Herban Sprawl

Ya gotta love the people who think it is their civic responsibility to forward all those recycled scare emails that purport to tell you the truth about some alleged upcoming Congressional vote, or some bogus “truth” regarding who gets welfare, etc. Generally speaking I get those from one person, and if I didn’t love her to death, I’d have to lie in wait at the nail salon and hurt her badly when she goes in to have her acrylics refilled (or whatever it is that they do for her).

Now I say this because I want my readers to understand I adore this person - she kept me propped up through some hellatious times and I’m a better person because she gave me a necessary poke when I needed it. If she needed my help, I would be there in a heartbeat.

But these damn emails that get forwarded around, signed by “a Viet Nam Vet” or some other heartstring-tugging title, are getting on my nerves. The last two had to do with illegal immigrants. I am really wishing I had invited her to the AAUW program we had in November when we endeavored to debunk the myths that surround immigration. If I had, she would have just hit the delete key when those arrived in her mailbox.

The thing is, she is a person with a big heart, but like a lot of us, she’s worked two jobs for as long as I’ve known her, and there are certain things - like people who don’t deserve getting handouts getting more than their share - that push her buttons. I don’t blame her on that score.

However, it is so easy to check out one of those forwarded things, especially those dratted petitions, on Snopes.com.  Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to get to the information that will help, but usually it’s right there. And with careful - let me emphasize that word - CAREFUL - reading, and some deductive reasoning, one usually can see that those emails are barely true, and mostly biiiiiiiig stretches of the imagination.

This last one had a so-called fact that interested me because it showed up in my history class’s discussion last month. Supposedly some huge percentage of births in Los Angeles hospitals was due to illegal immigrants. The truth of the matter is that the percentage listed refers to the number of Hispanic (Latino) births. Being Hispanic (or Latino) does not automatically signal an illegal alien. However, being Hispanic (or Latino, which, by the way is the current preferred moniker for this particular ethnic group) does add to the probability of a higher birth rate given the overall adherence to Roman Catholicism’s teachings by the group.

Another of the so-called facts referred to the number of outstanding arrest warrants. Reading a little farther down on good ole Snopes, I learned that it isn’t that MORE crimes are committed by illegals, but rather that warrants remain open due to the number of people who flee once they have committed a crime. Rather than risk deportation, the illegal will simply disappear and go to work somewhere else.

Now then, there is the matter of illegals working and receiving benefits… Oh, boy, this one really gets me. In a nutshell, the vast number of illegals work using a false social security number. Their employers pay into the social security system for these people, but they will never collect that money. Why? Because they will have to produce all kinds of paperwork that proves they are legal and since they have none of that, the money just stays in the social security fund. We’re talking millions, too!

As far as illegals who work for cash under the table, I’d like to pose this question: who is to blame for this system continuing? Is it the people who risk their lives to get here to work or is it the unscrupulous people who pay cash - and usually slave wages at that - who keep the practice alive? When someone can give me a cogent answer to that question, I’m ready to listen.

What the xenophobes fail to take into consideration is that the conditions in places like Mexico or Central America are so poor, wages (if one can even get a job) so low that families live in cardboard shacks or caves or worse. Instead of staying there and seeing their families starve, men and women come north to work. If they are lucky enough to be able to thread their way through our bureaucracy, they can work legally. If not, they will move heaven and earth to get here anyway, just to work. Even the aforementioned slave wages beat what they can get in their own countries.

Are these folks really taking away jobs from Americans? Not hardly. Just ask a local concrete finishing company about their crews and their work ethic. Ask them how the American laborers usually work out for them. Best of all, watch their crews, all scrubbed and cheerful, as they shop in WalMart for things to send home to their families, along with the money that feeds them. Interact with these guys and learn a lifetime of lessons when it comes to deprivation and sacrifice all in the name of family. Americans are not likely to endure what that company’s crews will endure. (And, yes, they are all legal alien workers.)

All I’m asking is for is some respect toward people who are different. When my friends are disdainful of those immigrants, it hurts me because I’m only a second generation American. My grandfathers toiled in coal mines for a pittance. One was in the iron range when the Wobblies came to help them resolve labor practices that were outrageous (e.g. let me screw your teenage daughter and I’ll let you dig in that pit where you can get a higher amount of ore in your paycheck). He was blacklisted there and had to move to find work, along with his wife and increasing family (probably around 8 or 9 at that point). They did this because things in “the old country” were even worse.

So, yes, I do understand something about this, and all I’m asking is that instead of forwarding those emails, folks take the time to check them out. It won’t hurt, I promise you, and if you learn the truth, so much the better.