Xordelia (dot) COM

I love the changing tide of politics! Youth are finally starting to get involved, to better us as a country, to move us toward equality. With the way things are going in the United States, I hope it doesn’t take another Civil War or some kind of socialist/communist revolution for the leaders to pay attention and start making changes.

Our middle class is virtually gone, wage disparity is at the highest level in history, the baby boomers are starting to retire and by 2050 Anglo-Europeans will be the ethnic/racial minority. We can’t keep having business as usual if we’re going to survive as a country, we need to change an adapt to the needs and demands of our population. Do you hear that Speaker Boehner? Do you hear the Sarah Palin and other GOP politicians?

Here are two interesting blurbs I saw on Facebook today:

In regards to this: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/03/why-was-cowboys-stadium-exempt-from-blackouts/

In regards to: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2011/01/about_a_third_of_americans_say.html

We, as a generation, need to realize that passive apathy isn’t going to work any more. If we want to keep America as we know it – freedom, plenty, decent education – we need to use our political voice for change. Otherwise I’ll see you guys in the toilet paper line in the USSA in about 20 years.

Immigration is a funny business in the United States.

Most of my life I have been very critical of “illegal immigrants” ruining our country. I thought they were a terrible menace that should be shut out, kicked out of our schools, thrown back over the border. I think I even joined a Facebook group called “line the border with land mines to keep ‘em out”.

I’m glad to say that I no longer feel that way. Our country is full of immigrants, that is what makes America beautiful. It was originally religious and sociocultural refugees from Europe who came here seeking freedom and opportunity in the (literally) “new world”. For that reason people still come here, from all over the world, for a new life in the (figurative) “new world”.

Conservatives love to make comments about doing it the “legal way” and illegals coming here to rip us off and take our social services – but I don’t think any of them really understand the truth of the matter.

The truth is that there are many barriers in the way of immigrating legally. Not only does the US make it almost impossible for people from the “third world” (developing countries) to immigrate here, but it’s an expensive and time consuming process. The working poor not only don’t have the financial means to immigrate legally but in most cases they do not have a marketable trade to even be considered for immigration. Thus, their only option to provide a better life for their families is to immigrate illegally.

As black and white as conservatives make it sound, illegal immigration is not an easy process. “Border hoppers” not only risk the lives of their families during the trip through rugged unforgiving desert but it oftentimes costs them a lot of money to shady traffickers who leave them to die in the desert at the first sign of trouble. Once they get into the US, if they get in alive, they have limited civil rights, no voice, cannot find legal employment and are almost always abused.

Contrary to popular belief, they general do not abuse social services; most of the time they do not use social services because that would “out” them as illegal immigrants and get them deported. Some do come to the US to have their babies as American citizens, but that is few and far between. Plus having a baby in the US only makes the baby a citizen, the parents still have to return to their mother country until their child reaches age 21 and can petition to have the parents enter the country.

The ironic thing about immigration is that the philosophically black and white conservatives and tea partiers do not seem to have the ability to empathize with immigrants. They are very fond of their civil rights as Americans but not only do not WANT to share them with others, they are unable to understand WHY others would desire the rights. They completely dehumanize immigrants.

Today I watched a powerful movie with Harrison Ford called Crossing Over. Not only was I surprised to see Harrison Ford in such a movie, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a deep psychological movie. It really makes one think about the state of things in the United States. It really gives a face to the different groups dealing with our broken immigration system. It isn’t all Mexicans “anchor babies” who want to steal our social services, it’s plenty of people from developed countries as well who are abused and mistreated because they have no legal rights without a proper immigration status and do not want to draw attention to themselves.

For a while now I’ve asked myself why I want to go into law. Yes I want to make a difference, yes civil rights have always interested me. But deeper than that, I want to stand up for people who do not have a voice, who cannot stand up for themselves, who are victims of a broken system.

Human rights are everyone’s business. Immigration is everyone’s business. We cannot accommodate everyone who wants to immigrate to the US, legally or illegally, but we ought to treat them like human beings with dignity and rights. It is not only a shame but an injustice that the DREAM Act still has not passed in the legislature. It appears that conservatives hate immigrants even more than gays. Rather than allowing immigrants of good moral character to legally immigrate to the US if they go to university or join the military, our politicians have decided to demonize them all as menaces to society. Not only is the DREAM Act the right thing to do, but it would be good for our country. Not only would it provide us upstanding citizens (regardless of their national origin) but it would stimulate the economy in terms of tuition, housing expenses, money spent in American stores, etc.

I will make it my goal, upon finishing law school, to help all of the gays and illegal immigrants that feel they do not have their own voice, to stand up for the people who are victims of evil corporations and unjust laws.

I hesitate when quoting Bill O’Reilly or any Fox News personality, but O’Reilly really does has some profound views in his books. In his Cultural Warrior book, he mentioned a lot of what is going on now. I guess I’m one of the “Secular-Progressives” (SPs) that he coined as well, but that doesn’t mean I can’t agree with SOME parts of his narrative.

Anyway, I think we are in a culture war right now. The main part that bothers me is all of our immigration, both legal and illegal. The new groups and cultures that come to America do not assimilate, they do not become a “melting pot”, they become a “tossed salad” – where they are all mixed with others but they maintain their own cultural identity.

Especially in California, probably the State with the most exploitable labor to fuel our agricultural economy, we have a lot of migrants. They come here, enjoy the benefits of being a resident (or occasionally a citizen) but they curse America, send all of their money back home to Mexico and the “Pil-uh-peens”, maintain their own cultural identity and resent the mainstream. Whenever something doesn’t go their way, they claim they are an exploited minority and somehow the majority is oppressing them.

I live in Southern California where I am both an ethnic and cultural minority, I was CERTAINLY oppressed by the cultural majority in high school, but I don’t sit around whining about it, I’ve still become successful. My message here: if you want to immigrate to a country, assimilate to it’s culture.

Sure, keep a little of your own cultural identity, but in general you should be speaking English and working to be an “American”.

Our country is certainly flawed, but a “tossed salad” is not analogous of national cohesion. This is an e-mail I received which brought out of this to my mind:

We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington , DC , filled to capacity by many of America ‘s finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, ‘Mexifornia,’ explaining how immigration – both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California . He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America.

The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States . He said, ‘If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let’s destroy America . It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that ‘An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.”

‘Here is how they do it,’ Lamm said:

‘First, to destroy America , turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: ‘The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.’ Canada , Belgium , Malaysia , and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, Corsicans and Muslims.’

Lamm went on:

‘Second, to destroy America , invent ‘multiculturalism’ and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal; that there are no cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

‘Third, we could make the United States an ‘Hispanic Quebec ‘ without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: ‘The apparent success of our own multi-ethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentriy and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.’ Lamm said, ‘I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.’

‘Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.’

‘My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of ‘Victimology.’ I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority.’

‘My sixth plan for America ‘s downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other – that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unit y it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia , threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. ‘E. Pluribus Unum’ — From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the ‘pluribus’ instead of the ‘Unum,’ we will ‘Balkanize’ America as surely as Kosovo.’

‘Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits. Make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of ‘diversity.’ I would find a word similar to ‘heretic’ in the 16th century – that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like ‘racist’ or ‘xenophobe’ halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of ‘Victimology,’ I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America , it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them.’

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, ‘Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis’ book ‘Mexifornia.’ His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America . If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don’t read that book.’

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate ‘diversity.’ American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America Take note of California and other states. To date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book ’1984.’ In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: ‘War is peace,’ ‘Freedom is slavery,’ and ‘Ignorance is strength.’

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don’t get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.

If you care for and love our country as I do, take the time to pass this on just as I did for you.

NOTHING will happen to change things if you don’t!

Parts of this article are profound and interesting. However, it doesn’t make any suggestions of HOW to remedy this problem. Cutting off immigration is not a solution. Deporting all illegal immigrants is not a solution. I think we need something to unify all Americans (legal and illegal) together under a common goal. And no, not a war. It needs to be something desirable, something that people WANT to believe in.

In the past it was the American Dream, but we saw as early as the 1920s that the American Dream is a lie, so we need a new American Dream – one that is more realistic and less vain than 2 kids, a car and a white picket fence in the suburbs.