slogans don't automatically equal wisdom.
There is a lot to learn from success and just as much to learn from failure.
Emmett, rest assured that not ALL escapees (I mean NYers) wish to "change your way of life."
Take myself and my family, for instance: I was born and raised in NYC, got married, and moved to Eastern Long Island. I have always detested city life, even as a child. Long Island is pretty, but WAAAAAYYY too crowded and the taxes are killer. It's what Queens was 30 years ago, only more expensive.
When my husband and I are finally free to leave (he's got 16 years on the police force), we WILL leave NY for (literally) greener pastures.
We will not purchase a newly-built home because we like the way you built 'em 100 years ago, so we won't be contributing to the overdevelopment problem. We will not stick our noses into our neighbor's business -- in fact, I hope to one day have a home where when I look out the window, everything I see, I own. I'd like to have a place with a mid-sized house and a TON of land so we can have a couple of horses, and maybe a pond or a stream with some trout in it. Hunting (for hubby, sons, and dog) should be nearby.
The children will not tax the public school system because they will be attending Catholic or military schools (and they speak English!).
I want to live in a place where folks say, "Good morning!" just because they passed you on the way into the grocery store or coffee shop, even if they've never seen you before, and I'll be happy to say "Good morning!" right back at 'em.
I want to live somewhere where, even while "not sticking your nose into other people's business," neighbors come to your aid if you need it (this actually happens in NY, too, BTW...really). I'd just like to KNOW my neighbors better, and have them over for supper and stuff.
And finally, once, just ONCE in my life, I would like to be represented in Congress by someone for whom I've actually voted. Believe it or not, this has never happened for me, though I've lived in three different counties in my day.
Fear not, Emmett! Some of us want to JOIN in your way of life, not change it.
Best regards for a very Merry Christmas,
Fair enough. How about all you guys tells down south do the same and tell YOUR residents to stop lecturing people up north on how to live when they move here? I mean, you guys do realize we have SOUTHERN TRANSPLANTS, right? You whine about all the "liberals" coming down south, well, let's see what we got here in Illinois:
1) Jesse Jackson moved up here and set up camp and started Rainbow-PUSH. Jesse sure as hell isn't "one of us", he was born and raised in South Carolina . I don't CARE what happened to him in "Selma", he should have stayed there to whine about it.
2) Bobby Rush moved up here and set up camp and started the Illinois Black Panthers. Bobby sure as hell isn't "one of us", he was born and raised in Georgia . I don't CARE that he wants "reparations" for what happened to him in Georgia, he should have stayed there to whine about it.
3) John Stroger moved up here and took control of the Cook County Board in Chicago, and immediately began doling out welfare and turned Chicago into a "sancurity city" for illegal aliens, to make up for "injustices" he expeirenced in his home state John sure as hell isn't "one of us", he was born and raised in Arkansas . I don't CARE about the poor living conditions he had in Arkansas that he feels the need to tax people out of existance in Illinois to make up for, he should have stayed there to whine about it.
So you see, it cuts both ways. The demographics of the Chicagoland area have changed vastly in the past couple of decades (not to mention the politics, as the suburbs NEVER used to be liberal Democrat controlled), and we have plenty of "liberal transplants" from the SOUTH coming here and telling us how to run our state.