There's an all Hispanic landscape crew working today on a property near mine ......

[Stinky The Clown]

... and it put me in mind of other waves of immigrants who came to the US to better their lives.

My family is Italian. Italians faced social obstacles similar to those encountered by Hispanic immigrants. My paternal grandfather was (for his day) educated and was fluently bilingual. He was made a foreman at the local GE plant, in charge of a crew of Italians.

Down the street from where I grew up in a house next door to the house in which my father grew up, was a Polish family. The oldest son was my best friend. His father owned a radio and teevee repair shop. He learned the business from his immigrant father, who, for a time, worked for the power company, with a crew of Poles (NO pun intended) stringing and maintaining power lines. He soon wanted to learn more and chose the nascent electronics business as one that was growing.

These two anecdotes are, without a doubt, common among the millions of similar stories.

My friend and I have enjoyed the fruits of the labors of our fore bearers. Who are we, as Americans, to deny that opportunity to anyone?

I continue to be a person who welcomes immigrants to our country.

I only hope they will continue to **want** to come here.

[Taverner]

1. Me too

Again, I'm one of those who think that if our neighbors to the South are good enough to trade with us, they're good enough to come over here, unfettered.

All NAFTA countries should have open borders without exception.

[TomInTib]

2. Hell, my family was a clan of ...

immigrant CRIMINALS when they arrived in what is now Angelina County, Texas, in 1630.

Most of them probably should have been taken out and shot.

Thank heavens they didn't arrive just last year.

I am with you 100%, H2S.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

37. Lufkin, TX....WOW!!!

How colorful. I have a place to the west of there.

Georgia was a penal colony. Australia was a penal colony.

[elehhhhna]

3. Mine was leaving Holland after WWI. Left our fortune there and moved here!

Grandpa always said that's what his father did, and it turns out to be true!

Non-english speakers just off the boat were not exactly welcomed w/ open arms.

[pitohui]

4. well i'm afraid i vote with jack london

"god damn a scab, the lowest form of life on earth"

apparently an all hispanic landscaping crew is a rare event where you live, in my area it hasn't been for a long time, landscaping USED to be a business that paid well for hard dirty work but who can compete with people who will work for nothing and live in a tent?

[musette_sf]

5. here here

:thumbsup:

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Not a rare event at all

The Baltimore/DC metro area has a VERY high Hispanic population.

I was simply saying that seeing them today triggered that thought, is all.

[RedCappedBandit]

13. Maybe you should blame the pigs paying them nothing

instead.

[Ikonoklast]

19. The largest landscape contractor here used to hire college kids

He used to have about fifty to seventy-five local kids working for him every summer season. Eight to ten bucks an hour, long days and dirty work. He always had kids lining up to work the summer for him.

He now hires only Hispanics. He bought three shacks for them to live in Cleveland, and his crew leaders pick the workers up every morning, and drops them off every night, living twenty or so to a house.

Don't imagine they pay anywhere near what they used to. Bet the cost of bids for his landscaping work didn't go down, though.

No more college kids. They don't want to work, you know.

[skypilot]

22. "No more college kids. They don't want to work, you know."

This meme really bothered me when the immigration debate started really heating up. I kept hearing people talking about the jobs that "Americans don't want to do" and one of those jobs was "mowing your lawn" (that's actually how they would categorize it). That one really bugged me because I knew that they were really talking about landscaping but they were trying to make it sound like something menial that Americans couldn't be bothered with. I never bought it. Still don't.

[rockymountaindem]

38. That charge is total bullshit

I knew a public schoolteacher who would mow lawns for the city during the summer. I mean, there's a degreed professional doing that dirty "work Americans don't want to do". Why not? I mean, 40 dollars per lawn, six lawns per day, plus lunch, and being outside in our nice weather. All while that person would otherwise not be paid on summer break. Mind you, I think it would have been very bad form for the city to hire illegals, but still, there's a regular American doing work that we supposedly wouldn't do.

I graduated college last year, and in the summers I did some work in the family business and unpaid internships that have actually boosted my resume somewhat (and were good experiences, I can't complain). But, plenty of my friends and my contemporaries would be happy for that kind of work. It's just not there anymore, and bookstores, coffee shops and the like can only hire so many people. I heard that you had to have a degree to work at Barnes and Noble, just to stock books! I applied for a summer job there and they shot me down right away. If it weren't for the internships, I'd have probably been out there looking for landscaping type work myself, and I don't know if I could have found it in my town.

[treestar]

65. I don't think its the case that the college students are without work

McDonald's was hiring elderly people, because there weren't enough kids to work there. College kids can get more pleasant jobs, in restaurants and in stores.

Americans won't do these jobs because they don't have to. They can get better ones.

This is a nonexisting victim class made up to put down the immigrants. If there really were Americans who had to resort to these jobs, they'd be on the sites demanding the job and the employer would hire them - employer would not have the risk of hiring illegal aliens and possible prosecution by the federal government for doing so.

[asdjrocky]

6. Good words.

Some of the most honest and hard working people I've ever met in my life are immigrants from South American countries. We could all learn a lot from people of this caliber, and I find it shameful when Americans trash them.

[Retired AF Dem]

64. They are hard workers

and I wont trash them. The problem is they are willing to have more than one family living in a house and this is something you cannot expect legal american home owners to do. So the effect of this wages go down for everyone and the average "legal" american cannot afford their house anymore. Construction jobs were some of the best paying jobs for the folks that couldn't attend college, now in several parts of the country construction jobs don't pay much more than minimum wage. You are mistaken if you think that having millions of people willing to work for less pay is good for the working class of this country.

[YOY]

7. My great grandfather never learned English. He cut the lawn of the Firestone Estate

Yes, the tire magnates. It was, by stories related and handed down, very nasty work for very snobby people.

I had a chance to apply for a job with them. I decided against in based on the idea that the next working relationship between our families will be one of them cutting my lawn.

[fed-up]

8. my family-Lockhart arrived (belatedly) in 1676 to quell Bacon's Rebellion

things I never learned in history class

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p274.html
People & Events
Bacon's Rebellion
1675 - 1676


"We must defend ourselves against all Indians in generall, for that they were all Enemies." This was the unequivocal view of Nathaniel Bacon, a young, wealthy Englishman who had recently settled in the backcountry of Virginia. The opinion that all Indians were enemies was also shared by a many other Virginians, especially those who lived in the interior. It was not the view, however, of the governor of the colony, William Berkeley.

Berkeley was not opposed to fighting Indians who were considered enemies, but attacking friendly Indians, he thought, could lead to what everyone wanted to avoid: a war with "all the Indians against us." Berkeley also didn't trust Bacon's intentions, believing that the upstart's true aim was to stir up trouble among settlers, who were already discontent with the colony's government.

Bacon attracted a large following who, like him, wanted to kill or drive out every Indian in Virginia. In 1675, when Berkeley denied Bacon a commission (the authority to lead soldiers), Bacon took it upon himself to lead his followers in a crusade against the "enemy." They marched to a fort held by a friendly tribe, the Occaneechees, and convinced them to capture warriors from an unfriendly tribe. The Occaneechees returned with captives. Bacon's men killed the captives They then turned to their "allies" and opened fire.

Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel and charged him with treason. Just to be safe, the next time Bacon returned to Jamestown, he brought along fifty armed men. Bacon was still arrested, but Berkeley pardoned him instead of sentencing him to death, the usual punishment for treason.

..snip

The rebellion ended after British authorities sent a royal force to assist in quelling the uprising and arresting scores of committed rebels, white and black. When Bacon suddenly died in October, probably of dysentery, Bacon's Rebellion fizzled out.

Bacon's Rebellion demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause. This was a great fear of the ruling class -- what would prevent the poor from uniting to fight them? This fear hastened the transition to racial slavery.

[L. Coyote]

9. Hispanic? You mean they are all from Spain? How did you know they were "Hispanic"?

Can you be sure they are not all Pimas, or all Maricopas, of all Navajo, or all Tarahumaras, or all Zapotecs? The list is about 1,000 Nations long.

Or maybe they are all Portuguese?

My point: "What is a "Hispanic immigrant" as you define what you wrote?

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Oh you're so cute

The post was intended to be positive.

Enjoy your pissing.

On edit .... you know ..... maybe you're right. They could have been Swedes .... or Danes ..... Norwegian, maybe.

Fuck ..... :::head shake::::

[L. Coyote]

27. And you are evading answering the question!

[Stinky The Clown]

28. To answer it assumes its valid

I don't see it as valid. I see it as picking a fight.

Go away.

[L. Coyote]

33. What names we use with reference to "others" is a valid question.

The act of "othering" is very important, and a recognition of how we do that and who we do it to with what criteria is too.

It is also OFFENSIVE and denotes "belonging to Spain" if you are descended of the numerous Nations subjected to, if not genocidally exterminated by, Spanish slavery in the Americas. Nonetheless, indigenous identities survive, and they do not self-identify as Hispanic.

I'm not ignorant of the usage, any more than I am of other racial code words.

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[L. Coyote]

41. Okay, so you have no satisfactory answer then. I thought so.

Next time you see a group of people, consider how you identify them and why.
People are not mental categories, and I am not in the ones you relegate me to either.
To anthropologists, this dangerous mental process is called "othering."

I find this a frightening form of mentation, the kind that led to the genocide of 60 million American Natives, and the killing of 6 million Jews.

[Sparkly]

46. Using the word "Hispanic" --> Genocide....

Ooooookey dokey.

[High Plains]

63. Dude, are you high or what?

[roody]

73. Chances are, they were Mexicans.

[LanternWaste]

35. it seems less to be evading...

it seems less to be evading a question and more simply ignoring an irrelevancy.

[smoogatz]

17. Hispanic:

"A spanish speaking person living in the U.S., esp. one of Latin American descent."

So says my Oxford American Dictionary widget, anyway.

[L. Coyote]

24. Wow, I'm a Hispanic. That's interesting NEWS. And Oxford's is wrong.

Hispanic refers to Spain, not Spanish.

[Stinky The Clown]

29. Oxford is wrong and some anonymous internet posting yahoo is right?

:rofl:

[smoogatz]

31. It could happen.

:snrk:

[L. Coyote]

43. Especially if the English get the last word defining what's Spanish in the Americas! LOL

to think people would rely on that perspective.

[Stinky The Clown]

45. You're like a dog with a bone

Give it a fucking rest or start your own thread.

[L. Coyote]

47. If I don't want to be called Hispanic, my privilige.

I do not belong to Spain, never did, and the damn slavers and invaders do not
get to decide what to call me. I do not want to be called "belongs to Spain."

Try to get it. It is an offensive generality to those who know this history.

[Stinky The Clown]

49. Who the fuck called YOU anything other than "pest"?

You're not that important to me, yanno?

I've asked before and I will ask again ..... go away.

[L. Coyote]

60. Oxford dictionary, for one. And YOU, of couse have called me lots of things so far

but I am not going to join in racist name-calling!

[Stinky The Clown]

61. Hey PEST ...... are you calling me a racist?

Yes or no?

Don't launch into some self-indulgent diatribe. Answer the question: Are YOU calling ME a racist?

I have called you everything I can think of that won't get my post yanked. Mostly, however, you're a self-indulgent pest with a pet peeve about a word that, in common usage, is considered respectful.

[smoogatz]

50. LOL! My ancestors are from England, Ireland, Scotland

and the Netherlands, yet people insist on calling me "caucasian." How ridiculous is that?

[smoogatz]

30. Wikipedia:

"Hispanic (Spanish: hispano; Portuguese: hispânico; Latin: Hispānus, adjective from Hispānia, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula) is a term that historically denoted relation to the ancient Hispania and its peoples.

"It now refers to the Spanish language, its speakers and its geographical distribution the same way Latin (Latino) refers to Romance languages in general."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic

dictionary.com:

4 results for: hispanic
(Browse Nearby Entries)
Sponsored Links
Get Hispanic PR Results
Leading Hispanic Wire Service We Guarantee Results. Every Time.
www.HispanicPRWire.com
Hispanic Market Research
How do you connect with Hispanics? Find out in 3 steps. Learn more!
www.enfoque.mrsi.com
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
His·pan·ic Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. Spanish.
2. Latin American: the United States and its Hispanic neighbors.
–noun
3. Also, Hispano. Also called Hispanic American, Hispano-American. an American citizen or resident of Spanish or Latin-American descent.


—Related forms
His·pan·i·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
His·pan·ic (hĭ-spān'ĭk) Pronunciation Key
adj.
Of or relating to Spain or Spanish-speaking Latin America.
Of or relating to a Spanish-speaking people or culture.

n.
A Spanish-speaking person.
A U.S. citizen or resident of Latin-American or Spanish descent.




Usage Note: Though often used interchangeably in American English, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, and in certain contexts the choice between them can be significant. Hispanic, from the Latin word for "Spain," has the broader reference, potentially encompassing all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheres and emphasizing the common denominator of language among communities that sometimes have little else in common. Latino—which in Spanish means "Latin" but which as an English word is probably a shortening of the Spanish word latinoamericano—refers more exclusively to persons or communities of Latin American origin. Of the two, only Hispanic can be used in referring to Spain and its history and culture; a native of Spain residing in the United States is a Hispanic, not a Latino, and one cannot substitute Latino in the phrase the Hispanic influence on native Mexican cultures without garbling the meaning. In practice, however, this distinction is of little significance when referring to residents of the United States, most of whom are of Latin American origin and can theoretically be called by either word. · A more important distinction concerns the sociopolitical rift that has opened between Latino and Hispanic in American usage. For a certain segment of the Spanish-speaking population, Latino is a term of ethnic pride and Hispanic a label that borders on the offensive. According to this view, Hispanic lacks the authenticity and cultural resonance of Latino, with its Spanish sound and its ability to show the feminine form Latina when used of women. Furthermore, Hispanic—the term used by the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies—is said to bear the stamp of an Anglo establishment far removed from the concerns of the Spanish-speaking community. While these views are strongly held by some, they are by no means universal, and the division in usage seems as related to geography as it is to politics, with Latino widely preferred in California and Hispanic the more usual term in Florida and Texas. Even in these regions, however, usage is often mixed, and it is not uncommon to find both terms used by the same writer or speaker. See Usage Note at Chicano.

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Hispanic
"pertaining to Spain" (especially ancient Spain) 1584, from L. Hispanicus, from Hispania "Iberian Peninsula," from Hispanus "Spaniard" (see Spaniard). Specific application to Sp.-speaking parts of the New World is 1889, Amer.Eng.; esp. applied since c.1972 to Sp.-speaking persons of Latin American descent living in U.S.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
hispanic

adjective
1. related to a Spanish-speaking people or culture; "the Hispanic population of California is growing rapidly"

noun
1. an American whose first language is Spanish

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=hispanic

I guess everybody's wrong but you.

[LanternWaste]

36. (Ex-girlfriend trumps a DU poster)

My ex-girlfriend is Hispanic. It's not interesting news. And Oxford is correct.

(Ex-girlfriend trumps a DU poster)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. My great grandfather came over in 1872

from Hannover. We still have the wooden shoes he wore on the crossing. His family settled amongst other Germans in Illinois, and German was spoken in the home until WWI. I remember my great-grandmother telling me of visiting German Lutheran pastors staying at their house behind their cigar factory--and how their children became, respectively, a doctor and a dentist. Immigrants just want to improve their lives. They should all be given a chance.

[KG]

14. if both parties hadn't spent the last 25 years happily voting for policies that sent americas

industrial base to other parts of the world, there'd be plenty of jobs and good wages for all.

[orangerevolution]

15. I wonder what percentage...

of the immigrants came thru Ellis Island and other ports of entry vs. walked across the border, etc? And how that compares to today?

They keep repeating that there are so many millions here illegally, I wonder how it compares to the great immigrant influx of the early 19th century?

[yellerpup]

16. Well said.

And welcome to our neighbors who come for opportunity.

[liberal4truth]

18. Italians & Poles blended in. The new wave of illegal mexicans do not do so.

BTW I hope you enjoy all the jobs and these immigrants are taking out of the mouths of legal immigrants and other Americans as well.

[LanternWaste]

21. It takes fully three generations for an immigrant family to acculturate

"Italians & Poles blended in. The new wave of illegal mexicans do not do so."

It takes fully three generations for an immigrant family to acculturate. That's not anything new, mi amigo. Anyways, why blend in? Isn't the American dream to be who you want to be? To be an individual? Or do you think we should all look, act and think in a particular way?

Victor Hugo once asked (and I paraphrase), "which is more important to you... imaginary red and blue lines on a map, or human beings? Which do you think is more important to God?"

Borders exist only in the mind and the imagination, yet people are real. Which one we give a higher priority to illustrates part and parcel of who we are.

[lumberjack_jeff]

42. There is very few indicators that today's immigrants intend to.

The hispanic immigrants in my acquaintance intend to work here for a while, then go "home" to build a nicer house - or perhaps some rentals.

[Posteritatis]

53. If you think previous immigrants didn't think that way you need to read a book or two (nt)

[lumberjack_jeff]

59. Like the ones who booked steerage for themselves, their families and all their belongings...

on cross-atlantic ships?

For the Vietnamese refugees?

For previous generations of immigrants, this was a one-way trip. America was opportunity - not a target of opportunity.

[NickB79]

44. My great-great-grandfather came to the US from Germany in the 1870's

My grandfather grew up in central Minnesota in the 1920's, still speaking German. Until he died 5 years ago, he still had a German accent with some words, like my name (hey there, Nickalous).

That jibes very well with what you said, because my father and his brothers (4th generation?), are completely "Americanized".

[liberal4truth]

51. No it doesn't take three generations: My parents were 1st generation and they could hardly speak

the native tongue of my grandparents home country before they died.

My grandparents made sure they spoke ONLY English when outside the house.

Bullpucky !!!!

[smoogatz]

23. Italians and Poles were simultaneously despised and mercilessly exploited,

as were the Irish, the Chinese, the Jews of Eastern Europe, and every other major wave of immigrants in U.S. history, pretty much. They most certainly did not "fit in."

[Stinky The Clown]

25. How do you know this crew was illegal?

Or do you always assume that when you see short statured swarthy people?

I call that kind of thinking bigotry.

FYI, Italians didn't initially blend in. Many of us "look Italian" and many of the immigrants spoke only broken English. Initially, they stuck out like sore thumbs. But more to the point, what does it matter? One is a bigot or one isn't.

[liberal4truth]

52. I live in a state with lots of illegals and I am half Italian myself, so don't preach to me

about what you know nothing about. Italians and other cultures wanted to blend in, unlike many hispanics now.

Clue# 2: I grew up in a small town were all my school-mates could speak English fluently and the town was 40 percent Mexican-American at the time.

Believe whatever you want, but you are sadly mistaken.

[Stinky The Clown]

55. Here ya go ......

[liberal4truth]

70. And one for you, pal................

[Stinky The Clown]

71. What is that? Your "I'm a bigot" suit?

[liberal4truth]

72. Clue: not wanting illegal foreigners flooding the US doesn't equal "bigottry"

or didn't you get the memo, yet?

FWIW, I don't want illegal Norwegians or Swedes flooding this
country either, but we don't seem to have a huge problem with
them, now do we?

[knitter4democracy]

40. You might want to go to your area's Italian American Club and ask about that.

They didn't blend in. That's why most cities have a Little Italy and still do to this day. Same with the Polish American club. Remember all those Polack jokes from the 70s and 80s? Those people had no respect.

As for illegal, that's a relatively new thing. For ages, we didn't really have any immigration laws, so people could come if they had the gumption and the money. My families on both sides came over and went west with the wagon trains--they just came and so today would be considered illegals.

Talk to some immigrants first before spouting crap.

[liberal4truth]

54. I have seen and talked to illegal and legal or Mexican-Americans and

what you claim is utter BS (or I talked to those illegals who could speak some English, I should say).

The vast majority of the new wave of Mexican immigrants DO NOT want to incorporate themselves into American culture at all.

You ever read about "La Raza" and what they espouse for the Southwest US?

Probably not!

[knitter4democracy]

57. Si, yo hablo con mis amigos de Mexico.

I wish I could in the accents to make that right, but I don't know how.

So, yeah, I've talked with Mexican immigrant friends. I have read their newspapers, listened to their radio shows, and actually travelled to Central America and stayed with families. I have a feeling I know a bit more about it than you do.

The first wave of German immigrants didn't want to assimilate, either. In fact, German narrowly lost the vote to be our nation's language. Even today, you can find German American clubs with their own newspapers in German, and most of them came generations ago. So, is it okay that they live like that even to today as long as they're white?

My husband and I are Eastern Orthodox converts. For the first six years, we were in the Greek church. We listened to people say that their children had to go to Greek school and learn Greek and only marry Greek people and have Greek children. They have made sure that they have their own Greek community, and many wouldn't even think of learning English.

This is all part of America's history. The Irish were kept from getting jobs and even eating in restaurants just because they were immigrants. The Italians still have their enclaves over a hundred years later, and even new immigrants from Europe don't assimilate easily for the first generation or so.

What's to fear from this new wave of immigrants? So some say that they want the Southwest to be part of Mexico? Where's their power to do that? It's not going to happen. They do have a point that we stole that area from Mexico, but it's ours now and going to stay that way.

Why are you so scared of latino immigrants? Would you have been that scared of the Italians, the Irish, or the Greeks? Or is it okay because they're white?

[High Plains]

62. Take your racist claptrap elsewhere.

Do you just pull this crap out your ass?

Have you been polling Mexican immigrants on their desires? Can you cite anything at all to back up your bullshit?

I am familiar with the irredentist Aztlanistas--all three of 'em.

[liberal4truth]

69. Yes, anyone who doesnt accept the view that immigrants are stealing US jobs are

met with "racist" missives like yours.

[treestar]

68. Exactly and also nineteenth century restrictionists

were making this identical "this group won't assimilate" argument about the Poles, Italians and Irish. They were Catholic, you see, and would obey the Pope before the American law. :sarcasm:

[annabanana]

56. I'm sure the "spics" and "wops" in the room will be delighted

to know that they "blended in" so easily.

sheesh

[treestar]

67. Yes they will.

And if you are a capitalist, you know jobs are not a zero sum game. Economic activity breeds more economic activity. Enjoy your stay.

[smoogatz]

20. My family got here early on (1660s), and has been a scourge on the landscape

ever since. I'm of two minds about the immigrant issue: one, I do think it would be a good thing if we could actually control our own borders. We can't, at the moment, or don't want to. Probably the latter is true. I also think it's unconscionable that, as others have pointed out, what used to be decent-paying low skill jobs in the building trades (including landscaping) are increasingly reverting to sub-minimum wage "guest-worker" jobs, to the great detriment of the American working class. In SoCal, where my in-laws live, you never see any white person doing manual work of any kind: the white boss sits in his air-conditioned truck talking on his cell-phone while the all-Latino construction crew—including skilled workers like drywall hangers, concrete finishers, bricklayers, etc.—do the actual work. A lot of American workers are being displaced by this trend, as it spreads throughout the country. That's a bad thing on a number of fronts, and it's hard to know who to blame. The contractor has to be able to bid jobs competitively; if there are no repercussions for hiring undocumented workers (and it appears there aren't), and if his competitors are taking advantage (they are), he can hire "illegals" or go out of business.

That said, I think the latinization of American culture is a wonderful thing, and I agree that we certainly shouldn't demonize hard-working, decent people who are just trying to do hard-working, decent people do: provide a better life for their families.

[IronLionZion]

26. My family came here legally, already knowing English,

and became US Citizens, are active in the community, and vote. I welcome anyone from anywhere to come do the same...legally.

My girlfriend's family also came legally, but as political refugees. They utilized social services like welfare and public housing to get on their feet thanks to the generosity of Minnesotans and very liberal DFL politics. They are now successful in their various jobs and some own their businesses. My girlfriend in particular has done a lot of charity work to help pay it forward so that other people can help achieve the dream as well. I'm sick of the myth of so-called "welfare bums" immigrating here and draining our country at the expense of taxpayers like you and me. I enjoy the benefits of America like our schools and hospitals and infrastructure, why shouldn't everyone? Some people pay up front and others have to borrow but pay later when they can.

[Aristus]

32. My first American ancestor came to Virginia in the late 1600's as an indentured servant.

He worked his way out of servitude and became his own man. The rest is Aristus Family history.

[slackmaster]

39. My father's Mennonite family was evicted from their land in Germany in the 1840s

They were persecuted in and kicked out of a bunch of countries before they gave up on Europe and sailed to the USA in 1874.

My grandfather gave up on organized religion in 1918 when they failed to support his CO claim in World War I, and to this day we haven't had a single conversion or marriage to a Roman Catholic.

My mom's side came in the early 1600s, originally settling in Pennsylvania.

[cynatnite]

48. My father couldn't speak a word of English when he came here...

and he was illegal, too.

He and his mother lived in poverty after the fall of the Third Reich. My father was sent to Switzerland when he contracted TB. After he was returned, they left Europe and came here to the US.

How can anyone blame a person for wanting a better life for their family?

[lonestarnot]

58. That pink underwear freak is "rounding up" all brown skin people

in a neighborhood near me for the slightest transgression, yet bushitler is killing thousands and thousands for lies, and :shrug: nothing.

[treestar]

66. Opposition to immigration is silly

A country that doesn't have people immigrating to it is a poor country with a bad economy. Lou Dobbs and his ilk want that? Or do they just not realize that'll be how it will be?

Prosperity also lowers the birth rate. This country has always needed immigrants. That's how it started. The only ones who can logically think immigration is bad are the Native Americans.

[McCamy Taylor]

74. Unless you live in Europe, this is true everywhere. Mexican immigrants are the manual

laborers of the US and have been for some time.