A Reply
This is a reply to some ignorant comment that some guy left in response to a youtube video about immigration:
This is the comment.
infidel2010:
the mexican people need to have a really good look at themselves. stop blaming the US for everything that is wrong in their lives and have the balls to protest in mexico fot a better life. they need a government that gives a shit about them rather than just dumping them into the US. there is plenty of wealth in mexico.
Here is my reply to it. This is the loooooong version. I'm doing it here since youtube only allows 500 character comments.
If the mass movements going on all over Mexico are not protests against the government, what are they? Either you are not looking in the right places to read about these movements or you were purely shooting from the hip in that comment. You are grossly incorrect to assume that the people of Mexico are not fighting for a better government. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans came out to support Lopez Obrador in Mexico City's zocalo (square) because he was the only candidate who promised the people that he would bring about necessary changes to their economy, such as renegotiating or dropping out of NAFTA. He lost by only a slim margin (due to electoral corruption). A margin that was less than 1% (.58% to be exact). I feel very comfortable to look at that effort as an example of the Mexican people's current struggle to bring change to their country so they don't have to leave.
It doesn't even come close to stopping there. Simultaneously with the 2006 Mexican presidential elections, teachers in Oaxaca city, Oaxaca (along with other national activist groups) fought for their rights to live in an environment where they would not be oppressed by their government. One American who saw their struggle firsthand would tell you that they are part of a national struggle against such oppression, but he can't because he's dead. He was shot in the chest by a government soldier's bullet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdjwoT26paA
If that isn't an example of protest and struggle for a better life, then I don't know what I would call it.
Wait, it doesn't stop there either. Zapatista Army of National Liberation, an armed movement in the southern state of Chiapas, has been in progress for over 12 years now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation
These men and women risk their lives everyday just so they can have the basic right to live and farm peacefully on their land. For decades the government and its lapdog companies has sent paramilitary troops (aka mercenaries) to their villages with the sole purpose of wiping them off of the face of the earth just so those companies (many being American and Canadian) can cut down the forests there and harvest the valuable lumber that lays there. Now they are taking peaceful political avenues by organizing and rallying the people of the region to protest against the injustices of their government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxRDwA9SXbw
Hundreds have died in this endeavor. It was not even a month ago when a FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) organizer was found beaten to death in his office. Ignoring the people's demands, the government refuses to open an investigation into this.
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/10/floc-organizer-beaten-to-death-in-mexico/
These examples are only but a tiny fraction of what is being done to bring change to Mexico. It is probably not completely your fault that you don't know about any of this, infidel2010. That link about the FLOC organizer's death isn't CNN. It isn't MSNBC. It isn't Fox News. It isn't even the New York Times. Do you know why? It is because none of those news networks covered the story. How are people, such as yourself, expected to know all of this?
Please, I strongly encourage you to look harder for the facts before you make such strong statements, such as the one you made above. Not because I expect you to start agreeing with me on the issue, although you are more than welcome to join as a brother or sister in the cause. I implore for you to do this because it is unfair to degrade and ignore the sacrifices that these people have made. It is only right to at least recognize their actions, whether you disagree with them or not. Wouldn't you want them to do the same for you? Because they would.
I give the same advice to you all as well.
Click to viewThis is the comment.
infidel2010:
the mexican people need to have a really good look at themselves. stop blaming the US for everything that is wrong in their lives and have the balls to protest in mexico fot a better life. they need a government that gives a shit about them rather than just dumping them into the US. there is plenty of wealth in mexico.
Here is my reply to it. This is the loooooong version. I'm doing it here since youtube only allows 500 character comments.
If the mass movements going on all over Mexico are not protests against the government, what are they? Either you are not looking in the right places to read about these movements or you were purely shooting from the hip in that comment. You are grossly incorrect to assume that the people of Mexico are not fighting for a better government. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans came out to support Lopez Obrador in Mexico City's zocalo (square) because he was the only candidate who promised the people that he would bring about necessary changes to their economy, such as renegotiating or dropping out of NAFTA. He lost by only a slim margin (due to electoral corruption). A margin that was less than 1% (.58% to be exact). I feel very comfortable to look at that effort as an example of the Mexican people's current struggle to bring change to their country so they don't have to leave.
It doesn't even come close to stopping there. Simultaneously with the 2006 Mexican presidential elections, teachers in Oaxaca city, Oaxaca (along with other national activist groups) fought for their rights to live in an environment where they would not be oppressed by their government. One American who saw their struggle firsthand would tell you that they are part of a national struggle against such oppression, but he can't because he's dead. He was shot in the chest by a government soldier's bullet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdjwoT26paA
If that isn't an example of protest and struggle for a better life, then I don't know what I would call it.
Wait, it doesn't stop there either. Zapatista Army of National Liberation, an armed movement in the southern state of Chiapas, has been in progress for over 12 years now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation
These men and women risk their lives everyday just so they can have the basic right to live and farm peacefully on their land. For decades the government and its lapdog companies has sent paramilitary troops (aka mercenaries) to their villages with the sole purpose of wiping them off of the face of the earth just so those companies (many being American and Canadian) can cut down the forests there and harvest the valuable lumber that lays there. Now they are taking peaceful political avenues by organizing and rallying the people of the region to protest against the injustices of their government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxRDwA9SXbw
Hundreds have died in this endeavor. It was not even a month ago when a FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) organizer was found beaten to death in his office. Ignoring the people's demands, the government refuses to open an investigation into this.
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/10/floc-organizer-beaten-to-death-in-mexico/
These examples are only but a tiny fraction of what is being done to bring change to Mexico. It is probably not completely your fault that you don't know about any of this, infidel2010. That link about the FLOC organizer's death isn't CNN. It isn't MSNBC. It isn't Fox News. It isn't even the New York Times. Do you know why? It is because none of those news networks covered the story. How are people, such as yourself, expected to know all of this?
Please, I strongly encourage you to look harder for the facts before you make such strong statements, such as the one you made above. Not because I expect you to start agreeing with me on the issue, although you are more than welcome to join as a brother or sister in the cause. I implore for you to do this because it is unfair to degrade and ignore the sacrifices that these people have made. It is only right to at least recognize their actions, whether you disagree with them or not. Wouldn't you want them to do the same for you? Because they would.
I give the same advice to you all as well.