Sick Propoganda (sometimes I really hate Chain Emails)

Occasionally, I receive these chain Emails from folks who somehow assume that everyone in this godforsaken country is a staunch, hard-line conservative who is blindly and dangerously “patriotic” and fundamentally Christian and intolerant of anyone who isn’t. Normally I just look a these things briefly and then delete them. They are often of a pro-war or pro fundamentalist Christian slant. Sometimes, I fire something smart-assed back. I’m pretty sure this sort of thing has caused one person or other on the distribution list of these chain Emails to turn my sorry-assed E-mail addy into the office of Homeland Security. Whatever. But one day, I got one of these Emails, forwarded from a dear old friend of mine who I value very much as a human being. I don’t think she fully grasped the gravity of the contents of this Email she forwarded (I think she got it from a relative), but when I read it, I have to admit, I got just a bit agitated. So much so that I not only got into it a little bit with her about the racist slant of this chain Email, but I even saved this thing for a couple of months with the full intent of doing what I’m doing now. . . bringin’ it to ya. You HAVE to see this thing. It’s like a sociological train wreck”

“Subject: Try This

• Try driving around as a Gringo in Mexico with no liability insurance.... and have an accident...

• Enter MEXICO illegally. Never mind immigration quotas, visas, international law, or any of that nonsense.

• Once there, demand that the local government provide free medical care for you and your entire family.

• Demand bilingual nurses and doctors.

• Demand free bilingual local government forms, bulletins, etc.

• Procreate abundantly. Deflect any criticism of this allegedly irresponsible reproductive behavior with, "It is a cultural United States thing. You would not understand, pal."

• Keep your American identity strong. Fly Old Glory from your rooftop, or proudly display it in your front window or on your car bumper.

• Speak only English at home and in public and insist that your children do likewise.

• Insist that all products' labels, owner's manuals, instructions, etc., be written in English as well as Spanish.

• Demand classes on American culture in the Mexican school system. Demand a local Mexican driver license. This will afford other legal rights and will go far to legitimize your unauthorized, illegal presence in Mexico.

• Insist that local Mexican law enforcement teach English to all its officers.

• Good luck! Because it will never happen. It will not happen in Mexico or any other country in the world... except right here in the United States... Land of the naive! If you agree, pass it on. If you don't, go ahead and try the above in Mexico or Iran, or just about any other country in the world, for that matter.

Words of Wisdom: Support the country you live in..... or live in the country you support.”

Somehow I get the feeling that if there were a picture attached to this chain Email, it would probably be of a hooded Klansman standing in front of a burning cross. I mean, c’mon! Yikes!

First off, never mind trying this crap in Mexico. One of the reasons that Americans are some of the most despised people on the planet, especially now, is because we behave similarly to this everywhere we go. We’re always forcing our customs and values on people from other countries, as tourists in other countries. We’re always insisting that people speak English when we’re around, disrespecting their local customs and ways in their won native countries. We got to other lands and assume that the people living there are barbaric, primitive, backwards or somehow just “wrong” because they don’t live and think as we do in our own beloved Amerikkka. In fact, our very country was founded on the perception that the European visitors who first settled here through one means or other were superior to the indigenous people who inhabited this place long before any “civilized” man. And as such, these settlers promptly corrupted Native Americans, and inevitably coerced, cheated, murdered, plundered and literally pushed them into a state of extinction. The true Native American is now the only strain of human that is almost completely wiped off the face of the Earth. So in a way, the bullshit that the author of the above hate-mongering chain Email is spewing is to my mind, just deserts.

Recently, I moved away from a community called East Windsor that has, over the years, become largely Hispanic. I grew up very close to this place, which had been largely Jewish in population back in the 80’s, but has since morphed into a haven for transplants from Mexico, Central America, and South America. The specific neighborhood that I lived in was so infiltrated by Hispanics that I was a minority in two ways. Not only in the fact that I am of African descent, but in that community, I spoke English and hardly anyone else living around me did. Now most garden variety Caucasoid standard-issue “Americans” would feel very uncomfortable and even resentful (not unlike the guy, and I assume it was a guy, who wrote the chain Email) living in such a community. But you know, I didn’t really feel all that threatened. Generally, I didn’t really see much about these people that I didn’t dislike. They were working-class citizens like me. They had aspirations of trying to get to a better place in like, like myself. They struggled, like me. A couple of the fellas around the corner from me partied a bit much and had some less than suitable living habits, but having lived in South Jersey, I gotta tell you, I’ve seen much worse amongst poor white people. Come to think about it, my first wife was more of a slob than any of these guys. But we’ll not go there. My point is, people can be slovenly and disgusting no matter what ethnicity they are or where they come from.

The other thing I realize is twofold:

1 – Sure, a good number of my Hispanic neighbors were more than likely illegal aliens. But as such, I don’t think they were simply hopeful of feasting on the fat carrion of American opulence and capitalism. They were probably trying to escape intolerable living conditions in their native country and didn’t want to raise children like that.

2 – I really don’t have enough academic or intimate knowledge about the plight of Hispanic immigrants or illegal aliens to know why they’ve come here specifically or what the general situation is. But I know something about the history of why so many illegals live in East Windsor today.

Growing up in the areas in the late 70’s and 80’s, I remember one thing. I lived in a neighboring farming community, and many of my friends had fathers who hired illegals as migrant workers and farm hands. And as such, these people lived like fucking slaves. They were paid slave wages and put up in intolerable living conditions. And it more than likely took at least a couple of generations of these folks to finally obtain service industry jobs that would allow them to save enough to afford apartments and even, in some cases houses, and even education and the ability to not only learn English, but learn more diverse trades, etc. Even today, the migrant worker plight can still be experienced. Try taking a drive down South to a place called Hammonton (the so-called Blueberry Capital of the world). In the summertime, you HAVE to see the bus-loads of migrant workers being shipped into town to pick up weekly provisions from the local Wal-Mart on Sundays. It really looks like a scene from a deep-south pre-Civil War cotton plantation. Sick. Interestingly enough, the second largest ethnic demographic in Hammonton is Hispanic people, at a reported 14.9% of the city’s population. My guess is that the population is probably bigger than that. That’s just the “reportable” numbers, if you can dig what I’m saying. But I digress. East Windsor is similar. The people have essentially been exploited for cheap labor, and oddly enough, the average blue-collar tool slinger is resentful that the “wet-backs” are taking “their” jobs. To my mind, it would make sense for the Hispanic migrant workers to galvanize, unionize, and demand fair wages to their white counterparts.

To the person who originated this filthy, disgusting chain Email, know this: While we are expected to “support the country you live in..... or live in the country you support”, it is the “alien” described in the chain Email, and those like she or he, who essentially built this country. This country was not only supported but it was Stolen from the native man, farmed and tilled by the enslaved African, developed, sculpted and built by immigrant men and from all over this planet while immigrant women raised and taught the slave masters’ children. We have all been exploited. Truth be known, it is the hard-line white male rich ultra-Christian conservative who simply lived off of the fruits of our labors and who is the true minority in this country. And to that end, the person who wrote that chain Email should sit down, shut the fuck up, and thank his sanctimonious god that we’re all living here. If it weren’t for all of us, there would be no great country to support.

Ok. . .I’m done now. I’ll take my militant hat off for a bit.

BTW, shouts to everyone who sent me articles and bits of information in the past couple of months that have provided me with grist for my rantings and articles. Keep ‘em coming! A special Big-up to Cin and my dad for their meaningful contributions.