Immigration & Starbucks
God love coffee. It wakes me up, keeps me going, and makes me happy. All is good with a warm cup of coffee. Be it Starbucks or Dean & Deluca (which is way superior to the former) it always brings a smile to my face and makes me feel good inside. That is, unless your way to Starbucks is blocked by 50,000 immigration protesters. (record scratch).
“What the, who the? Immigration reform? Are these people crazy? Do they even speak English? Get the hell out of my way…..my cup of happiness is awaiting!” Here in Phoenix, as well as many other major cities in the US, the political landscape is all abuzz on immigration reform. But unlike the media and political buzz, most of the 300 million Americans don’t have a clue about, or even care, what everyone is up in arms for. So, I asked myself about what I believe this stuff is all about, and what I believe most Americans would say about immigration reform. I asked a couple people in my office about it and got a myriad of answers. “I have no idea what its all about.” “Send those illegals back home!” “The system is so f’d up I don’t know what anything is about.” “Augh, another march? Are you kidding me?” .
The sad truth is most Americans don’t really care about immigration reform. The usual “How does this affect me?” question kicks in. And since no one knows, they just don’t care. So I thought to myself, what is immigration reform to me? And I thought to myself here’s what I believe in regards to immigration:
1. Immigration should be like abortion: legal and safe.
2. In order to vote, you need to be an American. (Born here, naturalized, or be a registered citizen). It’s a right of the American People, not the world.
3. In order to receive public services, you need to be a tax paying contributor to the US. We can’t even pay for our OWN poor people, so why are we paying for other country’s people? Emergency/Police Services (like ambulance service) should be exempt for this.
4. If you want to work here or live here, you’ve got to play by the rules. People need to register with the Federal and State government. The process should be easy, safe and should address national security issues.
5. I don’t believe it should be a felony to be here illegally. BUT, I do believe that if you are here illegally, you need to either register or be deported. If you refuse to play by the rules, then you should leave. Try Canada. (No offense to Canadians.)
6. Although Spanish is great to know, our main language here is English. Please, at least, try to learn it. And your protest signs should be in English too….makes a bigger impact if people can read it.
7. If you continually break the rules, you should go to jail or not be allowed back into the country.
8. Protest marches should not block my way to Starbucks.
That’s about it. Pretty simple. Of course there are plenty of other issues that I don’t know about. Why? Because that question kicks in again “How does it affect me?”. And because of that question most Americans don’t care. It’s my country, and if you want to move here, then go through the motions. If not, why not work on making your own country better? Yea, it’s pretty sad. So immigration reform? Sure, I’m all for it. As long as people wishing to immigrate here play by the rules and don’t’ block my way to a cup of coffee. Then I’ll just get mad.
“What the, who the? Immigration reform? Are these people crazy? Do they even speak English? Get the hell out of my way…..my cup of happiness is awaiting!” Here in Phoenix, as well as many other major cities in the US, the political landscape is all abuzz on immigration reform. But unlike the media and political buzz, most of the 300 million Americans don’t have a clue about, or even care, what everyone is up in arms for. So, I asked myself about what I believe this stuff is all about, and what I believe most Americans would say about immigration reform. I asked a couple people in my office about it and got a myriad of answers. “I have no idea what its all about.” “Send those illegals back home!” “The system is so f’d up I don’t know what anything is about.” “Augh, another march? Are you kidding me?” .
The sad truth is most Americans don’t really care about immigration reform. The usual “How does this affect me?” question kicks in. And since no one knows, they just don’t care. So I thought to myself, what is immigration reform to me? And I thought to myself here’s what I believe in regards to immigration:
1. Immigration should be like abortion: legal and safe.
2. In order to vote, you need to be an American. (Born here, naturalized, or be a registered citizen). It’s a right of the American People, not the world.
3. In order to receive public services, you need to be a tax paying contributor to the US. We can’t even pay for our OWN poor people, so why are we paying for other country’s people? Emergency/Police Services (like ambulance service) should be exempt for this.
4. If you want to work here or live here, you’ve got to play by the rules. People need to register with the Federal and State government. The process should be easy, safe and should address national security issues.
5. I don’t believe it should be a felony to be here illegally. BUT, I do believe that if you are here illegally, you need to either register or be deported. If you refuse to play by the rules, then you should leave. Try Canada. (No offense to Canadians.)
6. Although Spanish is great to know, our main language here is English. Please, at least, try to learn it. And your protest signs should be in English too….makes a bigger impact if people can read it.
7. If you continually break the rules, you should go to jail or not be allowed back into the country.
8. Protest marches should not block my way to Starbucks.
That’s about it. Pretty simple. Of course there are plenty of other issues that I don’t know about. Why? Because that question kicks in again “How does it affect me?”. And because of that question most Americans don’t care. It’s my country, and if you want to move here, then go through the motions. If not, why not work on making your own country better? Yea, it’s pretty sad. So immigration reform? Sure, I’m all for it. As long as people wishing to immigrate here play by the rules and don’t’ block my way to a cup of coffee. Then I’ll just get mad.
posted by Ed @ 11:56 AM
11 Comments:
At 12:26 PM ,
Adam said...
Ed, all of your points are exactly correct and I agree with them. However, one cannot deny that without these immigrant workers, both legal and especially illegal, that our ecomony would simply crumble. They are the mortar base on this top heavy golden statue that we call America.
I think it is also unfair to charge the immigrants to go back to their nation and make it better. Think how difficult it is to do that when you have a neighboring nation that does very little to promote fair labor practices in other nations. I think the template for how we outsource our torture in order to obtain information from terrorists also applies to how we are able to get goods in this country for cheap. We simply outsource poor labor conditions to other countries and pretend like its THEIR problem.
What would you do if you were in there shoes? How far would you go to get your proverbial starbucks?
At 2:19 PM ,
Ed said...
I agree with you absolutely Adam. My point though is what MOST American's think, and how the effort to learn more is just not there. As for the poor labor conditions over in other countries...I think you're hitting a totally different topic, more of one on poor foreign policy to which I agree with you. But when we're strictly looking at immigration, it's a topic that most American's put at the bottom of the list in terms of priorities.
Also, if I were in their shoes, I would play by the rules set forth. It doesn't solve any problems by not playing by the rules. Being here illegally and surping tax payer's dollars doesn't help. Granted, there's major problems, but I guess that is where reform comes in.
At 2:50 PM ,
jeremy said...
I think its a little naive to believe that "they" are the only ones breaking the laws. It obviously works in both directions. Read GayProf's take here: http://centerofgravitas.blogspot.com/2006/04/border-wars.html
Also, I get your point about writing the signs in English, but we don't have a national language. Our forefathers intentionally didn't impose one because they realized how ghettos (in the traditional not contemporary sense) could benefit the country.
At 2:55 PM ,
VeryApeAZ said...
This is a little off topic but kind of the same. I was at the state capitol when Janet was giving her state of the state address. There were about 5,000 people shouting for immigration rights. There were maybe 100 for the GLBT community. The leaders of the immigration rally instructed the crowd to turn and clap and cheer for the little GLBT rally going on. If they can reach out to us, why don't we reach out to them? that's a big ally right there--they can actually stop traffic. We have to wait until the light turns red.
Also, a lot of the illegal immigrants DO pay taxes and social security. There are a lot of companies who outsource them to hotels and restaurants (the companies have their I-9 forms "on file"). Taxes and such are taken out of their paychecks.
At 5:52 PM ,
Actions and Consequences said...
I believe the immigration problem goes deeper than what we are seeing on television, and I'm not entirly convinced it is really about "safer borders."
Sure if the signs were written in English it would have been very clear in what it said, but I think you still got the point regardless if you could read it or not.
I understand "majority rules", but its really easy to agree with whatever that is when you on the side with the majority. Just remember your not a majority in all aspects of your life.
At 6:09 PM ,
Actions and Consequences said...
Oh, I also know a bunch of old white hair guys (I think they were just wigs though) who decided they didn't want to play by the rules anymore and violla.. United State of America was born.
And right to free speech and assembly are playing by the rules. We can't have a double standard for one set of people vs. another in this country regardless where they were born. We'd put our own rights at risk one day if that standard was acceptable.
At 7:11 PM ,
Anonymous said...
That doesn't make sense Actions. Independence is something totally different than immigration.
I think you all agree reform is necessary.
At 8:10 PM ,
The_Gay_Dude said...
I was a manager for Starbucks all through college....and it seems that protests always happen there! As far as the immigration thingie....I can't stand when people say....send their ass back to Mexico....Italians, Jews, Germans, Poles, Russians, Chinese....were big immigrants here at the turn of the century....they couldn't speak English....and it took em generations to assimilate.....America welcomed em cuz they needed cheap labor.....but they still called em kikes, waps, pollocks, krauts, etc....the only difference tween now and then....is that America is closing it's borders.....whereas....when it was mostly peeps of European descent....we welcomed em freely onto Ellis Island.....Yes these people did it legally....but just as many did it illegally....by way of Canada (notably Norwegians who settled in Minnesota, North Dakota).....anyways....I'm rambling....and I get tired of hearing the nasty things said about the hispanic influx....going on in this country....
At 8:27 PM ,
The_Gay_Dude said...
I don't usually leave such long messages but a few more things....these European immigrants lived in tenement houses....they were ghetoized in sects of town....known nowadays as Little Italy or Chinatown....they worked long hours for little pay....even their children were exploited for labor....and these immigrants did this for the American dream.....not much different than what you see Mexicans doing today....and please don't forget this land was originally the land of the Natives....the people we massacred by purposely exposing to smallpox....then segregating em onto reservations.....bottom line....it's one planet....who are we to define its' borders?
At 11:04 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Man... I agree and disagree so much with many things you wrote.. I am amazed you can be so right and so wrong at the same time..
You are still a good guy though, I just need to go to Starbucks with you for a few hours and explain why I am right.. lol...
it would take years online to do it....
At 6:26 PM ,
Krupo said...
In response to Ms. B's comments: that sucks. But really, if people are exploiting a system, they should be stopped - either through better enforcement of the rules, or if the rules don't work, an overhaul of the system.
Sounds like a case of a poorly designed welfare bureacracy than an immigration problem - although the two problems go hand in hand.
I'm surprised there's no comptroller/auditor coming in to ask "why are cheques for supposed Americans being mailed out of the country?"
That should be a huge red flag - there's the auditor in me going on and on again.
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