Protesters throughout the United States have been demonstrating against a bill passed by the House of Representatives which would make felons out of illegal immigrants and those who would offer them the kind of assistance that would enable them to remain in this country. These demonstrations have been the largest since the Vietnam War era. In Lost Angeles alone, some 500,000 demonstrators turned out. Most of the demonstrators were Latinos, including both citizens and illegals. In some cities, most of the demonstrators were Latino public school stutents. In many of those demonstrations, a few protesters carried American flags. Many demonstrators carried the flag of Mexico.
The media keeps referring to the illegals as "undocumented workers", a rather innocuous term. Political correctness aside, let;s call undocumented workers what they really are - ILLEGAL ALIENS. They entered this country illegally and remain here illegally. The overwhelming majority are Latinos, most having come from Mexico, with some coming from Honduras and other Central American countries. Most estimates put the number of illegals at 12 million, while other estimates put the number at 20 million or more. Whatever the number, they are here to stay.
No matter what laws are passed, there is no way we could throw millions of people in jail, nor could we ever deport that many. Every year, while we continue to debate the immigration problem, several hundred thousand additonal Latinos sneak into this country. A viable solution, short of amnesty, does not appear to be in sight. Before we worrry about the illegals that are already here, we need to put a stop to the continuing influx of new arrivals. A high wall/fence running the length of our 700 mile boundary with Mexico seems to offer the best way to reduce the flow of illegals across our southern border. In Israel, such a wall/fence has all but eliminated suicide bombings by Palestinians.
Most of the illegals come here in search of work. They provide cheap labor for American farmers and businesses, and for private families in need of domestic help. They are hard working folks and they send most of their earnings back to their families in Mexico and Central America. While illegals do contribute to the nation's economy, their presence has come at a high cost to American taxpayers. They pay sales taxes on their purchases, but most do not pay the other taxes that our citizens must pay. They usually do not receive any health insurance benefits. Our schools are forced to use expensive bilingual teaching programs.
The failure by illegals to pay taxes, their lack of health insurance, their inability to speak English, and the crimes some of them have committed, are factors which are very costly to our health care institutions, social services, public schools, and criminal justice system. The extra funds these institutions need to handle illegals have required substantial increases in local and state taxes. And, most illegals drive without the required automobile insurance, thus driving up our insurance rates.
In one respect, the Latino demonstrations are reminiscent of the Vietnam War protests during which many demonstrators carried the flag of North Vietnam, an in-your-face defiance of "the establishment." Those anti-war demonstrators clearly sided with this nation's enemy, North Vietnam. Were the anti-war demonstrators successful? You bet they were! They provided the enemy with hope for an eventual victory. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese were consistently defeated on the battlefield, suffering extremely high casualty rates throughout the war. Even the highly touted Tet offensive was a battlefield disaster in which we suffered higher than usual casualties, but in which the ranks of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese were thoroughly decimated. The war would probably have been over after the Tet offensive, and we would have been victorious, were it not for the anti-war demonstrations. The war was lost on the streets of the United States, not on the battlefields of Vietnam, because the North Vietnamese hung on, encouraged by the highly publicized protests, believing that the public would eventually tire of the war and the rising number of American casualties. And they were so right.
Will the Latino demonstators succeed in killing the House legislation? Probably, but not by waving the flag of a foreign nation in our faces. Whether the demonstrators who carried the Mexican flags were American citizens or illegal aliens is besides the point. Displaying the flag of Mexico is a clear sign that the allegiance of the flag waver is to Mexico, not to the United States, and that is very offensive to most Americans. What Mexican-Americans do in the privacy of their homes is their business, but waving the Mexican flag in public is akin to someone of German origin waving the swastika in public. The Confederate flag is expecially offensive to African-Americans, and when white supremacists display the Confederate flag and the Nazi flag in public, most other Americans take offense to these symbols of racism. And, when these hate groups include the American flag in their parades and rallies, as they usually do, that is also offensive, because they are against everything our flag stands for.
In Houston, almost all the Latino protesters were middle school and high school students who cut classes in order to demonstrate. A number of them carried Mexican flags and there were no American flags in sight. The principal of Reagan High School hoisted the Mexican flag on the school's flagpole, an obvious effort to pander to his mostly Latino students. Reacting to a public outcry, the school board "disciplined" the principal (without revealing what discipline he received) for his "mistake", while praising him as a "good educator." If he is an example of a good educator then it is no wonder that many Houston public school students cannot read, write, multiply, or divide.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Raul Ramos, a professor of Texas History at the University of Houston attempted to justify the public display of Mexican flags by stating: "Most students at Reagan High School have relatives or ancestors from Mexico. The flag represents Mexican heritage as much if not more than citizenship." These are the musings of another educated academic idiot. These students can honor their relatives, ancestors and heritage by displaying the Mexican flag in the privacy of their homes. Few Anglo visitors would be offended by such an expression of pride in their heritage. What Professor Ramos does'nt seem to fathom is that there are better ways of celebrating one's heritage when the public display of a foreign flag, other than one flying in front of an embassy, consulate, or the United Nations, is an affront to most citizens of the United States.
To all those demonstrators who waved the Mexican flag, please feel free to return to Mexico and proudly fly it there to your heart's content. If you're going to protest an unjust law in the United States and you want to carry a flag in the streets, by all means do so, but make sure that it's the American flag!
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