Informed citizens such as myself believe that the earth is completely flat. We also have an unshakeable belief that Joshua did in fact stop the sun. If that were untrue, why did he write about it in the Bible? Please see Joshua, Chapter 10, Verses 12 and 13. The flat earth doctrine and Joshua stopping the sun in its tracks took place perhaps four or five thousand years ago. With respect to good old Joshua, I wonder what the citizens of Harriman, Tennessee had to say about the prolonged daylight on their okra crops. According to Joshua, the moon was also affected as well as the sun. I suspect that this is when night baseball came to Brooklyn, New York.
These were cataclysmic events that have impressed every informed and sophisticated citizen of the United States. Until last week, there have been no major events that would qualify as cataclysmic. However, last week, an event took place in the Texas legislature in Austin, Texas which has shaken the world.
In between spitting tobacco juice on each other’s cowboy boots in the legislature, old Leo Berman, a Republican from East Texas, arose to make a statement that would have rivaled Joshua’s declaration. Mr. Representative Berman is working on a manuscript that I suspect will be in future editions of the holy book. Here is what Representative Berman had to say: “Mexico is the world’s most corrupt country and its citizens are infecting us with their law-breaking culture and with tuberculosis and leprosy.”
So you see, the Mexicans among us are bringing us a plague because it is in their nature to do so. It is the Mexican innate intention to foist tuberculosis and leprosy upon all of us unsuspecting Yankee gringos.
In the opinion of this humble essayist, I believe that Representative Berman’s thoughts rank right up there with the declarations of Joshua and the Flat Earth Society.
The effort to emasculate the Mexicans is not a new phenomenon in American politics. Since our Declaration of Independence was signed, a good many of the religious right-wingers formerly demanded a halt in the immigration of the Irish. You may recall help wanted signs that said “Irish need not apply.” But the Irish were not alone. Traditionally, we have always had a tier of people who are anti-Semites. And then there are those who would bar people of other religions such as the Mormons. On top of that, there has long been a prejudice to the acceptance of African-American citizens. And now the enmity is directed toward Mexicans who come here to earn a few dollars which are used to support their families.
The founders of this country set out to welcome immigrants. Because of that fact, we are known throughout the world as the land of immigrants. It is the diversity of races that has made this country one of the great powers of the world. If we are going to shut off immigration as many right-wingers hope to do, we will be eating our own seed corn. If we attempt to expel the 12 to 13 million people now illegally residing in this country, the effect will be exactly the same.
For those of you who do not come from an agricultural background, it is a tradition among farmers all over the world to save seeds from this year’s harvest for the purpose of planting them for next year’s crops.
If we eat our own seed corn, this country will whither and eventually become a non-entity in the affairs of the world.
Now here is a thought that might cause the right-wingers who oppose immigration to think twice. When the English ran this country prior to 1776, Jews, Eastern Europeans, and Irish were not welcome. If the English had prevailed in 1776, can you imagine that now, every restaurant would serve only English fare and we would be devoid of French, Italian, and Chinese influences? If I may say so, English cuisine ranks slightly below that of Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. And can you imagine what our music would be like? The singers would voice praises of fairies, princes, and imaginary kings that would be worthy only of the Windsor family in Buckingham Palace in England. The point is that immigration has brought us wonderful improvements in our cuisine, in our literature, our music and in the public discourse.
Today, there is a poignancy having to do with the war in Iraq. Clearly millions of people wish to escape that country to avoid the conflict. A small country like Sweden has taken in as many as 20,000 Iraqi refugees. Taking one Iraqi with another, I believe it is fair to say that they are well-educated and sophisticated. When we leave Iraq, as we surely will, a good many of those educated people will be left to the religious slaughter that will take place in that country. I am well aware of the prejudice against taking Iraqis because of their Muslim faith. But I also recall the prejudice against Catholics and Jews applying for citizenship in previous years. The war in Iraq is our responsibility and it is also our responsibility to see to it that hundreds of thousands of educated Iraqis are not slaughtered and tortured. If a country such as Sweden can accommodate 20,000 Iraqis, surely this country can accommodate many, many more.
Nativism is a disease that causes its sufferers to bury their heads in the sand. Nativist politicians will tell you that when immigration is stopped and the illegal immigrants are kicked out of the country, we will all be transported into an eternal paradise. They are hopelessly wrong and it is another case of eating our own seed corn. The Mayor of New York is no farmer, but he will tell you that when the illegal immigrants are booted out, the economy of New York City will be critically injured. And when they are expelled, what happens to the growers of peaches and other fruit who depend upon illegal immigrants to pick their crops?
I hold no brief to speak for Mexican immigrants. I am aware that they come to this country to earn a few dollars for their families and while they are doing so they encounter horrible living conditions. They are doing the very best they can for themselves and for their families. Who can fault them for that? If work were available for them in their home country, work that paid a decent wage, the United States would then be fighting to import workers from Mexico. But that is not the case. And please do not let people tell you that when the Mexican immigrants become sick they go to an emergency room in a hospital for treatment, which drives up the taxes. The fact of the matter is that an illegal immigrant will do everything in the world to avoid treatment in a hospital where he knows that such treatment could very well lead to his deportation.
American citizens now find that a college degree only gets you over the first employment barrier. As our citizens become more educated, how many of them do you think are going to cut lawns, clean houses, pick fruit, and work in packing houses? The answer is, none.
There are two final points that must be made. To the extent that we choke off immigration, we are destroying one of the foundations upon which this country was built. To put it more bluntly, it is damned foolishness for us to knock the props out from what has sustained this country for so long.
And secondly, because Representative Berman’s comments were made in Austin, Texas, there is a warning here for Kevin Shepherd, one of our three grandchildren who lives in that state capital. If Kevin Shepherd, a great debater, becomes unable to debate because of his advancing tuberculosis case, or if he develops a raging case of leprosy, he should not appeal to me. If Kevin notices suspicious coughing or that his fingers tend to fall off, he should take that matter up with Representative Berman of East Texas. My guess is that the representative will have Kevin shipped to Guatemala so that the great state of Texas may remain pure.
If we eat our own seed corn in this immigration debate, we will have no one to blame as the country sinks into mediocrity or below. And I wonder where are the Christians who used to say, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself?” Perhaps grandson Kevin can supply an answer to that question. I have none except to say that we eat our seed corn at our own peril.
E. E. CARR
April 8, 2007
Essay 246
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Kevin’s commentary: Kevin is unfortunately unable to comment upon this essay due to an acute lack of appendages. He has only himself to blame for living in Texas and then California, both of which are known havens for people of Hispanic descent. He hopes that you take no notice of the fact that leprosy is something right now that really only affects India, China, and Africa — which, last time he checked — were pretty low in Mexican count.
I have no answers regarding why Texan politicians are such awful people. All the debating talent in the world couldn’t present a good case for behaving like they do. You’ll notice that my solution was to leave the state almost immediately upon graduating high school.