Border vigilantes don't realize that there is enough for everybody.

While we are a nation of immigrants for the most part having killed off most of the indigenous peoples of the lands now occupied by the United States, there are some of us who have become a bunch of xenophobes trying to protect what's ours from what is perceived as the onslaught of the hispanic hordes.

Fever pitch being whipped up by hate radio talk show hosts broadcasting on the right wing Clear Channel stations like Michael Savage has led to the development of vigilante groups who are patroling our south west border to catch Mexicans trying to get to the United States to pick our crops, clean our bathrooms, watch our kids, clean our houses, and mow our lawns.

One guy in Arizona who tends bar is quoted in an article in the July/August, 2005 issue of Mother Jones as saying something like, "Let them in. I don't want to be paying $5.00 for a can of green beans."

When will we realize that we are all one people around the world and that working together there is enough for everybody?

Link: Scrimmage on the Border.

Comments

[Robert Gable]

Somewhat related, I am reading Ben Wattenberg's Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future. While he describes how the most developed countries all have total fertility rates below the replacement level, he also points out that throughout the less developed countries, rates are also greatly decreasing. This includes Mexico; he sees the idea of the US being overrun by large numbers of immigrants preposterous. He also points out that while we had a record number of immigrants in the nineties, as a percentage of US population, it is still much lower than in the early 1900s. He does acknowledge immigration is a difficult process for all concerned.