Hallway to Nowhere

Tag: immigration

  • “Not MY Problem!”-Saith The Right

    “Not MY Problem!”-Saith The Right

    I’m thinking I should start a new blog entitled “Bus Stories”. That seems to be where some of my best material comes from these days. So, I was on transit last week and listening to three men converse. They were all older white men and were discussing the Rockville incident. The topic turned to immigration and DACHA, though they did not use those terms. They were uniformly against giving Dreamers ANY sort of help, be it schooling, healthcare, or housing. They agreed that anyone here who is an “illegal” should be sent back to where they came from, period. When I spoke up in defense of DACHA, they turned to me and said, “I don’t care how they got here, they’re illegal. What part of “illegal” don’t you understand? So they were brought here as children? NOT MY PROBLEM!”

    Several things stuck me about this exchange. The first was the the absolute lack of any glimmer of compassion in their voices. And these men all would probaby describe themselves as good Christians. I knew one of them outside of the conversation and had always found him to be very friendly towards every rider of the bus. That was before this election legitimized showing bigotry, though, and I’ve noticed an increase in racist remarks from people I’ve never heard make them before Trump got elected. The second thing I noticed was their uniformity of tone. There was no real back and forth in this conversation. Even the phrases they used were identical. It sounded more like they were trading slogans than really talking. I felt odd, like I was eavesdropping on a secret club-house meeting. Maybe a steady diet of Fox news does that to you….Even when my progressive friends and I get together, we do argue.

    I want to say to these men that YES, IT IS YOUR PROBLEM! And it is my problem, too. And it is is OUR problem because we live here and immigrants live here and how we deal with them says volumes about who we are and what our actual values are. Are you going to live according to those “good Christian values” you presume to uphold, or do they only apply to your white neighbors? This country was founded BY IMMIGRANTS. WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS! Just because YOUR ancestors got here a little earlier than some of the others and had whiter skin does NOT make you better! And YOUR brand of religion is not any better than that of the “illegals” you purport to despise or of the Muslims you want to ban or even any better than the unbelief of the atheists like myself. We are all in this together. You can say it is “not my problem” and try to stick your head in the sand but you live here. The draconian laws over immigration will ultimately trickle down to affect someone you know. The taxes that get imposed to build more private prisons to hold those that Trump (#notmypresident) and Co. want rounded up will affect YOU. We’d better start thinking about this.

  • When The Music’s Over By Peter Robinson-A Review

    When The Music’s Over By Peter Robinson-A Review

    The latest Inspect banks novel, this mystery did not seem  as satisfying as his previous works. It tended to drag, and while the topic of historical abuse is a timely one, Banks failed to engage me. His development of the characters rang flat, and there was far less of Inspector Banks, Jazz Singh, and the others we’ve come to like in his novels. Even his descriptions of the landscape, usually evocative, captured only fragments of the harsh cityscape he meant to convey. He did present a nuanced representation of the racial tension in present day Britain and the problems that presents in terms of policing and pursuing cases. In view of the current struggles going in Europe and the U.S. over immigration, the novel did good a good job there. But, perhaps because he was concentrating on the politics of the novel, the book never quite rose to any heights. A pity, that.

  • Yet Another Entry On Immigration

    I’ve been reading with interest the recent articles on Europe’s struggle’s with their influx of immigrants. Angela Merkel ‘s ratings in Germany are lower than they’ve ever been and  the Christian Democratic Union recently suffered a defeat in a state election by an anti-immigration party. Denmark, which has long prided itself on its progressive policies, is suffering a blow to its self-image, as it deals with the realty of integrating newcomers who aren’t so readily adaptable to traditional Danish culture. France, with its very secular government, issues the burkini ban, though this has been overturned in the courts. And Britain exited the EU altogether, with immigration being one of the major reasons.

    In the U.S. Presidential candidate and Republican nominee Donald Trump is known for his hard stance on immigration. He has issued calls for bans on Muslims entering the U.S., said that he would build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. to secure the border, and deport 11 millions undocumented immigrants. This has been with widespread approval among his supporters, most of whom are Caucasian. When he appeared to be softening his stance, there was an immediate backlash.

    I live in a small Appalachian town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It’s usually voted one of the coolest small towns in America. We recently had one of many local Fests. Since these tend to get widely publicized and b/c we have visitors coming in for plays at the Barter, there were a LOT of people on the streets. I saw a number of Muslims, and the women were fully covered, including headscarves. I went out of my way to speak to them and welcome them to our town. My conversational Arabic is somewhat rusty, but I managed. When I left, though, I wondered where they were going to eat. We have no halal restaurants. Hell, we don’t have any kosher or vegan restaurants, either! This is strictly a town for omnivores! Had my apt been in better order, I would have invited them HERE for a meal, since I’ve had to go dairy-free/gluten free so I do a lot of vegan meals. (I do have a dog but would have confined her to bedroom.) My  pots wouldn’t have been halal, though, since I have cooked meat in them in the past.

    Why is there this fear/discrimination across Europe and in the U.S. against immigrants? In Europe it is largely against Muslims; here it is against Hispanics AND Muslims. Is it because they have darker skin? Different customs? Different religion?  This should not be viewed with FEAR! We live in a global society society now. Let us learn to respect that others have different customs and know that this can enrich our society. And as to a different religion, Muslims seem much less aggressive, institutionally- speaking, than do Christians. Among my Muslims friends, not a one has ever made an effort to convert me or told me I’m going to hell. I don’t see Muslim televangelists or find Muslim persecution-movies, such as God’s Not Dead. Yes, there ARE terrorist organizations such as ISIL, but those are run by extremists. As an atheist, I don’t support any religion and think all should be practiced privately, not state-supported in any way. But I do NOT want to see anyone discriminated against merely for holding certain religious beliefs.

  • The Wall

    I read that Kansas Secretary of State and prominent anti-immigration activist Kris Kobach has successfully lobbied for language supporting Trump’s absurd Wall into the Republican platform.  “The border wall must cover the entirety of the southern border and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.”  Exactly how this wall is to be paid for was not addressed, though Trump has said that he will force Mexico to do so, both by threatening to seize money that people here send back to relatives in Mexico and by some unspecified more ominous means. Despite Dan Stein’s statement that Trump’s Wall is a “surrogate” for other border control measures, Trump himself has never disavowed that he intends building a physical wall, though  engineers, economists, and others have repeatedly said that it is impractical, ineffective, and costly. But reason has never stood in way of Trump’s fevered plans.

    Here’s a little something to help you contemplate Trump’s Republican  ‘Murica:

     

  • Immigration

    So, I did some research and found that the oft-repeated assertion that illegal immigrants get benefits such as free healthcare and other things while paying nothing into the system via taxes is a myth. The Institute For Taxation And Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates that undocumented immigrants were responsible for 10.6 BILLION in state and local taxes in 2010, and the Social Security Administration reports they paid 13 billion into the Social Security Trust Fund (which will never benefit them) via payroll taxes. I am sure these numbers have only increased since then. They are not eligible for any state or federal benefit program, though their children born in this country are. The jobs many do, at least in the case of the Mexicans, are usually in the service industry and not ones competed for by native-born Americans. Studies show that cities with a large number of immigrants experience a general wage INCREASE for all, regardless of job. And foreign workers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mechanics) industry are increasingly vital as the number of US graduates in these fields decline.
    Source: THE US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE uschamber.com
    That’s my factual portion. Now for the personal. I’ve heard some very racist remarks directed at both Mexicans and Muslims. I’ll address the ones about Mexicans first. Most of the Mexicans I have seen are poor. Most seem to be hard-working. Many speak Spanish. I’m getting really tired of hearing “You’re in America, speak English!” If they know enough English to communicate, that’s fine. I don’t think they are expecting US to learn Spanish. Their children will learn English in school. If they want to continue to use Spanish amongst themselves, why not? But to hear them talked about the way I heard African Americans talked about as a child growing up in Mississippi fills me with a most nasty sense of deja vu. In some parts of the country “dirty Mexican” has become the new “nigger”, and that should not be tolerated.
    Now, as to the Muslims. I’ve seen and heard comments that no Muslims should allowed into the country, that Muslims should be thrown out, etc. This is as absurd as saying “All Christians think homosexuals should be killed,” because one extremist group happens to think so. MUSLIMS ARE NOT THE ENEMY. Too many people have this idea that any Muslim is some crazy who  is going to bomb something, shoot someone or want impose Sharia law on everyone. This is NOT the case. Most Muslims who come here are peaceful, want to live a good life in their own way, and are not anymore prone to violence than you or I. Are there extremists? Yes, but those can be found in ANY religious group. They are crazy Christians ( the Westboro Baptists, Christ Identity movement), crazy Jews (Lev Tahor), crazy Hindus (Saffron Terror) and I’m sure other religions produce their own varieties of nutjobs as well. No other than Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers, campaigned for “the rights of the Mahamdan, the Jew, and the pagan.” Just because a person who is Muslim carries out a mass shooting doesn’t mean we should blame Muslims or Islam. Did we blame Christians or Christianity for the Oregon hostage situation? (Answer: no.) Most mass shooting and acts of violence in the US have been done by non-Muslims-statistically by those identifying as CHRISTIANS, yet we continue to stigmatize Muslims. MUSLIM does not equal TERRORIST. (And, lest you accuse me of not having any personal acquaintance, I have several good friends who are Muslim and have visited mosques.)