Hightstown, NJ and the Know-Nothings.

Check out this story in the Washington Post.

I heard the mayor of Hightstown on an NPR show at the same time as the Mayor of crazy-land Hazleton PA. It was a world of difference, and i have to give the Mayor of Hightstown a lot of credit. He's standing up and saying "these are new members of our community, and we're not going to ignore that." What the know-nothings and isolationists don't want to understand, or what they don't want to agree, is that citizenship or immigration status is not suddenly a clear indicator of worthy and unworthy people. They don't want to even use words that recognize people as people. What the fuck is an alien? I'm sick to tears of people using that stupid word to talk about humans. I mean, take your ass to Roswell if you want aliens.

But we've seen this before, haven't we? The know-nothings, and I'm using that deliberately, of course, may not want to recognize the clear line that we can draw between the language of "aliens" and "illegal people" and the terminology used to describe black people in this country, the fractions used to designate their "white man equivalency." Treating people like chattel was the past - now folks are being characterized as not even being part of this world. Whatever dudes.

Anyway, the Hightstown mayor had it right, recognizing that people want to be active members of their new communities, but it's not so easy when there's so much hate in your face. And these folks who take it upon themselves to write and call in talking about the "rule of law" in this country and how important it is to follow the law are so full of shit it's coming out of their mouths. The vast majority of people are not law-abiding in some way, shape or form. How often do you speed, Mr. Crazed Caller? And how is it that you want such stringent law enforcement in this and other particular issues, but all that cable you've been stealing, or income you're not reporting, or workers you're hiring to fix your roof off the books, well you don't really talk about that, do you? Law-abiding my ass. As if the people in power are following the laws any more than the average crook in a CEO office.

You are anti-immigrant. And you don't care what the "legality" of the situation is. Do you really have such moral indignation about someone breaking the law? Why do I find that so hard to believe when you don't take similar time out of your "busy" schedule to call out the United States government for breaking its own laws over and over again on the domestic front AND internationally? Do you think that the Feds don't know the laws? Didn't they write them? Don't you think they should be held to a higher standard than people who don't have the fancy educations, the million dollar trust funds, and the ability to have a defacto poor people's draft to support the military-oildriller complex while their kids are living it up in private schools? Why doesn't that piss you off more than people trying to make a better life for themselves? Why are you so stupid?

Somehow, you think you own this country, and that you have some important say in what happens to it - as if the government gives a shit about what you think. And some of you realize that, and that's why you become libertarians - not only because you believe you should hoard your own gold, but you don't believe in creating a society that moves beyond the name-calling and intolerance that makes the U.S. the laughing stock of the industrialized world ("oh yeah, well here's a nuke in your direction, France/Canada/whoever else is laughing at me behind my back!"). Libertarians just want to check out of the "civic nation" altogether. With the Dems and Elephants as they are, it's hard to blame them sometimes. With all our money going down the drain in war and energy efforts, sure the common joe wants to blame something. But the situation isn't going to improve until he says "you know what? Pedro and Prakash aren't my problem - it's Georgie and Dick."

But the head's stuck in the sand, and all you can do is gather yourself up in a bold dash of writing, or a rally once in a while, to say "damn you, immigrants! you're the reason life is hard!" Sorry buddy, but if you're so comfortable (and you are), you don't know what kind of a fight we're talking about. You're not really in danger of losing everything. You and your supersized fast food meals, your supersized vehicle that you drive everywhere, your supersized ass because you don't exercise anymore... who do you think is going to be taking care of you when you keel over with your health issues? Who's going to be the real working backbone of this nation when you retire? Do you even understand how social security works? People have to pay into it, idiot. Maybe you should stop pissing them off.