King George Bush is uniting all Americans

Hope springs eternal in my world.
585 days till we get a new president.
(((Wilka bows her head busily keeping close track of the numbers.)))

He is not my president. (Wilka is in denial here.) I don't know how he happened to us. I want him to go away. Can't state it more simply than that.

Regarding illegal aliens: People want their yards mowed, houses cleaned, and their "crops growed" with cheap labor? Whatever happened to our national "standard of living" ego we were so proud of in the 50s, 60s and 70s?
Perhaps we have to look at the source-- Who is it that wants to turn the nation's jobs into what we previously called "a third world" country-sweatshop wages for honest work? With it's chasm of non-income between "those that have" and those that don't?

Want your lawn mowed for cheap? Mow it yourself. Want someone else to do it? Pay them a wage they can live on, raise a family on, feed the family on--without government assistance. We can't seem to get decent health benefits for our existing "working poor"... let's aggravate the situation by adding to the numbers?
Wilka

My sister is working on her MA in Latin American Studies. She will then go on to work on her doctorate. Her goal is to become a professor of Latino studies. She is traveling in Latin America as we speak. I respect her passion wholeheartedly. At the same time, I refuse to get into a discussion with her about illegal aliens from Mexico coming to the United States. We tried once; but what started out as an innocent discussion quickly turned into a heated debate. I am not a Republican by any means, but I am not all that liberal either. When it comes to politics, I am moderate and am very conservative when it comes to certain issues. Illegal immigration is one of them.
As I see it, Illegals are not doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do. Americans are simply no longer doing roofing, working in fast food kitchens, stripping old wood floors, and working on cleaning crews because these small business owners know they can get away with paying $7 an hr vs. $12 an hr if they hire the illegals. The jobs that Americans don't want to do theory is an excuse.
The grocery operation that I work for hired a night cleaning crew that work for a local contracting agency. All four of them can hardly speak any English. They are constantly having trouble with their Visas. One of them gets on the store payphone each night to make a call to Mexico. This leads to my point.
Most of these illegals are not here to assimilate themselves in American society. They aren't here to make a better life for themselves and their families like my great grandparents. They are here to make extra money for themselves and enough to send home. Most of these illegals will leave after no more than several years.
Money is coming out of our paychecks to support people that have no interest in staying. I have a close friend that came to the United States with his family from Croatia 6 years ago. He came to stay and make a better life for his family. One year ago, he and his wife were finally eligible for permanent citizenship. It was my pleasure to help them study for the required test. It was an honor for me to attend the ceremony in which they were pronounced legal citizens of the United States.
Both of them earned college degrees in Croatia. Unfortunately, A college degree In Croatia means nothing in the United States. They literally had to start from scratch. For the past 6 years, he has been transporting mentally challenged workers to and from a vocational sheltered workshop. He is going back to college part time so he can become a professional here in this country. The sacrifices he has made and continues to make represent pure dedication and commitment. He came to this country for the same reason my great grandparents did.
Most of these illegal Mexican aliens are coming to the United States to use it and abuse it. This country means nothing to them!

Kathy, You are correct, but they also took our construction jobs, and any other labor job that does not require an education. We continued to let them walk into our country, as we let our government allow our jobs to be shipped to foreign countries, and now our country is a disaster! Even small items I buy at the local hardware store are now made in China! I thought we opposed Communism at one time, and 50,000 brave Americans died in Vietnam over that! Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and family members who suffered too! How ironic that we are now borrowing money from China to fight an illegal war in Iraq, and we still can't protect our own borders!

Jordan, I agree with you 100%, and also think we should deport a large majority of illegal immigrants, and let them come back the legal way if they want citizenship. The erosion of wages is directly related to the amount of illegal immigrants, and the tax on our education, legal, and government systems is staggering... Until every single American citizen who wants a job...has a job...we need no more immigrants...legal..or illegal...

I remain hopeful that your poem is true. It is the only way we will survive as a nation.