Instead of spending so much time complaining about why the US doesn’t want to take in more Mexicans, which is Ruben’s long-running riff on illegal immigration, why isn’t he, along with other journalists, spending more time writing about why Mexico is such a mess that so many people want to leave? Why is it forever our fault that we don’t want to be their safety valve and welfare system?
That’s a country with a huge tourism industry, agriculture, oil, manufacturing and acccess to two very rich markets via NAFTA. I’ve heard that Mexico is the world’s richest Third World country. It shouldn’t be a Third World country and that is NOT the fault of the US. Canada is also in the shadow of the US. Why isn’t it a basket case with massive human outflows too? Why don’t Mexicans have the pride to stay home and fight for the country they claim to love, instead of running away? Ever wonder, Ruben?
However it got that way, why ever it is that way, isn’t there a point at which they become ashamed of their own part in letting their country go on as it does by running away? You know, if you’re not part of the solution …
Instead of marching here, why don’t they march there? It’s their country. Why don’t they care enough? When do you start asking that, Ruben? Your questions are all about why Americans care about their country, not why Mexicans don’t. Or should I conclude that Mexico isn’t actually worth fighting for, to its people?
An example from real recent history. It wasn’t long ago that South Korea was poor, isolated and ruled by brutal military regimes. Strikes were broken by lethal force. Dissidents were locked up. Many vanished. Look up the Kwangju incident. It was less than 30 years ago.
The South Koreans, surrounded by icy waters and with only North Korea next door, had nowhere to run. Young males were not even physically allowed to leave the country until they’d done 3 years in the army. This was not 100 years ago; it was into the 80s. The South Koreans had to stay and fight. And they did.
And next to them, Ruben, the Mexicans are a bunch of wimps. I don’t respect quitters, and that’s what they are, and I don’t care if they work 60 hours a week at KFC. And I don’t care if they ran across a desert to get to America. That’s easier than staying and fighting for your country — like the South Koreans had to and did. Crossing the desert may take a few days. The trip to a better Mexico takes years, maybe a lifetime. They won’t do it.
South Koreans worked like the proverbial dogs for a generation and made their country rich. Then they forced their government to stand back and give them more freedom. It isn’t perfect, no country is, but if they did it, why can’t the Mexicans?
I’m tired of them crowding into my country and their surrogates like you complaining forever that we don’t do enough, don’t take enough, etc. Ten million determined Mexicans at home instead of the US could change their country. Instead, they claim to be proud of being Mexicans but abandon their country as soon as they can. They want my respect? Stay home, fight for your country and earn respect.
And as for the wall, Ruben: if you make it harder to come, harder to stay and harder to work, fewer will come and more will go. They will go one or a few at a time, as they came. The WSJ articles this past week prove that.
Do people just come and go freely at the San Diego Union — or do they have to go through certain doors with guards and show some kind of ID? Most likely, the latter. Do people who don’t work there, need permission to come in? Most likely, the latter. If they come in, can they just stay forever and take up a job, or do they need to leave when the purpose of their visit ends and apply for a job from the outside, if they want one? A newspaper is there for the public, right? So why not throw the doors open? People will leave when they get tired of it, right? And if it throws the newsroom into turmoil and reporters find their desks occupied by people who don’t work there, well, why be so possessive and territorial? Right there, you see how absurd this is.
