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Dec 16, 2006
Two immigration articles in a week
The
first was The Nation, which is strongly liberal, entirely political.
The article was pro-immigration. Presumably the readership would be largely if not entirely liberal, yet the responses to the article, more than half of what was published, were negative.
That came as quite a surprise.
The second was Playboy, which is also consistently liberal, but which - for obvious reasons - has a more diverse readership.
It is too soon for anyone to have written in yet, but I know they will.
So, I wrote in to both. I have had several short letters to the editors published in the past couple of months (PopSci about energy efficiency, PopMec about the efficiency of living in an RV, and possibly Sierra Club on BioDiesel - they said they would, but I never found it).
Kind of like this blog, except much shorter - and read by thousands of people!
So, anyway, here is, more or less, what I wrote:
The article was pro-immigration. Presumably the readership would be largely if not entirely liberal, yet the responses to the article, more than half of what was published, were negative.
That came as quite a surprise.
The second was Playboy, which is also consistently liberal, but which - for obvious reasons - has a more diverse readership.
It is too soon for anyone to have written in yet, but I know they will.
So, I wrote in to both. I have had several short letters to the editors published in the past couple of months (PopSci about energy efficiency, PopMec about the efficiency of living in an RV, and possibly Sierra Club on BioDiesel - they said they would, but I never found it).
Kind of like this blog, except much shorter - and read by thousands of people!
So, anyway, here is, more or less, what I wrote:
I would like to write in support of "The Immigration Mess" in advance, because I know plenty of your readers will write in with the usual objections.
I'd be willing to wager that all of the people who object so strongly to illegal immigration personally use more than their share of world resources and energy.
The majority own things made in non union factories, or out of the country.
They don't realize that they personally benefit everyday from our exploitation of Mexico, as well as many other countries, not only here, but also from the low prices they get when our factories move to Mexico.
They did not object so strongly to NAFTA. They are OK with money passing over the border. Just not the people who that money might otherwise belong to.
More importantly, none of us earned being an American, and therefor they can't claim to deserve any of the privileges of living here.
They got lucky being born here.
They also draw distinction between legal and illegal. Whether something is legal is independent of whether it is moral.
Slavery was once legal, and alcohol was illegal. At one time forcing sex on ones wife was legal, but sodomy between consenting adults was illegal.
If those people who wrote in happened to have been born in poverty in another country, chances are they might feel a little different.
Lastly, we should all keep in mind that we took most of the South West from Mexico (4 1/2 states in exchange for only $15 million) after winning a war which we started.
o
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