Rabbit Season! Duck Season! Rabbit Season! Duck Season!!!! Nope, both wrong, it's open season on Mexicans which translates into all Hispanics, because to the ignorant, every person who speaks Spanish is Mexican and therefore illegal.Hate crimes against "Mexicans" have been on the increase now for the past few years. On Long Island, where I live now, it's been going on for quite some time. Many hard working innocent people have been beaten, and some to death simply for looking "Mexican". Two years ago seven teenagers on Long Island made a sport of regularly hunting down and beating what they called "beaners", culminating with a kill. They murdered Marcelo Lucero, a LEGAL RESIDENT, tax payer, family man who happened to be Ecuadorean.
Throughout history we have learned that HATE hurts, HATE kills, Hate cripples, and yet Hate rhetoric is protected under our Constitution. We see it protect Hate groups rights to voice thier opinions, and for many years in the deep south, families have watched that same rhetoric protect the lynchers, as long as the lynchers are white. While I value freedom of speech, I believe there is a responsibility to make sure that speech is truthful. Slander leads to misunderstanding, it ruins lives, it leads to violence. We have a right to voice our opinions, but we have an obligation to make sure that before we voice them, we check our facts.
I am the daughter of immigrants. I grew up in a borrough that is made all the more unique because of it's ethnic neighborhoods. New York City is spectacular simply because the world crosses it's streets, sets up store fronts, and weaves itself into a cultural tapestry unlike any other. The United States of America could read as A United World with one country. We evolved as Humans before we took on different nationalities, different religions, different ideologies....Our national culture, our foods, our music, our literature, our art, our theatre, our sports, our ideologies, our language, our science, our inventions, are a collective fusion of every group that has imigrated onto this land, and the grouos that were native to this, thier land. How we can sit idly and justify another McCarthy witchhunt is mind boggling. In Utah the private information of people suspected of being illegal (all with Hispanic surnames) social security numbers, names, addresses, telephone numbers etc was released as though anyone who happens to be Hispanic does not have the right to privacy. There were many people on that list that happened to be legal.
What next? Are we all going to be branded? Do I have to worry about my childrens safety because of thier surname, or our social security numbers being distributed around like candy? The Arizona Immigration Law is enticing other states. There are 20 states in particular who are actively looking into it. Twenty becomes Fifty in a heart beat. While I understand that illegal immigration is a problem, I also understand that Hispanics, and Mexicans in particular, are not the only face of illegal immigration. There are plenty of other nationalities here without the proper paperwork. There has to be a better, more fair -way to deal with this, and certainly a more humane way. Legalizing racism is just not the way to go about it. It only gives sick individuals with hurtful agendas license to do harm.
We are a country founded by conquest. Each of the first waves of immigrants came seeking religious freedom, seeking a better life, and in turn they took over a land that did not belong to them. It was already inhabited by the Native Americans. It was taken. Wars took land from the Mexicans and Spaniards. We bought land off the French. A beautifully written Declaration of Independence with the phrase " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness " though only exclusive to white men at that moment in time, is now promised to us all. We should have evolved a bit more as a nation, especially when it comes to intercultural understandings. We should have learned by now from the lessons of our very turbulent past. Sexism, racism and prejudice are still raw wounds despite our strides, and the color of our President. We have so much more work to do. And the fact that today, for the first time, a sitting President went on a daytime talk show called The View, hosted by 5 women, 2 of which are African American, and no one addressed the Arizona Immigration Bill, but did have the where with all to ask the President if he knew Lindsay Lohan was in Jail (he did), or if he knew who Snooki is (he doesn't) shows just how seriously this very serious issue is being taken.
We serve in the military. We contribute to the economy. We report the news. We legislate laws. We vote. We are valuable members of the community. We have built up cities. We are Americans too. I was born in Brooklyn NY. My children are second generation Americans. Our roots are Spaniard, Cuban, Argetinian.....Not too long ago Americans were put into Japanese concentration camps in the US because of thier heritage, despite the fact that they were born here or were naturlized citizens. They lost thier property, thier homes, thier jobs. History repeats itself when lessons are not truely learned the first time around. Hate Hurts. Hate Ruins Lives. Hate Kills. There is always a solution, but the right one never comes from a place a hate, bit raises from a place of understanding.
Hunting season needs to end now.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
it never finished with " unless you are Mexican"............
