WHAT CAN WE DO?

Being a grandson of immigrants, I can remember the issues of speaking with them, especially when I was younger. Having come to this country as young Italians, (my grandmother was only 15,) the conditions were not welcoming. What did Italian immigrants do? They did what the German, the Polish and every other non-speaking English immigrant did; they went to communities that spoke their language. The hostility that greeted them from the “Natives” was pretty blatant, and so they had to gather themselves for self-preservation.

I can remember how frustrating it would get when Grandma or Grandpa would ask a question, in a mix of broken English and Italian, and we needed translations from our parents or aunts and uncles to clarify meanings.

They worked all day long, then went to a second job, or took work home with them after hours. Their lives were hard. What the hell were they doing in my country? Making it better for me, and my parents, and my children.

We should be born old, and get younger, but born with the older person’s understanding and logic in life.

Today I read the papers and there is a movement on for “English Only. Por favor!”

I see immigrants lined up outside on street corners, looking for work to feed their families. The community as a whole resents this, and works to prevent it from re-occurring. I can understand the fear of the unknown; I can understand the resentment of the after effects from their gathering in front of businesses. What I don’t understand is how we forget our own personal history, how we got to be American citizens in the first place.

Why are we making life hard for people to survive! If I lived in a country of poverty, or dictatorships and void of any hope, I’d want to leave it too, and find a better place for my family, for myself. This is not to say that those people living in those countries should fix their own problems, but it must be awfully hard when you look down the barrel of a rifle aimed at your head, the truncheon that strikes across your back if you protest, the fear of losing your child or mate or your own life from an oppressor, while those around you live in silent, inactive fear.

So what can we do?

We can instead of wasting our time and breath in protest of these people, in denying them a chance to live, to be able to just live like we do, we can direct our energies toward finding places to send them to learn the language, without fear of being deported, and not charge them to learn it. Think about it, how many places can they go to learn the English language, and living in poverty, how do they pay for it, and how will they get there?

Here is one solution I offer.

If you live in a community where you speak Spanish and are fluent enough in English, take the time and find a place and teach your people to speak the English language. Do this out of love, for your people, your heritage, for your future generations. Help level the playing field. Doing this in every Spanish speaking community would solve a lot of issues culturally in the country. It would help bury resentment, and would create a new respect for your people.

No child in my country should be deprived of anything when it comes to the necessities of life. No adult should live in fear for his child, his wife/mate, and himself. Arguing they are here illegally makes us a non-Christian country, a bunch of hypocrites. On the same token, if you live in this country and are not helping your own people to assimilate, you have no reason, no cause and right to be in this country also.

I don’t like the idea that there are illegal immigrants sneaking into my country. I don’t like the idea of giving away entitlements to illegal immigrants. But my discomfort is far less than my discomfort with the idea that someone has to sneak across a border, endangering his own life, and maybe the life of his family. And why is he doing this: for the hope of a better life. I can’t blame him.

Maybe the churches and temples should start instituting programs for English as a first language. Gather the non-English speaking people and two nights a week teach them English. It would be a start, it would close a gap and it would make all the immigrants a lot safer, and our communities more secure.

God knows we all have prejudices, the blacks, Asians and Hispanics as well as the whites. Let’s stop finger pointing and let’s start helping each other. And one more thing: let’s learn to laugh at each other and ourselves, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem with Illegal aliens is we keep them form being productive, so we shoot ourselves in the foot.

We all have work to do.