SOMETHING YOU WON'T SEE HERE VERY OFTEN -- A RANT!

I won't give a reason, other than that I am getting tired of getting forwarded emails from one or two people (not from J-land) that are full of nasty, snide little snippets of anti-immigrant opinions.  I had thought that I got them simply because I was on this person(s)' mailing list, and that quite possibly this person(s) didn't share the opinions, but was just passing along the emails.  I have come to the conclusion today that that is not the case.  Apparently this person(s) seems to think that I'd share the humor.   I set this person straight.

So, in order to calm myself down I am going to do something I don't do very often in my journal.  I am going to offer an opinion on something that is of a political nature. 

I know that there are areas of the country where the illegal immigration problems are very real.  I recognize that I could never fully appreciate these problems unless I lived there and experienced them daily.  There are, I know, areas in America where illegal immigration is hurting the economy and causing harm in other ways, that don't as yet affect me.  But as far as I am concerned illegal immigration is wrong by definition -- it is illegal.   But there are plenty of immigrants here in this country who are legal, and who are here because they needed, not just wanted, something better than what they had for their families.  I am personally acquainted with legal immigrants who are here because their families were starving, were living in squalor, or, in the case of some Bosnian and Somalian friends, because they were escaping with little more than their lives.

But I'm not an idiot.  I am not simple-minded.  I am not ignorant of the way bigots work.  I have been on the receiving end of bigotry and prejudice, and I know that there are small minds out there who grasp any occasion to air their bigoted opinions, and if they can do so in the guise of Pro-American sentiment, then so much the better for them.  The sentiments themselves may not be objectionable, particularly when they assure the listener/reader that they are speaking of illegals only. 

But snippets of anti-immigration on signs?  In seemingly innocuous emails, where they are mixed up with patriotic slogans, pictures and sentiments?  Do you know what these snippets do really?  They fuel ignorance and perpetuate bigotry because they are just snippets of opinion, couched in currently acceptable, patriotically correct rhetoric without any in-depth reasoning behind them.  And they are fairly innocuous to those of us who have actually thought out what our feelings and beliefs are on the subject -- those of us who actually can admit to perhaps having mixed emotions about the subject -- those of us who do not simply follow the crowd or accept generalizations about any one group.  But then, that's just my opinion.

There are illegal immigrants in America, and problems are caused by them, but my only personal beef with them is that they are here illegally.  I do have sympathy for the illegal immigrant who is here because his kids were starving in his country, but I can't condone his being here illegally.  I don't, however, feel threatened by his being here.  And here is why:  There are plenty of natural-born American citizens who are screwing their fellow Americans every day by either committing fraud against them, murdering them, lying to them, or any other number of misdeeds.  There are plenty of natural-born American citizens who are abusing their children and the children of others, who are abusing or neglecting their elderly parents or grandparents, who are cheating on their taxes, stealing from charities, taking monetary advantage of elderly people, using, abusing and selling illegal drugs and prescription drugs alike, cheating employers and employees and stepping on their fellow Americans to climb the corporate ladder.  I am much more disturbed, insulted, and appalled by those people than I am by immigrants, legal or illegal. 

So, I really think that sentiments like I read in the email I received today, when taken in snippets and not discussed or offered in a reasoning, well-thought out manner, may afford a smile or a giggle to those of us who can see them as a joke, but for so many out there, they just serve to fan the flames of intolerance.  They really are not funny.  Not to me.  And I've always ignored them.  I've hit the delete button and vaguely wondered why this person(s) would think I would appreciate them.  Then it hit me today, that by not saying something I'm compromising my beliefs.  Not anymore.

I may have alienated this particular acquaintance(s), although I was fairly nice in replying to the email.  I was straightforward, though, and said much that I have said here.  And I did first make sure that this person(s) truly did agree with the sentiments expressed in the email, the "jokes".  Oh yes, I was assured that (s)he thought they were "so funny"!

Not to me!