Lin731, on Mar 29 2006, 07:38 PM, said:
Here's my analogy on being welcoming. If I invite you into my house, fine but do I throw open my front door and roll out the welcome mat to uninvited strangers? There's a difference IMH opinion between being a welcoming country and being a doormat for our Mexican neighbors to stomp on while disregarding our laws.
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The Xenophobia in this thread is a little hard to take for this second generation Scottish American.
I'm scottish as well, my family's been here at least as early as 1820 (that's as far back as we've been able to trace so far) and like you, I got the temper along with the kilt.

I'm not sure why you view this as Xenophobia though because I don't see that as the reason. What I see is Americans saying "Enough is enough already". Not because they are Mexicans but because they are flooding our borders illegally and burdening our entire system : welfare, healthcare, education, law enforcement all down the line. They are also depressing wages in higher paying fields now too and THAT is where Americans seem to be drawing the line. They've always had a problem with the idea of people coming here illegally, drawing on our resources and tax dollars but when it gets to the point of being a huge burden on the taxpayers AND it's depressing wages, it's gone too far. We aren't talking a million illegals or 2 million illegals. We're talking 12 million and rising as much as 3 million a year. It's too much, no country can or should be expected to support such a huge influx. Even in my neck of the woods, we've seen whole towns transformed, culturally overrun by people that legally have no business being here in the first place. Americans get a bit twitchy when they see their hometowns completlely overtaken in a short span of time by people that A. Aren't here legally. B. Are collecting benefits off their tax dollars. C. Are working under the table and paying no taxes. D. Have rendered they're hometowns unrecognisable. Such sudden and jarring changes in culture are rarely embraced wholeheartedly but even less so given the circumstances surrounding it. This country was a melting pot with immigration that allowed large groups in but not so large that they drowned out the culture they were entering. THAT is a large part of the issue right now, having so many illegals entering that they aren't the ones assimilating to OUR culture, we're being forced to assimilate theirs. If I wanted to live in or visit Mexico, I'd go there, I certainly didn't expect to see it 10 miles away out here in the styx and happening in 5 short years. This town went from a mix od whites, blacks and hispanics to looking like Little Mexico in 5 years time and people resent it. When you can't get a job in their school district unless you're Spanish speaking now, that's telling. Whatever happened to coming here and learning the language? Now they come here and we're expected to shell out alot of extra money to accomodate their lack of learning our language.
WHAT LIN SAID!!!!
As for flags, flags used as motifs in restaurants and stores, as part of an ethic parade, in logos, etc. etc. etc. is fine. Waving full-size flags in a a protest march really offends me, and I'm offended enough by the whole mess. Aren't these people protesting about the "rights" of illegal immigrants? What frelling rights are those?????
It is not "racist" to be upset with illegal immigrants. Since we are talking those from Mexico, I'll say that it would be racist to diss all Hispanics. It is not racist to protest those here illegally.
There must be some loopholes in moving to the US - I am as we speak listening to a Nashville country music dj with a decidedly English accent. Whether she's married to an American or not, I don't know, but I don't think it takes an advanced degree to be a dj. I know there are a heck of a lot of English accents in LA, along with all the other accents, and they can't all have advanced degrees. Can you still get green cards to work? I've known several folk here on that basis.
It's one think to ease the rules and take in people in danger of genocide or in need of asylum; it's another to take in people who just walk across the border every day. Aren't we exporting enough jobs to Mexico to keep them home??!! The rate it's going, US citizens will have to move to Mexico or China or India to find jobs that don't take an advanced degree.
One vital point, which Michener made in "Centennial," was that all previous waves of immigrants, mostly legal but that's not crucial to the point, made it a priority to learn English (keeping their native language in their homes and neighborhoods) precisely in order to advance, earn more money, become part of the land of opportunity. For whatever reasons, the wave from south of the border does not do that. That alone increases the cost to the country of dealing with them in all the social services and legal worlds.
It's a mess. Wiser minds than mine need to find solutions because the country just can't keep absorbing them.
Themis