ebrown_p wrote:Baldimo,
You obviously don't know much about your heritage or the experience of you anscestors.
There were people just like you in the 1900's who felt the same way about your grandfather, that you feel about Mexicans. Not much has changed.
Your claim about the "assimilation" of Italians into America is ignorant to the point of lunacy. Have you heard of the "Knights of Columbus". Have you noticed how many cities have "Little Italy's". There are places in my city where English is not heard since everyone still speaks Italian.
In the 1900's Italians bound together (mostly because they faced the same sort of prejudice you display today) in very tight knit communities. They helped each other as Italians often getting each other jobs, housing et cetera.
Even you claim about "handouts" is ill-informed. Are you saying that your family didn't take advantage of public education, etc. If they were as poor as you imply, it is certain that they received more than they paid in taxes. I am sure they paid their taxes, but immigrants (even "illegals") do that today.
Your posts show the worst kind of hypocrisy. The Italians faced horrible prejudice. The things you say about the Mexicans now are the same things they said about Italians.
Do you really feel it is a good thing that you have give up your Italian heritage? You don't know you own history and you haven't figured out that in a country of immigrants the Italian culture of your family has given a lot to this nation-- not by assimilating-- but by being Italian.
How sad,
You lost what it means to be Italian... and you still don't know what it means to be American.
I have a better understanding of my family history then you think I do. My grandfather didn't teach any of his children Italian for the simple fact that he came here to be American. He was so pro-American that he didn't even have an accent when he spoke and you never would have known he was an immigrant. Despite what you think you know about ones history you don't know it all. My grandfather fought in WWII against the Italians first and then the Germans. He knew he was an American solider and served as one.
agrote wrote:Baldimo wrote:I don't know about your family but my family came here legally in the early 1900's. They didn't own a thing and never received handouts from the govt. My grandfather died a millionaire because of hard work and dedication. He didn't have a need his own culture because they came to the US to become Americans not Italian-Americans. They assimilated into American culture and prospered because of it. The same can't be said for people that come here today. With bi-lingual classes immigrant children are graduating high school barely speaking English and this hinders them in society. If you can't speak the language then you will not prosper.
I think what FreeDuck may have meant (quack if I'm mistaken) is that sailing over there and violently nabbing the land from the natives was morally questionable.
Not all countries are capable of taking responsibility of their own citizens, whereas the USA has the potential to accomodate many more citizens, being very big and very rich. So it's unfair to send immigrants back home and just expect them to be taken care of.
It isn't the job of the US to take care of another countries people because they can't afford it. Maybe they should stay there and force change in someway so people don't have to leave.
agrote wrote:If it's illegal, isn't it already outlawed??
I think rather than thinking about it in terms of whether immigrants are breaking the law you should think about it in terms of whether they are doing anything wrong and whether they have a right to live and work in your country. Laws are not always appropriate, and I, being English, don't know what the laws are over there, so it's difficult to say whether I think illegal immigration is okay or not.
When you break the law you are doing something wrong. You don't have the right to work in the US unless you are allowed to be here and illegal aliens are not allowed to be here. There are thousands of legal aliens here now and I don't have an issue with them because they followed the law.
dròm_et_rêve wrote:Things are not all peaches and cream. Most illegals come to America to, surprise, work.
Baldimo, the last person who had a mainstream plan of forcing people to work was Hitler.
I don't care if they came here to work or not, they have still broken the law and should be thrown out.
I don't know if what you say is true or not, but I would say it was a good idea to get the lazy leaches of their collective butts and work. I still support the idea, and it would make the employment rate go up. Speaking of which, how much of the unemployment rate is illegal aliens? If they were removed wouldn't that lessen the roles of the unemployed? Those that aren't supposed to be here shouldn't be working here.
dyslexia wrote:bigotry by any other name (ethnocentrism) is bigotry.
Care to explain how I'm being a bigot?
Had a 90 year old Italian man tell me that last week. He'd been here since 1932...I could hardly understand him ,his accent was so strong.
