Saturday, December 18, 2010

Santa, Postponed by Republican Idiocy

Today I was going to post Santa Claus's response to The Spare's Xmas demands,  requests, as listed below. However, when I sat down to type the Jolly Old Elf's letter into this space, I saw a news story that explained how the Republicans successfully blocked a bill that would provide a citizenship status to upwardly mobile young people who came into this country illegally.

I, Anne Johnson, member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, am sickened by this.

Why do people pick up their belongings and leave the countries of their birth for a new, strange land where they don't speak the same language?

 Here's the scenario: "Kiss your abuela goodbye, Juan, we're leaving the Dominican Republic on a whim because we like Big Macs."

Oh, pleeeeze.

Then as now, no one packs up and leaves a native land for any other reason than desperation. This nation has always welcomed the desperate of other places, and those immigrants have made our country vibrant, interesting, and the envy of the planet. Now, even though our population is diminishing, the Republicans want us to deport people. Not just slackers, but serious young people who would not only become part of our intellectual pool, but who would also vote Republican, because so many of them espouse the values of the religious right.

Every year I teach persuasive essay-writing, and every year I get a student or two who writes about seeing a cousin, brother, father, deported. I remember one girl who wrote so hauntingly about a cousin of hers who had been accepted to college, who spoke no Spanish, who had been in America since she was eight years old. On the eve of moving in at her dorm, she was deported to the Dominican Republic, where she had no immediate family and no knowledge of the native language.

Just so you Red Ebenezer Scrooges know, you will be adding that poor would-be American to the long chain of sins you have visited upon the working class in America. I hope this vote comes back to haunt you. I hope that the growing number of Hispanic voters in this nation stay firmly in the Democratic ranks. You Red morons are sending "home" the very people who would vote for your conservative agenda -- good Roman Catholics who believe in the values of hard work and self-sufficiency. Oh yeah. Let's send them home to the DR and Mexico!

Do you Republican numbskulls know how hard I have to work to make absolutely certain my Pagan family values don't seep out into my classroom? The people you're deporting think the way you do. My students would be mortified to know they were being taught by a Pagan. They and their families are "God and country" all the way.

Go ahead. Send them home. The word "moron" does not begin to describe you. That foot you're shooting? *snort* It's yours.

8 comments:

Alex (The "All American") Pendragon said...

Show me one seriously self-eluded "conservative" American who HASN'T shot himself in the foot out of fear of these "others" who would have joined their ranks and perpetuated their oppressive attitudes?

yellowdoggranny said...

this vote will come back to bite them in the ass.

Makarios said...

"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-tost to me,"


And we'll send 'em right back to you.

Davoh said...

Some must be desperate in homeland to take these sort of chances.

Terraluna said...

I read a study several years ago, and I don't remember exactly what the setup was - some sort of game where participants could decide either to share their winnings or to screw the other guy, set up so that sharing was the most profitable strategy.
Those who described themselves as conservative consistently chose to deny a share to the "undeserving" co-participant, even when they themselves lost by doing so. Apparently, conservatives are willing to suffer to be mean.

Leviathan said...

YES! We'll let the giant corporate shills get their tax breaks and stick it to the poor maid making up your hotel room.

As you said, the demographics are against the wingnuts. Can't come soon enough for me.

wolverinefan2 said...

You're right--great minds were thinking alike when we both wrote down our thoughts on this lunacy! Glad I came to read what you had to say . . .

Chas S. Clifton said...

After 20 years of college teaching, I suggest that the DREAM act was built on a false premise that "college will make it all better."

Right now, for American kids, fewer than half who start a four-year degree ever finish.

For first-generation students, which most DREAM beneficiaries would be, the graduation rate is even lower.

About a third of those in any state university can't do the work.

Unemployment among recent college grads is high right now. We should add more?

This group of people is in a bind, and something has to be done about them.

Some might fit in the military, which is fine, but again, how many will flunk the intelligence and/or physical standards? Many native-born high-school grads can't pass the Army's fairly basic aptitude test.

"Go to college and be a citizen" might work only for the "talented tenth," to borrow a phrase.