vincentML
Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009 Status: offline
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quote:
Everyone has hit the nail on the head. The issue is drugs. You really think so? Or is the issue panic and xenophobia? The United States has a long history of fear of foreign cultures (as if we do not easily assimilate them) In 1924, motivated by the failure of Prohibition and supported by Labor Unions who wished to protect jobs for Americans, The US Congress passed the Immigration Restriction Act, restricting immigration quotas to 2% of the foreign population in the country in 1890. 1890!! The Act was highly favorable to migration from NW Europe and discriminated intentionally against Italians, Jews, and Slavs - those dark, swarthy, smelly, unwashed people, living in crowded Ghettos and responsible for all the booze flowing into the Nation. All through the '20s Congress refused to reapportion itself so as to keep voting power away from the large cities where were the great unwashed from southern and eastern Europe who would have voted to ammend the Volsted Act so that 0.5% alcohol would not be the lower limit of an "intoxicatiing beverage." Xenophobia is nothing new to "Nativist" Americans. We have had open borders with Mexico and Canada for 230 years. Why so much panic now? My guess is that terrorism and drugs are just a ruse to cloak our fear of foreign cultures changing the nature of the country. Why don't they speak English? (angst) My Italian grandparents never learned much English but we assimilated pretty well. As Domiguy pointed out, all the anger is focused on the southern border, not the Canadian line. Why? Because the Latinos "are not like us." Drugs? Terrorism? Nah. I disagree. Xenophobia. OMG, we are being invaded by a foreign culture carried by "those dark, swarthy, smelly, unwashed people." As I see it, the real issue is fear of invasion by the brown people. The brown people are coming. Be afraid, be very afraid.
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vML Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. ~ MLK Jr.
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