Ever see My Cousin Vinny?

Youth

Maybe that's how they say "youth" in Philly. he,he. Dave rarely makes errors, even in comments.  It's nice to see that he's human. 

Not an error ... maybe should have spelled it "Yutes," but looks to my eye too much like "Ute" which is an indigenous tribe after which Utah, my home state, was named.

But don't worry, blogging is an error-prone medium and they creep in here from time to time  :)

@Liquids ...or at least made up the address of a friend.  Were they really going backpacking for a year without knowing a single person or the name of a single hotel in the area?  From my experience, most border officials won't check that you have a reservation even, you could provide the name of a friend, or a hotel where you intend to stay.

I would like to believe what you said Charlie but if you look at ebay sales you will see that the sales coming out of other countrys are helping some of us because they can get alot more on their dollar by shopping over the internet and to have it shipped to their country.

I tend to think you are going to see other countrys become "retrictionists" when it comes to US citizens traveling abroad because a US citizen would benefit if they moved out of the US and became part of a foreign country. Alot of our youths have the desire to leave our country because they feel it hasn't much to offer them.

Although our press does not focus in on Immigration and our policys and the treatment of Immigrants. Around the world other countrys see what we do in the news. It is sad to say but I believe future generations will suffer for our greed.

I will agree with you in the sense that we are incompetent when it comes to Immigration. As far as the Borders are concerned it looks like a game of BS over there because terriorists never came through there. It looks like an "At the Border game" used to stir up the voters base.

We do have competency at our ports of entry, that is why so many choose to go through the desert.

Remember, these boys landed at an airport, thus entering or attempting to enter at a port of entry.

Look up the Fort Dix 6 Mary, they were tried and found guilty of attempted terrorism and they came through the southern border across the desert by passing any port of entry, in other words they illegally crossed the southern border to gain entry into the USA.

(We do have competency at our ports of entry, that is why so many choose to go through the desert.)

They do not choose to go through the desert because we have competency at our ports of entry. They come her to fulfill their hierarchy of needs and they choose to go through the desert because they can not come through our legal immigration system.

Also, Everyday drugs come through our ports of entry in the truckloads. How competent is that for a port of entry?

*The best Border Security we could possibly have is a legal Immigration system with reasonable quotas in conjunction with Border Security. Without a reasonable way to come in people will come in the wrong way. If someone wants to come in they will find a way to "come in."

For people entering into the USA through our ports of entry, we are quite proficient, drugs on the other hand are easier to hide and harder to locate, plus being undermanned for the amount of vehicle traffic in a specific port hurts also. Besides "most" drugs also come across the desert.

Again, prove they do not come here simply for their own economical gain. Since you like Maslow so much, I suggest you read him. They have what they need in their own countries, they "choose" to come here to better their own situation, not to survive. Also, show how many are dying in their countries, South of our border, due to lack of essentials.

Actually most drugs come through our ports. What happens is they get trucked in everyday but they are really only able to stop a truck here and there because it would back up the ports too much and disturb everyday business to the unproductive point. The dogs sniff down a random truck and drug trafficking through the ports is sort of like a game of "russian rollette."

They do not all have what they need in there own countries. Some do but for the most part alot of them do not have what they need to fulfill that "Maslow" hierarchy.

A lack of essentials would be a reason to come on over.

Where do you place yourself in the "Hierarchy." Throughout our lives most of us fall up and down throughout the category's of the hierarchy depending on circumstances.

An Immigrant may original come here for survival, looking for a better life but then they reach a higher level on the hierarchy and look for exceptance.

Poverty is perceived as a dyeing situation for most.

Remember Micro, how one person sees things are not how all people see things. We can never assume that everyone comes in our country has the same motives.

We are complex creatures and to put all Immigrants under the same Umbrella would be a "stereotype."

Also, to make an assumption that because someone came from a poor background they all think the same would surely hurt the US when it comes to innovation.

Maslow's theorys were used to change management styles and ways to motivate people. It is ashame but I believe that our broken Immigration system have hurt us when it comes to Immigrants, Education and Innovations in our country. We are destroying simple basic theorys that we used to build the US into the great country we became.

I made the assumption and thought that my elected officials were trustworthy enough to come up with a system that utilized the theory's they learned in Psychology 101 in its policy's. Did they forget what they learned in school? or did they deliberately come up with a system to mess with me. Did they just simple decide "who care's if the people who live in America do not have a "hierarchy" to reach as long as they could enjoy the "hierarchy" for themselves. I think they must have hit somewhere near the top of their "hierarchy" and so they seemed to cling onto the emotion "greed."

Money, is an important part of the "hierarchy" these days because without money you can't get into a country and in some cases you can't get out. Without money you are simple stuck fulfilling some "crony's" needs and his "hierarchy" and emotional "greed."

*The truth is all I want is for everyone to have "the right to the pursuit of happiness" the right to have "Maslow's hierarchy."

 Ms. Mary, for once I agree with you. Okay, just part of you, but oh, well.

You mentioned, drugs are trucked in everyday, right?

   THANK YOU! DO WE NEED ANY OTHER REASON THAN THIS, TO DO AWAY WITH NAFTA?

As for your beliefs on Maslow.....Immigrants need, for #1 on the hierarchy, usually puts Americans on the offensive, or threatens #2. Not because of drugs, or violence. They feel their livelihoods are at stake.     Can you blame them, really?

 I meant "defensive," I'm full of grammar errors today as well.

L.S. I don't know what you face on the West Coast but on the East Coast the Immigrants are really very peaceful for the most part. Alot of the crime that happens here is comming from children that come from dysfunctional familys and for the most part they are native to this country. We do need to work hard to improve these conditions and help these kids.

I live next to an Immigrant town and most of the Immigrants reside in the flood zone of that town. They are hard workers and they do not commit crimes around here for the most part. I can not speak for California but I can speak for my local neighborhood and defend people when I see they are making a positive impact. If they were not maintaining the poor sections of the neighborhood nearby the tax rate would go up so high that the entire town would become a ghost town and the town is a beautiful part of America. It is a Historical town and a famous train stop were the train line runs into NYC. This town was always an immigrant town. After the Italians came in the Puerto Ricans maintained it and now it is a mix of Central Americans combined with some of the original settlers. It was the town that my ancestors settled in from Italy. My greatgrandmother had a penny candy store and she use to sell penny bags of Candy for the children and "Her spirit lives on." The Immigrants that reside there are really sweet. They come out and participate when there is a parade. On Halloween I did get to be a judge in the Halloween parade. I wish I could put up the pics of how beautiful these children looked in their costumes and how sweet their dispositions were. I wish they all could have won the contest. I know if you were there with me L.S. you would have had a really fun time and they brought back memorys of what the US was years ago. When I look in the eyes of these little children "US borned" from Immigrant parents I see a future in America...I see a real community of people again and there family values are a breath of fresh air that the good old America had.

L.S. It is sad that in America we have lost the spirit of what it is like to live in a town that has pride and a close knit community...but where I am we know how to inspire others with what our great grandparents taught us and what the meaning in life is all about.

What you need to do is contact your local elected officials and see how you can make an impact on how to organize programs for child and start a grassroots organization.

NAFTA? Well the truth is L.S. if these companys "the cheap labor magnets" that brought the flood of people through the border had outsourced there production..."we wouldn't have 12 million here." I tend to think we should have outsourced those jobs or we should have given the visa's out because at the time Americans didn't want to do those jobs.

*When the flood came through the Border...America was going through great prosperity.

I am sorry if for whatever reasons this is not happening in your areas but all I can say is you can start by throwing out your local elected officials.

I do not believe the solution is to through Immigrants out. I believe communitys are built from the ground and up. It is a grassroots effort with community organizers that will clean up the streets. Cruel and Issolated treatment towards others will only make your towns worse.

Ms. Marry, I don't believe "immigrants out," is a solution. In my area, a grass-root effort would like racism. It's not the first generation immigrants that are causing the havoc. It's the new brown movement,or the new Mexican Revolution. They are of the same mentality that runs through white hate groups. They've seen their parents work their lives away in the field, with no respect. They, "themselves," have been over looked, and grown up with comments like, "English should be the only language," and like most other, poverty stricken Americans, they want someone to blame.

(I got called a Nazi, at the store yesterday....It must have been the pink- flowered-shirt; dead give away, right?)

   I'm not treating anyone cruel. I have to hear things like," we're going to kill all you, and take California back." (Not buy it back, take it back.) It's not only like this with white people. They seem to think the, "N," word taboo, doesn't apply to them. They hang huge photos of Mexican Revolutionaries, in the front windows of their homes. The racial tention out here is tangible, to say the least.

   I do see past it though. Our elected officials are bought. NAFTA, is a tool used to run drugs through our borders; keeping law enforcment employed. Racial issues are the political equivalent, of an ace in the hole.  If they keep us blaming each other, it keeps our attention off of them, and holding them accountable.

  I probably didn't phrase my comment in a non offensive way. I was just pointing out why they are met with so much resistance. Didn't mean to sound like a witch. Although, if any of these new revolutionaries read this site.............You can kill all of us, but California doesn't belong to us anymore. It was sold to China with the rest of the U.S.

I agree that these desperate and hungry people should be helped. However when they come here illegally they are an open target for wage exploitation which undermines our wages. One thing that makes many angry is that some become a burden (unfairly) to the taxpayer. The fair solution to this is quite simple. You could do as I have done which is to sponsor an immigrant.  We the people can do alot better job fixing our country than our government (and it's greedy special interests) could ever do. If one really wants to to help people then government should be at the bottom of the list ie. Hurracane Katrina  We must stop acting like socialists. and start acting like Americans and take some personal responsibility for each other and others we want to help.

L.S. Im so sorry that the system has been so broken that these kids have all that anger built inside. A good topic we could have is how we could find solutions to make things better. These kids don't know that you are not against them. They just see that their parents worked hard and the harse system and hard life they are experienceing.

You did make a point that I was not aware of...NAFTA...and the trucking business "which I'm a little familiar with because I once waited on tables one night a week 10pm till 6am was my shift" for pocket money and it was fun. I did get to see some strange people truck through in the middle of the night..and now what you pointed out to me is starting to make sense. Are you trying to say that when they made that route go through the states and up to Canada it was a convienient way to traffic drugs through? People think more come through the border. I dont think so. I think they are coming right through the front door...now I understand.

Back to immigrant kids growing up: I knew a little boy that was a child of an Immigrant in a nearby town "he was US borned" and he was going to school in a very rural conservative area. I spoke to him about what he liked to read about the most and he seemed to have an interest in Dinosaurs. I knew his parents spoke broken English to study at home and keep up with his homework was difficult...so I helped him with his homework and through conversation he mentioned to me that his school teacher told him that when he grows up he should think about joining the US army. This really upset me that the school teacher was drilling the little "brown kid" with army thoughts when he was fasinated with dinasaurs. I had a talk with Jerry and explained to him that joining the army was not his only option in life...I told him that he could study dinasours or be a doctor or lawyer and that joining the army could cost him his life. I talked to another school teacher in that system and she said it didn't surprise her that because alot of the teachers were teniored in the sytem. I know my father told me way back when he went to school many years ago that teachers would only give attention to the rich kids and not the immigrant kids back when "italians" were immigrants. My father is a World War ll veteran that tried to talk my brother out of joining the military "which didn't work" he signed up behind his back.

The child I was trying to held out I later put together a "christmas village" project. He was so cute and he was so proud to bring that little "christmas village" we assembled out of cardboard and paper. Although, whenever I see little Jerry on occasion he does look like a fustrated kid and have discussed with his mom in his presence on how I am fighting for immigrant rights so I hope somehow I showed one kid that people really do care about his parents and his future. Maybe Jerry might grow up a little angry but I might have also showed him that there is hope.

Anyway, I understand what you are telling me; your fustrations and I don't think you are a witch at all..I understand why these kids are angry and I don't know what we are going to do. We need an "immigrant peace movement" on a national level. It needs to be a kind gentle movement that pushs reform forward and somehow takes some of that anger away from those kids. Maybe its not too late but if we do not change this system soon its only going to get worse.

L.S. hope...These are the exchanged in dialog I like to have...there are too many people on here trying to fight reform that we all know is eventually coming. I know the longer it drags out we will face serious dysfunction and anger in children on a national level.

(The child I was trying to held out I later put together a "christmas village" project. He was so cute and he was so proud to bring that little "christmas village" we assembled out of cardboard and paper.)

What I meant to say was: I worked with him to put this "christmas village" together and he was so proud to bring it to school.

Although it might be difficult to tell the difference here (ignorant or arrogant) I think that this situation brings to light a very solid truth.  It's about bloody time for this adolescent nation to quit believing that it is an island - or worse, that it has moral superiority/right to do whatever the hell it wants.

Whether its a simple matter of age or the fact that its hard to ignore so many neighbors, countries in Europe seem to harbor a more educated view on others.  In the US, many people seem to operate as if we have NO borders at all - constantly demeaning Mexico (that country that, if we'll remember, had more than half of its land removed forcibly by a 'sovereign' nation) and [please note my sarcasm - this is not my view] who the hell is Canada?

Far too often American's treat their neighbors like scum but expect other countries to welcome them with open arms.  Talk about double standards!  I'm glad to hear those kids got the boot!

* strike either people or abroad from that sentence (sorry, my error...but it bothers me).

* at times

"Por Favor!" tell me why people are so bent when it comes to what language people speak. Talbese Analisa will teach me "mas Espanol?"

Ahora, Yo Repito? Porque? does it matter that someone only speaks Spanish when I can only speak Spanglish?..hehe

Once someone lives here long enough they will either attempt to learn the language because they have the desire and if they do not then?? So what!! and if they do not speak it perfectly...So what!!

OK, Analisa I will give it a try because I have the desire to learn how to speak Spanish and you could correct me if I mess it up and I am sure I already did..lol:

perdoneme Analisa,

Yo quiero comprender y aprender mas Espanol. Buenos Nocias mi Amiga!

Talbese<I'm thinking this word is Maybe?? but I might have spelt it wrong??

Mr. lindley sir.

English has always been our "official" language.

That aint the problem...The problem is that those who want to make it the only language only want to do so because theyre afraid of diversity in my opinion.

I would say that the more educated tend to speak more languages, not just the country's "official" language.  In regards to America, it is inappropriate for the "official language" to be english since the offspring of illegal european immigrants will soon be a minority in this country.

Barbara, That must have been an experience you will cherish for a lifetime. You are right to say our world has gotten smaller...but sadly, a lot more cynical and difficult.

"Ugly Americans" ... ah, yes. 

I met one in Dublin.  My friend and I had been in Ireland for about a week and had learned to say things a little differently in the interests of better communication; e.g. we were on holiday, not on vacation.

We were at the bar of a pub one night getting refills when an American sat down by us and ordered a beer.  He and my friend chatted amiably about our respective places of origin and so forth, and then she asked, "Are you here on holiday?"

Between gritted teeth he replied, "No, I'm on my va-CA-tion."

With a quick "nice meeting you" we both eased on back over to our table ...

Worse yet, they deport the parents without warning and the kids come home from school to an empty house.  It's happened here in Oregon.  How did we become so cruel?

Get a clue, Mark.

Mark:  Whatever the case, it's disgusting that parents not be given the opportunity to get their children.  It's barbaric.

I don't know if we have a reputation as the most obnoxious.

In recent years Russians were identified by Europeans as being the most arrogant and obnoxious tourists, a perception based on a mixture of nouveau riche arrogance and drunkenness.

In a 2008 poll of hotel workers in Europe, the  French were judged the rudest Westerners, ranking just above  Indians and the Chinese, while Japanese were deemed the politest and tidiest.  However, I heard on the BBC a few months ago that the English were getting slammed, primarily because of public drunkeness by young travelers.

Interestingly, German tourists have raised their profile in the "polite" category.  I remember Europeans slamming loud obnoxious German tourists in the late 80s and early 90s.

Americans don't come off as badly as one might think in this survey.  Apparently we get high marks for at least attempting to speak the local language and for tipping well.

Interesting stuff here: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1820358,00.html

If I may weigh in on the English language ...

Spanish was the first European language spoken in the Americas (if one omits the Norse explorers in the north) and was the primary language in many areas we acquired one way or another; e.g. Texas, New Mexico, California, etc. 

St. Augustine FL is the oldest continuously inhabited European established settlement in the continental United States, while Santa Fe NM is the oldest continuously inhabited state capital in the US.  Both of these cities were founded by Spaniards.

Some respect should be shown by relatively Johnny-come-lately English-speakers to the US's long history of Spanish speakers.

(Of course I've left out the various tribes who settled the area which became the United States lonnnnng before any Europeans arrived and began enslaving and/or slaughtering them.  It'd be nice if they got a little respect, too.)

No mention of French?

It's not about who settled where when. It's about who speaks what now.

I've already noticed reading comprehension is not your strong point, but this time you missed my entire last paragraph.

If you want to talk about native Americans, fine. But perhaps you need to read history with a less prejudiced eye.

From the beginning native Americans were captured and enslaved.  Squanto, who taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, had himself been captured and enslaved by an English ship captain some fifteen years earlier, managing to make his way home only to find his entire Pawtukset tribe had been wiped out by smallpox.  It is to his credit (and translating abilities) that the Pilgrims were able to live in peace with the Wampanoag as long as they did.  Unfortunately the Puritans arrived and the great push westward began.

But the Spanish pre-dated the English in enslavement and brutality.  Here is Christopher Columbus writing about the Arawaks who greeted them with food, water and other gifts:

"They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. ... As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts [i.e. gold]."

Columbus promised his royal patrons, in return for more men and various supplies, ""as much gold as they need . . . and as many slaves as they ask ... Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives victory to those who follow His way over apparent impossibilities."

And so it began.

The English were only slightly better than Columbus as many of them did attempt to negotiate for what they wanted.

But at the end of the day they had the same religious and racial prejudices as Columbus.  God had led them to this New Eden and it was their right to take it.

If you are that unaware of the persistent violations of agreements between the settlers and the natives by the settlers, space does not permit a detailed description, and besides which we are ranging way off the topic of this post.

But consider this: How would you feel if a group of people showed up on your property and began to make themselves at home?  You might try to show a little hospitality, and you might even find some of them pleasant and easy to work with.  But somehow I don't think you would lie down and take it if a number of them began to violate your hospitality. 

Is defense of one's homeland something only you and I can do?  Did the native Americans have no right to defend themselves and their hunting grounds?

I never said there was no slaughtering by native Americans, either among themselves or against the European invaders.  There is no doubt that native Americans attacked my English ancestors, and frankly I don't blame them.  We had it coming. 

But at the end of the day it was the European settlers cum Americans who practiced genocide of native American tribes.  The evidence is copious and profound.  Saying "there was guilt on both sides" is a false equivalency.

Of course Columbus was Italian, but his royal patrons and the sailors they supplied were Spanish.

Where did you get the idea that there was some kind of mutual agreement that English would be our spoken language?  By 1776 the English were the dominant colonizing power and it was from England that we won our independence.

And talk about a straw man: nobody is griping about the majority of the inhabitants of these United States speaking English.  The only complaint here is the intolerance of some against those who do not speak English and the determination on the part of some to officially declare English to be our national language, a designation without which we somehow managed to survive for over two hundred years.

Nor is anyone saying all lands should be returned to their original inhabitants.  But i must say, your ignorance of native Americans -- their history, their interactions with us, the genocide we practiced against them, the rights of citizenship they finally acquired in 1924 but which took another quarter-century to become real -- is breathtaking.

And nobody is saying we shouldn't have immigration laws, nor is anyone "crying about other country's rights to have immigration laws."

If you don't have the ability to comprehend what people are writing here, if you can't ask for clairifcation without insults, and if you can't discuss issues without false equivalencies and strawmen, then go argue with yourself.

I agree that Christopher Columbus was Italian.  However, before our ancestors came along and brutalized the southwest area of the United States, it was part of Mexico, and filled with Spanish-speaking people; hence Jennifer is right when she said that Spanish was the first European language spoken in the Americas. 

As for your asking if we should go back to each country's history and make sure lands are returned to their original inhabitants, of course that is impossible at this point.  But that doesn't mean we should develop selective amnesia about the atrocities which were committed in our own backyard even within the last century against Native Americans, an oppression which continues to this day.

While we do have the right to have immigration laws (and am certainly not "crying" about any other country's right to have them), we do not receive all legal immigrants with open arms.  Are you aware that racism/ethinicism is alive and well in the U.S?  "Legal" and "illegal," when used to refer to human beings, is in itself degrading, especially when someone is referred to as "an illegal."  An "undocumented immigrant" is preferable.  I believe we are all legal in God's eyes.

It is OUR ancestors who entered this country illegally and enslaved its inhabitants.

"... the majority voted on in this country to make English our spoken language long ago ..."

Fascinating.  Would you please supply a citation for this remarkable claim? 

I wonder if you are referring to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhlenberg_legend

Amen to that!  Jenifer is one of the smartest people I've bumped into on here, and I continually learn new things from her!

"Immigration" is a real hot-button topic (see: Lou Dobbs) and I think a lot of people don't realize how much they are controlled by fear.

Objectivity, authoritative sources, and empirical data are our friends.

Unfortunately too many people believe whatever lands in their in-box, comes up in a Google search, or is shown on TV without properly evaluating the (possibly mis- or even dis-) information presented to them.