the never-ending story...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/15/MNGADG8GN41.DTL

AND THEY ARE VOTING FOR THAT DARN HR4437 IMMIGRATION ACT TODAY!! ALL OF YOU HISPANIC PEOPLE, I HOPE YOU ALL CALLED YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ALREADY!!
I will spare you my not-so-polite opinion about the turning immgrants (and possibly those who aid them, such as churches and other socially active groups) into criminals... and about trying to pass this act right after --or in the middle of? who knows-- the "war against terrorism."


Ok... I WON'T spare you my opinions. Just heard on the news the act passed. Sounds like the only thing immigrants were able to keep was their children's citizenship. It all makes me so sad... it seems to me that the Senate actually did represent its people accurately. Some polls gave a number as high as 69% in favor of the act. I understand one is to protect one’s country from potential terrorists coming in. But darn it, terrorist tendencies are not genetically or even culturally raised.
And I understand people’s taxes are paying to educate people from other countries. But well, so many Americans think of Latin American countries as poor and uneducated, as being under such dire conditions that they flee from home and into the US.. to paradise. I don’t agree. Yet if someone does agree with this, then it makes no sense to willingly spend so many millions of dollars on African children’s education, on aid to Asian hurricane victims, on Human Right movements in Latin America BUT adamantly express and act on an unwillingness to help those who come close to you... those who might alter your identity or your lifestyle. It is distressing to think the problem of identity is what might be causing this. Does the United States WANT to have a 50% Hispanic population? Does the United States WANT to have a partly Asian, partly African, partly Hindu, partly non-white, non-European descent identity? The usual arguments against immigration (problems related to education, language, and crime, for example) that I have heard seem so pointless and so illogical to me that I can’t help wonder if the great nations of the world still struggle with their self-esteem.
An unrealistically high or low self esteem cannot be beneficial, under any circumstances. Why should a nation raffle out half a million green cards a year? Raffle them… completely randomly…and then make it so terribly hard for highly educated, competent people to even work in the States? Why not work towards a more logical, positive, welcoming (gosh, even if selective) LEGAL immigration process instead of a reactive, negative, disrespectful action against illegal immigration? I don’t understand why a Mathematics college professor must learn how to cook and wash dishes just because he’s Chilean. Or why he has more chances of becoming a resident if he immigrates illegally and manages to stay in the US for 5 yrs than if he had waited the approx. 10 yrs it takes to become a resident legally.

I suppose you don’t resent a blonde joke... unless you’re a blonde. And I guess someone getting the four-eyes nickname isn’t much of a tragedy unless you have myopia. And maybe I should understand that people don’t mind jokes about immigrants or their countries unless you’ve made a four hour line just so that you can have an interview with a rude immigration officer... so that you can prove that each year of school has already been paid for, that you have no need to stay in the States, that you would rather go home. Or Spain, if you must take a plane home. I shouldn’t let another country’s internal problems affect me, but I have friends and family there. I realize the US might have become some people’s complete sense of national identity, even if they have roots somewhere else... And come to think about it, I have to admit that the US has become a part of my own identity. I have roots in the US. My best friend…good grief, most of my friends are from the US… my boyfriend… and then on the other hand there’s also my church, my education, my social life, and to a small degree, even my culture. Eight years in the US... and do I want to stay? In a country where 69% of people are worried that too many immigrants might use too much of the education budget, or bring about disease and crime… Do I want to feed that idea that life in the US is better than life elsewhere? that statistics measure happiness more effectively than experience? If they do, I give. The American dream… the never ending story! So sad… all of this. So terribly sad.

I'm venting BEFORE the voting next time. Maybe I can vote indirectly : )

Ufff… ok. I’ve vented it out…most of it, at least…hehe… I need to go sleep : )