Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

April 03, 2006

More on Immigration

Sorry for the light posting of late...I have unexpected (yet long-term) guests camping out in my basement, where my computer is located. I haven't had a chance to move it to the family room yet...maybe over the weekend!

OK, so let's talk immigration. Mary Grabar, who immigrated to this country from Slovenia in 1959 at the age of two, has a few things to say about those who are now protesting in the streets regarding their "rights." (I am highlighting certain passages of the article; for the entire piece, click here.)

I sometimes tell people that I am an immigrant. They are surprised because I don’t have an accent (I came here as a two-year-old). I hold a Ph.D. in English. But as an immigrant, I did not have access to any of the special grants and scholarships available to those who look different from the American of European descent. I have witnessed the imposition of “multicultural� curriculums that have dealt only with cultures of those of different hues of skin tone: to put it crudely, the red (Native American), yellow (Asian), black (African-American) and (brown) Hispanics. Multiculturalism does not include Eastern European cultures.

Sadly, this is true. Grabar discusses how no one translated signs or government documents into Slovenian or other languages from Europe. Those immigrants got on as best they could, learning the language and getting help from their children who attended American schools.

I grew up listening to high school teachers tell me how “privileged� I was simply because I was white. These were the teachers whose mothers had probably hired those like my mother to clean their houses. As a little girl, I accompanied my mother on her housecleaning jobs. When she went to work at the clothing factory, I was left to clean her house and take on her duties. I cleaned neighbors’ houses before I was legally old enough to get a minimum wage job. I have also worked in the vineyards of upstate New York and in a variety of restaurants and bars. These are the types of jobs that apologists for illegal immigrants claim others won’t do.

The people who claim Americans won't do certain jobs don't do them either. It's easier to say such a thing when one's own job is not in danger. Thomas Sowell said it best: If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about "taking jobs that Americans don't want" is such nonsense.

Back to Grabar:

In the three decades since I was fed the political correctness by teachers in my riot-torn high school, things have only gotten worse. The demonstrations have disrupted daily life and threatened public safety in cities like Los Angeles. But imagine billboards advertising welfare benefits for Slovenians or Ukrainians in native languages. Imagine Slovenians taking to the streets at the threat of denial of welfare for those who are in the country illegally. The image is preposterous. It would be preposterous even to the educators and radical groups who support the protests on behalf of the Spanish-speaking illegal immigrants. They have spent the last three decades working to instill the idea of this particularly visible group as suffering special persecution. They have started with the most gullible—the young people, their students. And the masses have been emboldened to the point of taking to the streets and burning the flag of the country in which they live. Their claims to be part of the heritage of American immigration sound specious to this immigrant.

We are all equal, but some are more equal than others. This is the message we are getting. It's time to reject that message. Especially when it refers to people who violated our laws to come here, and therefore should not be enjoying the privileges of American citizens.