protesting the protesters! and a 50 DKP minus!
So, last night Jon and I went out to a nice dinner and then to go get groceries in protest of the "day without immigrants." I feel like I should be making my position clear about this issue
( Read more... )
2) Great for them. Not being sarcastic, just don't have much else to say on this point, as I am not certain I see much relevance to it. I DO still honestly feel that's awesome, though.
2b) This may come as a shock to you, but the United States of America (NOT America, but the U.S.A.) has NO OFFICIAL LANGUAGE, just like it has no official religion and no official political party. More shocking might be that some people, like me, PREFER IT that way. In such a case, although as someone who believes strongly in the benefits of language acquisition, I support immigrants learning English or Japanese or Maori, I SEE NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER with immigrants not learning English. It does cause some communication problems, I grant, as English is, here as in the entire world, the most widely-known language, but we are a DIVERSE country. Moreover, we are a country that has largely COMMITTED OURSELVES to diversity. This lays an obligation on every resident of this country to expand their horizons and, AT THE VERY LEAST, learn at least one other language.
3) Have you ver heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? It's this little document written by someone in some organization called the United Nations or something and, see, the thing is, all the countries in that organization (most of the ones on the planet, including the U.S.) signed it. Now, what does that mean? That means that all people (UNIVERSAL and HUMAN) have certain rights (well, RIGHTS :-) ), including the right to freedom of travel and the right to join a trade union. These rights are separate from and independent of one's citizenship in their resident country (UNIVERSAL). Maybe I'll post them to my LJ . . . While I can't speak to how many immigrants of any stripe celebrate the Fourth of July, I see no problem, again, with celebrating Cinco de Mayo or any other holiday they damn well please. Yom Kippur is an Israeli holiday (viewed through a particular lens), St. Patrick's Day an Irish, is there a problem with celebrating those days or are they just too small to warrant your concern? As for licenses, hon, when we won't give them to the immigrants, at least some immigrants will drive without them for any number of reasons, that's just the way it happens.
4) I was unaware that immigrants never purchased anything, not even gas for the cars you just complained about them driving. Mexicans must have magic transubstantiation powers! Man, I knew I should have stayed Catholic . . . Seriously, though, it is fairly impossible NOT to pay taxes here. Immigrants may or may not pay fewer kinds of taxes (I'm thinking, of course, of the yearly income tax), as I don't have the numbers. I will look them up for you, however. And don't assume that immigrants have or have had easy lives. You don't know what their lives are or were like. Neither do I. Voting is, again, one of those UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS. I will post the declaration, I promise.
(I'll finish off the list later, as I have to go to work)
Reply
Leave a comment