05-02-2010, 09:48 PM
I am writing from Glendale, Arizona -- a suburb that borders Phoenix on the west. Glendale is famous as the home of the Arizona Cardinals football team and the Coyotes, Arizona's professional hockey team. We have approximately 250,000 people in Glendale alone. The Phoenix metro area has almost 4 million people. The "Valley of the Sun" has been "home" since the mid-'70's.
I was watching some folks in Aurora yesterday on WGN, which I get on cable. They had a big march there in Aurora. Oh, they talked about the stupidity of racism -- and they objected to all sorts of things that, if they had bothered to do any research at all, they would know are not true. But truth and facts have nothing to do with this. Nobody who is marching in the rest of the country seems to care about facts. And the lousy politicians who urge boycotting Arizona for untrue reasons just show how crooked they are. I have no patience for those who use lies to foster hatred -- or for those who are all too willing to jump on the bandwagon of hate. I am a liberal -- and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But I'm also grounded in the reality of the barrio.
There are a lot of vested business interests, of course, in maintaining the status quo. Illegals tend not to object to OSHA violations, and they won't complain about violations of labor laws. They are paid a pittance, thus driving down wages for workers and profits for profiteers. A recent study here showed that more than 40 out of 80 Valley businesses employ illegals. Truth be told, these employers would never agree to actually RESIDE in the barrio. The problems of
the barrio belong to someone else, but the benefits belong only to the wealthy. There are reasons that limousine liberals don't plant their mansions in the neighborhoods of the people whom they exploit.
I know. I live in the barrio. I have lived, on and off, in the barrio for decades. I live pretty much in the center of at least 100 square miles that are dominated almost completely by illegal immigrants. (I say that they are illegal because my Hispanic and illegal friends have estimated that over 80% of Mexican immigrants are illegal.) I live with police helicopters hovering overhead. I live with the running gun battles down my street (43rd Avenue, a major thoroughfare). The other day, I went to Staples after work to have some Mass liturgies printed, but Staples was closed because the bullets of one of these running gun battles had entered the pristine environs of the office supply store. The policeman told me to come back the next day. The police were also, of course, across the street at the Home Depot. Is no place sacred? A couple of months ago, a man who had been in a shoot out stumbled into my Walgreens up the street. And shortly after I returned to Arizona from Mundelein last summer, a body was found on the street behind my mobile home park.
This is the way it is, aqui en mi barrio. The Mexican Mafia and plain old Mexican con men and women are all over the place. And the proliferation of businesses and $40,000 pickup trucks has led some Hispanics to speculate that much of the
apparent prosperity of the illegals comes from the drug cartels. After all, why do the illegals seem to own so many businesses when our American-born chicanos can't get a leg up?
The problem has been worsening for more than a decade, although the illegal population in the Valley has increased 70% since 2000. About 15 years ago, I happened to go with my friend, Esteban, to a scary-looking bar called "The Bronco Bar."
We were looking for Norberto, Esteban's brother. When I entered the bar, I was of course called all sorts of foul names because I'm obviously American and I had stepped into Mexico. I tried to keep smiling, though, while I pretended not to know what they were saying. A week later, five people were killed in the bar. The Arizona Republic had a nice front page story about the killings. I learned from the article that the bar was a hangout for Mexican drug lords from Sinaloa.
Yesterday, a trooper was ambushed by illegal drug smugglers outside of Casa Grande. I forget how many rounds they fired at the officer -- but it was a lot of rounds. They've got some nasty fire power. They also had no problem shooting at the police helicopters who came to the rescue. The news reported that he was "on a dangerous stretch of road known for drug smuggling." And, of course, a few weeks ago a rancher was killed in Douglas down by the border. Bienvenido a Mexico! Before you know it, our judges will be lying in pools of blood on the streets of Phoenix... just like south of the border.
Of course, I know that those who haven't bothered to find out the facts about our new law probably don't care how many of us die down here. They don't care about the bullets that frequently fly through windows killing the babies of illegals and legal citizens alike. They don't care that the majority of the victims of illegal immigrants are brown. They don't care. They just want to march and look liberal. God bless them. Maybe there's a special place for them in the afterlife.
Officially, we have almost half a million illegals in Arizona. Unofficially, we probably have over a million right here in the Valley alone. Arizona is being threatened now with losing federal funds, though, because too few of us turned in our census forms. Gosh, I wonder why. Maybe it had something to do with illegals not wanting to provide information?
Bigots always say, "Some of my best friends are [fill in blank]." I can actually say, though, that MOST of my friends here in Arizona are Hispanic. My best Arizona friend is Eddie, a Hispanic American, who is like my own brother. A former friend, who shall remain nameless, warned me to never use his real name when I would pick him up at work -- since he was using someone else's name and SS # at work. I have been to a quincenera, a gay Mexican wedding reception (about 250 people, almost all of whom were straight Chicanos or Mexican immigrants, and I have presided at the wedding of Eddie's nephew. With the exception of the last three years, I have spent almost every Saturday night in a Mexican nightclub since 1993. I have had wonderful LEGAL Mexican immigrant neighbors and CRAPPY illegal neighbors. I have found a gun carelessly left under my car seat by a friend's gangster brother. I have gone out for beers with my friend, Mike, a Latino Phoenix cop. I have enjoyed home-made albondigas in the small apartment of a little old abuela. As I said, MOST of my friends out here are Hispanic American -- and some of my friends are illegal. And so I know that of which I write.
Many Chicanos/immigants are too afraid to speak up to defend the new law. They are afraid, because they don't want to be attacked or murdered by Mexican nationals. After all, they (and I) have to live here. And we're always finding bodies in the desert. Most probably did not die of thirst.
The argument is that illegals only do the jobs that Americans won't. Gosh, who USED to do the jobs for a living wage twenty or thirty years ago. Of course they took our jobs. Only a blithering idiot or a flat out liar would claim otherwise.
The argument is that "they only come here to work." That's true for some... but not for all. Unless you consider car theft and drug smuggling work. Arizona is the identity theft capitol of the country, the kidnapping capitol of the country, and the car-theft capitol of the country. We, along with three other sun-belt states sold so many over-priced homes to immigrants that we sank the entire country. The banks committed usury when loaning to illegals, creating an artificial increase in home prices. As prices went up, the banks continued and continued to loan to immigrants who could not afford their homes. Then the banks sold these loans to other banks, and bet that the immigrants would default... which of course they did. This is the result of uncontrolled immigration and uncontrolled banks. Arizona's problem, in case you haven't noticed, has become Waukegan's problem. So don't get snooty when we try to fix it.
But then I shouldn't complain. Those who support illegal immigration obviously don't care what I think. After all, they would say, if I don't like it, I should move. And they're probably right. I obviously don't have a right to be here. I am an American and an Arizonan. I have paid my taxes here, and I have done all the right law-abiding things. But that doesn't matter anymore. As the recent protests have shown, none of that matters. This country simply can't handle the truth. It is too arrogant, too dishonest, and too dumb.
I was watching some folks in Aurora yesterday on WGN, which I get on cable. They had a big march there in Aurora. Oh, they talked about the stupidity of racism -- and they objected to all sorts of things that, if they had bothered to do any research at all, they would know are not true. But truth and facts have nothing to do with this. Nobody who is marching in the rest of the country seems to care about facts. And the lousy politicians who urge boycotting Arizona for untrue reasons just show how crooked they are. I have no patience for those who use lies to foster hatred -- or for those who are all too willing to jump on the bandwagon of hate. I am a liberal -- and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But I'm also grounded in the reality of the barrio.
There are a lot of vested business interests, of course, in maintaining the status quo. Illegals tend not to object to OSHA violations, and they won't complain about violations of labor laws. They are paid a pittance, thus driving down wages for workers and profits for profiteers. A recent study here showed that more than 40 out of 80 Valley businesses employ illegals. Truth be told, these employers would never agree to actually RESIDE in the barrio. The problems of
the barrio belong to someone else, but the benefits belong only to the wealthy. There are reasons that limousine liberals don't plant their mansions in the neighborhoods of the people whom they exploit.
I know. I live in the barrio. I have lived, on and off, in the barrio for decades. I live pretty much in the center of at least 100 square miles that are dominated almost completely by illegal immigrants. (I say that they are illegal because my Hispanic and illegal friends have estimated that over 80% of Mexican immigrants are illegal.) I live with police helicopters hovering overhead. I live with the running gun battles down my street (43rd Avenue, a major thoroughfare). The other day, I went to Staples after work to have some Mass liturgies printed, but Staples was closed because the bullets of one of these running gun battles had entered the pristine environs of the office supply store. The policeman told me to come back the next day. The police were also, of course, across the street at the Home Depot. Is no place sacred? A couple of months ago, a man who had been in a shoot out stumbled into my Walgreens up the street. And shortly after I returned to Arizona from Mundelein last summer, a body was found on the street behind my mobile home park.
This is the way it is, aqui en mi barrio. The Mexican Mafia and plain old Mexican con men and women are all over the place. And the proliferation of businesses and $40,000 pickup trucks has led some Hispanics to speculate that much of the
apparent prosperity of the illegals comes from the drug cartels. After all, why do the illegals seem to own so many businesses when our American-born chicanos can't get a leg up?
The problem has been worsening for more than a decade, although the illegal population in the Valley has increased 70% since 2000. About 15 years ago, I happened to go with my friend, Esteban, to a scary-looking bar called "The Bronco Bar."
We were looking for Norberto, Esteban's brother. When I entered the bar, I was of course called all sorts of foul names because I'm obviously American and I had stepped into Mexico. I tried to keep smiling, though, while I pretended not to know what they were saying. A week later, five people were killed in the bar. The Arizona Republic had a nice front page story about the killings. I learned from the article that the bar was a hangout for Mexican drug lords from Sinaloa.
Yesterday, a trooper was ambushed by illegal drug smugglers outside of Casa Grande. I forget how many rounds they fired at the officer -- but it was a lot of rounds. They've got some nasty fire power. They also had no problem shooting at the police helicopters who came to the rescue. The news reported that he was "on a dangerous stretch of road known for drug smuggling." And, of course, a few weeks ago a rancher was killed in Douglas down by the border. Bienvenido a Mexico! Before you know it, our judges will be lying in pools of blood on the streets of Phoenix... just like south of the border.
Of course, I know that those who haven't bothered to find out the facts about our new law probably don't care how many of us die down here. They don't care about the bullets that frequently fly through windows killing the babies of illegals and legal citizens alike. They don't care that the majority of the victims of illegal immigrants are brown. They don't care. They just want to march and look liberal. God bless them. Maybe there's a special place for them in the afterlife.
Officially, we have almost half a million illegals in Arizona. Unofficially, we probably have over a million right here in the Valley alone. Arizona is being threatened now with losing federal funds, though, because too few of us turned in our census forms. Gosh, I wonder why. Maybe it had something to do with illegals not wanting to provide information?
Bigots always say, "Some of my best friends are [fill in blank]." I can actually say, though, that MOST of my friends here in Arizona are Hispanic. My best Arizona friend is Eddie, a Hispanic American, who is like my own brother. A former friend, who shall remain nameless, warned me to never use his real name when I would pick him up at work -- since he was using someone else's name and SS # at work. I have been to a quincenera, a gay Mexican wedding reception (about 250 people, almost all of whom were straight Chicanos or Mexican immigrants, and I have presided at the wedding of Eddie's nephew. With the exception of the last three years, I have spent almost every Saturday night in a Mexican nightclub since 1993. I have had wonderful LEGAL Mexican immigrant neighbors and CRAPPY illegal neighbors. I have found a gun carelessly left under my car seat by a friend's gangster brother. I have gone out for beers with my friend, Mike, a Latino Phoenix cop. I have enjoyed home-made albondigas in the small apartment of a little old abuela. As I said, MOST of my friends out here are Hispanic American -- and some of my friends are illegal. And so I know that of which I write.
Many Chicanos/immigants are too afraid to speak up to defend the new law. They are afraid, because they don't want to be attacked or murdered by Mexican nationals. After all, they (and I) have to live here. And we're always finding bodies in the desert. Most probably did not die of thirst.
The argument is that illegals only do the jobs that Americans won't. Gosh, who USED to do the jobs for a living wage twenty or thirty years ago. Of course they took our jobs. Only a blithering idiot or a flat out liar would claim otherwise.
The argument is that "they only come here to work." That's true for some... but not for all. Unless you consider car theft and drug smuggling work. Arizona is the identity theft capitol of the country, the kidnapping capitol of the country, and the car-theft capitol of the country. We, along with three other sun-belt states sold so many over-priced homes to immigrants that we sank the entire country. The banks committed usury when loaning to illegals, creating an artificial increase in home prices. As prices went up, the banks continued and continued to loan to immigrants who could not afford their homes. Then the banks sold these loans to other banks, and bet that the immigrants would default... which of course they did. This is the result of uncontrolled immigration and uncontrolled banks. Arizona's problem, in case you haven't noticed, has become Waukegan's problem. So don't get snooty when we try to fix it.
But then I shouldn't complain. Those who support illegal immigration obviously don't care what I think. After all, they would say, if I don't like it, I should move. And they're probably right. I obviously don't have a right to be here. I am an American and an Arizonan. I have paid my taxes here, and I have done all the right law-abiding things. But that doesn't matter anymore. As the recent protests have shown, none of that matters. This country simply can't handle the truth. It is too arrogant, too dishonest, and too dumb.