I think we have to get accustomed to the idea that America has changed, and will change even more in the future. I don't know if it's a real Fall of Empire situation or just a bad decade, but things are changing. The funny/scary part is that those who brought us to this point will be least able to deal with what they've done. They don't care how much they are destroying the Constitution because who needs it when you're with the winning Party? But they are too stupid to notice that the snake they've brought into the house can turn on them just as easily. The Catholic Church will fight this; they are betting their future on the new recruits and giving up on the old ones. A tremendous amount of their money and energy in the Southwest is devoted towards caring for the immigrant community.
And of course the business community is the reason why we're still discussing immigration "problems" and not doing something serious to stop it, not that we could or should. They need immigrants for cheap labor. Amost all the laborers here in Houston are minority.
Yeah, somebody had a good line about W's protestations of the legality of his spy tactics--how would he (and his supporters) like to see President Hillary Clinton exercising that same disregard for the Constitution?
But the business people who want to bring in cheap labor but don't want to pay them decently or even let tax money be used to feed them, educate them, and care for them when they're ill--hell will have to grow a new circle for those guys.
Oh, yes. That would be the worst possible threat to them--a no-limits presidency with a Clinton in office!
There is a strange sense of resentment and grievance beneath all of this. The majority sees itself as under attack by a nearly powerless minority. Christians think that non-Christians (or Christians of another sect) are out to get them, whites think the non-whites are overrunning them and cheating them out of jobs, men think that women are taking away their future. It's unbelievable.
I've seen it in the South a lot, a kind of multi-generational heritage of resentment for being on the losing side, one hundred and fifty fricking years ago. They will do anything to think of themselves as winners, including Jim Crow, high school football madness, anti-immigrant bigotry, and whatever else they can come up with, like sexual orientation. There's a famous map that shows how the same states that used to be slave states are now strongly red state. (http://www.bopnews.com/archives/002316.html) Whatever is the cause, they could use a little more Christianity and a little less fear.
I've seen it in the South a lot, a kind of multi-generational heritage of resentment for being on the losing side
Of course, the Southern side (the poor Southerners, that is, black and white) didn't stop being on the losing side until WWII. But that's still a few generations ago. And one terrible thing is that the better they seem to be doing, the worse they picture themselves.
Yes, that's odd. I guess it could be fear of losing what they have. Or maybe it's something else--it usually seems to accompany a desire for a strict social hierarchy.
one of the churches I interviewed with is very involved in border ministries in tucson. While I was there, there was a young man who had a head injury who was determined to bicycle to a relative in Kentucky. What they told me was if the border patrol picks them up and they are injured, the BP just drops them at the emergency room. If the BP comes back for them, then we have to pay the hospital bill. Otherwise, it's just a charity case for the hospital. The church I talked with gets calls from the ERs and they come and pick up the folks when they are released and provide a place for them to heal.
Treatment of illegals is controversial. One of my friends from seminary is a Native American who provides water at stops on the reservation. Others on the reservation destroy the water tanks, poke holes in the plastic water jugs he leaves for immigrants. Those on the reservation don't want the immigrants to go through the reservation because they say the immigrants destroy property and so forth.
Maybe I misread the WP article, but I understood it to say that the kinds of help you describe epeople giving would not be acceptable if the new act passes.
Here, it's the African_American community that objects to immigrants, and certainly I'm sure there's some reason, in terms of lost jobs.
I believe it's already illegal. I haven't seen the article but I assume they are trying to tighten things up. Two Presbyterians have been arrested for helping a couple of dying immigrants. What I was told down there is that what they were doing was illegal, but that the Border Patrol normally overlooked it. This was just after the Minute Men were there and I asked if it was in response to that and I was told no, they thought it was just a couple of new border patrol people who didn't understand the "rules"
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And of course the business community is the reason why we're still discussing immigration "problems" and not doing something serious to stop it, not that we could or should. They need immigrants for cheap labor. Amost all the laborers here in Houston are minority.
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But the business people who want to bring in cheap labor but don't want to pay them decently or even let tax money be used to feed them, educate them, and care for them when they're ill--hell will have to grow a new circle for those guys.
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There is a strange sense of resentment and grievance beneath all of this. The majority sees itself as under attack by a nearly powerless minority. Christians think that non-Christians (or Christians of another sect) are out to get them, whites think the non-whites are overrunning them and cheating them out of jobs, men think that women are taking away their future. It's unbelievable.
I've seen it in the South a lot, a kind of multi-generational heritage of resentment for being on the losing side, one hundred and fifty fricking years ago. They will do anything to think of themselves as winners, including Jim Crow, high school football madness, anti-immigrant bigotry, and whatever else they can come up with, like sexual orientation. There's a famous map that shows how the same states that used to be slave states are now strongly red state. (http://www.bopnews.com/archives/002316.html) Whatever is the cause, they could use a little more Christianity and a little less fear.
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Of course, the Southern side (the poor Southerners, that is, black and white) didn't stop being on the losing side until WWII. But that's still a few generations ago. And one terrible thing is that the better they seem to be doing, the worse they picture themselves.
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Treatment of illegals is controversial. One of my friends from seminary is a Native American who provides water at stops on the reservation. Others on the reservation destroy the water tanks, poke holes in the plastic water jugs he leaves for immigrants. Those on the reservation don't want the immigrants to go through the reservation because they say the immigrants destroy property and so forth.
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Here, it's the African_American community that objects to immigrants, and certainly I'm sure there's some reason, in terms of lost jobs.
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