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five_dollar_tomato
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daf
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Speech delivered in San Diego:
Good afternoon my friends,
It is a great privilege to be here today, addressing such a dedicated group as you almost certainly must be.
I came here today, because I feel very strongly that a grave injustice is being committed, not only against our brothers and sisters from other lands, but against our own here at home as well. A grave injustice, and a great campaign of misinformation, lies, politics and division..all motivated by little more than human greed.
This atrocity against humanity is being perpetrated not only against those who are for us (and who we are for), but also against those who are motivated to fight our cause.
Division is an old tool of politicians and the so-called elit, used for thousands of years to keep us regular folks at each other's throats, that we might overlook the fact that we are all being sucked dry by the parasites who claim to serve us. Not always, but more often than not, the word politician is synonymous with the word liar. Half truths are as good as lies.
These same politicians have once again, during a campaign year, aimed both barrels at undocumented visitors from other lands. "Illegals" they call them, and "aliens." They use these words for negative impact, knowing full well the bitter taste such words leave in the hearts and minds of those who are divided, and those undecided. "Illegal" means criminal, and "alien" means outsider, as those who practice politics could tell you.
Some say that our brothers and sisters should be criminalized for working the fields into which they are welcomed with open arms by the farmers who own those fields. Still, when has it ever been just to punish a man for feeding his family in an honorable way?
These same also say that we should penalize those who hire undocumented workers. You may have heard them claim that American jobs are being sold out to the lowest bidder. And yet noone has criminalized that portion of the manufacturing sector which sends thousands of American jobs overseas to Asia. Where is the justice in this? What difference is there between the two practices other than the fact that farmers cannot move their crops overseas to be harvested and that small businesses cannot afford the massive investments required to start an overseas operation? Perhaps the main difference is that undocumented workers are paid in dollars per hour, while Asian workers receive pennies per hour.
As usual, these are policies that protect big business and hurt small business. Simple greed, that's all it is. Simple, money-grubbing, cold, calculated greed.
But these atrocities against us all do not stop there. No, those in power are even more devious than that.
Bankers, who back developers, (and who buy politicians), know that farmers have what they want: valuable real estate. They also know that if a farmer can't hire inexpensive labor, he can't make money. Eventually, the farmer will be out of business and will be forced to sell his land.
Here in the West, as in the Midwest and the Great Plains, developers wait like vultures for the next farm to be put up for sale. It's an old formula. It's a strategy that nets developers tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
Bankers do even better: Each house built on that farm land will be financed, refinanced, borrowed against or foreclosed on, over and over and over again, while malls equal business loans. Loans offered with OUR money.
Those in power know the game. They know that land is the source. It is the source of raw materials, the source of food, and the only place we have to rest our heads at night. If you cannot raise food and you have no place to rest your bones, then you must pay another for these things.
This is the real reason behind all of this fuss over immigration. That is its real motivation. Not security, not American jobs, but as I've said before, greed.(continued next blathe)
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060415
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daf
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If I might for a moment, before closing, I would like to address our brothers and sisters on the other side of this issue. Those of you who love this country, believe in its laws, and feel that undocumented immigrants should go through the process legally. Perhaps you have a point. But you have a point only if the process itself were JUST, and not simply a mechanical, money-making machine.
I'm not sure what you, your parents, or your grandparents may have suffered through to get here. I won't stand here and say that it was easier for you, or for them. Perhaps your immigration was harder, perhaps it went quite smoothly. Let me instead, briefly relate to you my own experience with the immigration process:
I'm a good 'ol Midwestern boy, born and bred, who didn't speak a word of Spanish and who thought that tamales came wrapped in paper, not corn husks. The military brought me out here where, 16 years ago, I met the wonderful woman to whom I am still married. I was 21, she was 19. We fell in love and were married in Mexico.
Although we already had two children, ages 1 and 2, who I thought of as my own, it wasn't long before we had another little on the way. I desperately wanted our child to be born in the States, but my wife didn't have her papers, and I had no money to get them for her. The fees were stiff for a 22 year old, even then. So we arranged with the State Department for a temporary permit to cross for prenatal care. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the border, our permit was rejected on the grounds that I didn't make enough money, nor did I have enough in the bank, to pay for our child's medical care. And so, our child...and American citizen, was born in Tijuana.
I made it my goal to immigrate our family. We crossed some time in '92...illegally. It seemed that there was no other way for me to make enough money, and still be with my wife and our baby. You see, the immigration service required that I be making $47,000 a year in order to legally immigrate my family. In addition, there were thousands of dollars in fees and other requirements to be paid. I'm not proud to say that I am a high school dropout. How many of you that are NOT dropouts were making $47,000 at the age of 23?
Since our other two daughters were too brown to be crossed without us all being questioned too closely, we had to leave them with relatives.
For 6 years I busted my hump. For 6 years I watched my beloved wife cry herself to sleep every night, thinking about the 2 we had left behind. For 6 years, every birthday that passed, she verged on a nervous breakdown. Every Christmas she was practically suicidal. We were losing 6 years of our children's lives..6 years of memories..6 years.
We couldn't visit them. That takes money and we didn't have that. Besides, I had to impress my emplyers if I was going to reach that magical figure of $47,000 dollars. So with few benefit, (and no time), vacations were out of the question. For 6 years my family was torn apart..for doing it legally. And I am an American citizen. For others, the separation can be longer.
To you ALL, know this:
I love this country and agree that we should try to do things the right way. But if the legal way is so harsh, so inhumane, so uncaring and greedy, how can it possibly considered the right way?
When a government that is supposed to serve us, creates laws that HARM us, how then, as Americans, can we justify abiding by those laws? Who's the boss? The people? Or the government? Whose judgement do we trust? Ours? Or that of a bunch of convoluted words and jumbled together regulations created by politicians who hide in their offices, half a world away from the unfolding of our troubles?
Those that founded and fought for this country showed us that it is not only our right, but our RESPONSIBILITY to IGNORE unjust policies and harmful laws. We are ALL here, citizen and non-citizen alike, in order to pursue life, liberty and happiness; not to sacrifice these noble goals that we might satisfy a few whose greed and for power is out of control.
Viva La Raza
May God bless and may God HELP America.
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060415
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daf
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Si se puede!
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060415
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oren
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Until the US_Government undergoes a complete overhaul, it will continue to_be business_as_usual in_the Nifty_Fifty.
Money fuels the Great_Political_Machine.
As long as Joe_Citizen gets enough of what he wants, nothing major will change.
In time, the Great_Melting_Pot will come to a boil again. The next boiling_point will probably result in something far more destructive than the first one, which only cost the lives of over 620,000.
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060415
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dafremen
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Among small businessmen in both construction and unskilled trades, the almost unanimous opinion is that migrant workers work harder and more reliably than their American born counterparts. This is becoming more and more true. Some of the older construction workers are lamenting that there are very few young people who are willing to work. Most just want someone to hand them a paycheck, or find someone to mooch off of. They are corporate America's dream children: Helpless. Unmotivated to do anything but punch a card and spend any left over money they can manage.
In fact, speaking of Americans and their work ethic, there are many videos and articles all over the web about farmers who advertised jobs to Americans to work in their fields for long hours and low wages. Not too many takers. And definitely not many stayed. We're too good for that shit. Just not too good to bitch about other people doing it. But they come and do it anyway AND take the shit we dish out. (Google farmers hire americans)
Meanwhile, misogynists on both sides of the political fence are trying to build walls between us and a people who not only SHARE American values..but actually PRACTICE them: making family a priority, working hard to get ahead, love of community and concern for the elderly.
These are Mexican values. I know. I'm a small town boy from the Midwest whose military service happened to cross his path with a Mexican girl. I lived there..had children there. Friends there. Neighbors there. They have their problems just like any society and jerks and criminals like any culture and yes..even the OCCASIONAL racist. Here's what you won't see them doing:
You won't see them bitching about undocumented migrants lowering wages while they stand in line at the express lanes putting their own countrymen out of work.
But Americans? We give a shit more about our convenience than we do about American jobs. We'll line up at Self Check out lanes because we can't stand in line for 10 minutes to keep an American cashier working. We'd rather take that American's job and working it for NOTHING. ZERO dollars and ZERO cents to cashier and bag.
And THEN we have the hypocritical GALL to bitch at brown people for saving farmers' asses, small business persons' asses, hotel owners' asses by working for the low wages these businesses can afford to pay while remaining competitive with HUGE corporations?
As though we didn't sell our jobs out to Asia decades ago to make some local traitors more competitive against their fellow Americans? As though we'd actually done anything to keep some jobs here in America. Like we did anything to stop the scumbag Americans who were selling our jobs out to Canada, Mexico and China? Like we did anything to stop their businesses from thriving? WE bailed out the auto industry then paid for it to move our jobs out of the country.
THAT's how much we REALLY care about Americans jobs, OK?
It's almost like we'd rather watch small business die out completely or watch all of the family farms turned to condos. We act as though small business people aren't American workers. Anyone who's ever ever watched someone build an honest business knows better.
I have had great bosses who deserved the best I had to offer. I've had shitty employers who shouldn't be in business because they treat their workers like peasants. If more Americans told crappy employers to fuck off and more customers refused to support businesses with unpleasant working conditions, our working conditions would get better.
That's the reality of the situation. That's the solution: Getting some balls. Not hassling brown people.
It's almost as though putting Americans out of work is only a problem for Americans..when there are brown people involved. WTF?
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151216
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ergo
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There is a large apple orchard here in West Virginia that just closed down due to the farmer's inability to find enough undocumented labor to do the work.
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151217
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dafremen
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That's sad. But true.
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160321
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