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To everyone,For the passed few days I've been jousting with a group of people over the immigration issue.
The set-to started when I found myself at odds with a couple of, previously friendly, email partners. I was quite surprised at the depth of anger towards illegal immigrants by these, otherwise, Liberal minded folks. Their main gripe, of course, was that the illegal immigration problem was fueled by business and corporate types, who send jobs overseas and hire cheap labor from south of the border - to which, I agreed. They see a grave threat to the American worker. But, their anger was also directed at the immigrants themselves, rather than just those at the top, who have allowed the problem to go on for decades. I can't see picking on the "poor immigrant." To me this smacks of scapegoating. Not to mention that it's extremely divisive. Twelve million people are not going to go away, and we're not going to try and round them all up, I hope. And what about the children of these people - the naturalized citizens? Not to mention their friends? Civil war, anyone?
Anyway, at some point I started receiving email from people I did not know, but who were obviously coming from the extreme Right. An argument was going on - to which I became a party for a short time - which involved Fundamentalist Christian types putting down the Catholic Church for harboring pedophiles, homosexuals, and Communists. They were also discussing the racial impurities created by mixing with Mexicans, and others, from south of the border; and the spread of germs caused by "those people" squatting on farm land and infecting our food, the violent nature of "those people", and how all of this is going to destroy America, etc.
They even complained that the Bush administration was full of perverts, pedophiles, and rapists, and so on.
One of them was a 76 year woman, who claimed to be Eastern Orthodox and believed that she had the correct interpretation of scripture. These people are deeply disturbed, misguided, and steeped in ignorance, hatred, and bigotry But, it is sobering to realize that there are so many out there who think this way. It also clarifies why a country like Germany could do what it did during World War Two. We are all susceptible to this kind of madness - even, otherwise nice, little old ladies.
Also sobering to me, however, is the fact that some Liberal minded people feel the same way about the existence of illegal immigrants. That is, that they are a threat to America - albeit for different reasons. They focus much of the blame on the immigrants themselves; and are willing to be hard on them, to the point of cruelty. One of the "Liberals" I was corresponding with, suggested that it would be ok to pick an illegal immigrant mother up off the street and ship her back across the border, even if she had naturalized little ones waiting for her at home, who would have no idea what had happened to her. I suspect that no small amount of subconscious racism is involved in this kind of attitude.
These are dangerous times. We are all in danger of being caught up in the fear, confusion, frustration, and anger that they engender. Looking for scapegoats, picking on the weakest - or those who are different - amongst us, letting ourselves become divided by others, quoting scripture to win arguments, sowing the seeds of paranoia, and threatening each other, will do us no good - in the short or the long term.
Jim Bush
