An interesting article, with really no good place to snip – just read it all. Illegal immigration is an enormous problem and is, you know, illegal (and long time readers know that my rather uninformed sense of policy priorities should be on the employers’ end, and that I think the exploitation of would-be immigrants by criminals and the compliance of the Mexican government are issues that the US bishops, for example, ignore in their statements on the matter)
…but the problem that many in these communities have isn’t about illegality, but about having their ways of life disrupted by the immigrants and their identity. Oh well, the daughter of the French-Canadian immigrant branch says. We might guess, at the high risk of presumption, that some of this is rooted in religious bigotry as well in some places. Too many Catholics having too many children.
We live in a part of town that is increasingly Hispanic (and Asian – Burmese and Vietnamese). When I take my children to the park to play, most of the time we’re the only non-Hispanics there. The non-Hispanics still live and dominate the neighborhood nearest to the parks, but they’re not coming as much as they were five years ago. It’s noticable.)
The other day, we were walking by the replica of the cabin Abraham LIncoln was born in that’s in the park (and don’t ask me why it’s there – I have no idea. The only real connection Lincoln has to Fort Wayne is that his funeral cortege passed through.), and after I finished reading the plaque on it to Joseph, two Hispanic women came up, with their children, and one of the women started reading, "…the birthplace of Ah-Brah-Ham Lin-cone…"
What a lovely moment. Her voice echoes in mind, still. Land of Opportunity, indeed.
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