*** WARNING ***
Semi-political content ahead. If you’re at all touchy about issues like this, skip this blog post, ‘mmmkay? If you like hearing other people’s views on stuff with an open mind, then read on.
In case you didn’t know, faithful reader, where I live — I maintain my residence in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia. Politically, I consider myself an average American – I lean slightly to the right (fiscal conservative) but otherwise, I think I’m mostly middle-of-the-road. I’m pro-immigration, anti-illegal immigration. Of course, in the San Francisco Bay Area, this practically makes me a member of the religious right, comparatively speaking. Which brings me to my rant…
This morning, I have received no less than FOUR CALLS on my phone from the county of Santa Clara. While that’s not an unusual event, the fact that they are all in Spanish is. For those not in the know, my maternal grandmother is a Spanish immigrant, so I’m 1/4 Spanish. Between that heritage and taking three years of Spanish in high school, I’ve got enough language skills to decipher what people are saying, and I can carry on a conversation in kind of a stuttering Spanish pidgin.
Anyway, this phone call is an automated service provided by the county (ie, my dollars are paying for this) and they’re trying to poll people about some voter issue (I didn’t quite make it out, partially due to the fact that I was having an apoplectic fit everytime the phone rang.) On the second call, I hit “0″ to get an operator, and within 30 seconds, I had an operator on the line.
“Bueno?” he says.
“Good morning, I’d like to speak to your supervisor, please,” I say, figuring I can at least vent a little bit to the person in charge.
“No hablo Ingles!” the guy on the other end of the line says, and instantly he hangs up.
Now, I’m more than a little bit pissed off, but I figure that’s probably the end of it. How naive I was. No less than 10 minutes later, the phone rings again.
I answer the phone, and get the same automated Spanish message. I punch “0″ again, figuring maybe now I’ll have a chance to speak my mind. I get an operator, and say, “Good morning, I’d like to speak to your supervisor, please.” Guess what happens? Yep, the same “No hablo Ingles!” and instant hangup, this time, from a female voice.
Fast forward 10 minutes, and the phone rings again. Same song and dance with the automated bot speaking in Spanish, I hit “0″, and get the same “No hablo” runaround. By now, I’m really irate, so I *69 the phone and punch 0 again.
A minute or so later, I get the now-familiar “Bueno?” response. “Hello,” I begin politely, “I’d like to speak…” I get cut off with laughter and yet another hang up.
Clearly, I can’t speak with these people. And that’s the core complaint of this rant. We maintain a relatively loose and open culture – collectively, as Americans, our culture is literally the “mutt” of the world. We are (or used to be) that melting pot, where we all took the best of every culture and played to everyone’s strengths.
Somewhere along the line, though, we stopped “melting” and started what I call “excessive tolerance”. We started catering to every obscure group out there, and worrying about everyone’s opinion. As a result of some of this excesssive tolerance, the newer arrivals in this country stopped trying to assimliate (because they no longer HAD to) and just started up their own localized territories, where everything was in their own language and culture.
So instead of getting the best from every culture – the melting pot, like what happened during the early 1900s when we underwent a huge immigration boom, what’s happening is a segmentation of the American population. We’ve got extremely large blobs of population, who are physically, geographically, and culturally different from what’s considered “mainstream” America. These people are not assimilating, they are actively RESISTING and trying to NOT become part of our country. And what’s really pissing me off is the government is actively supporting this effort!
I’m all for diversity – all people and culture bring something to the table, and we all benefit when we work together. This whole immigration issue, however, has been badly handled for years, and we’re starting to see a fracturing of our entire culture (yes, OUR CULTURE, the AMERICAN culture) as a result.
This little telemarketing incident, courtesy of my county government, is merely a symptom of the overall problem. While this symptom right now has provoked my ire and prompted me to write this blog entry, it’s not the problem — sadly, the problem is far more serious and runs a lot deeper and across multiple issues, and can’t be solved by a few letters to our state assembly. I could go on and on with respect to multiple issues like education, welfare, and other state policies, but I’d probably take several hundred kilobytes of space not to mention a good deal of your time.
All I can say is, if you’re as disheartened as I am with our government, it’s time to act. At the next election, vote – and vote these guys out of office. They haven’t been doing a good job at all, in my opinion, and while the next guy may not be any better, we’ll never know if we don’t get out there, and speak our mind by voting at the polls.
That’s just my opinion, though – I could be wrong.
Tele-spammers are scumbags, regardless of culture.
You are not wrong, this is far more of a problem than most people seem to think it is.
Thanks — it’s good to know I’m not the only person who’s perceiving this as a problem. Things like the special election in California last year piss me off — everyone agrees that there needs to be major change in our government, yet when the opportunity arises, nobody steps up and votes for the things that will change the status quo. Rather, it’s easier and quicker to just continue falling off the cliff like the rest of the lemmings. Shit’s broken in a big way, everyone agrees it’s broken, but nobody wants to take the measures necessary to fix the problem. I voted for every initiative in the special election, by the way. Not only did I agree with them all, but it was a great chance to get stuff to change. I’m still incredulous at the fact that the congressional redistricting initiative got shot down — that would have been a great message to send to our representatives.
If any politicos happen to be reading this blog (hey, a guy can dream) — quick pandering to the special interest groups and listen to your constituents. Just cause we haven’t voted your asses out of office doesn’t mean we won’t. The sheeple may wake up one day, y’know.
I agree with you bill, I have no problems with *legal* immagrants at all and pretty much agree with the same beliefs as you. However what makes me really laugh my ass off is how the .gov is somewhat trying to do something with regards to the illegal immagrants coming in and now everyone thinks the .gov is racists and xenophobes..etc.
The problem that most people of a left-leaning nature (like myself) have with the current immigration reform efforts stem from what the House is trying to do in making every illegal immigrant an instant felon.
To be blunt, you really can’t get away with that. Legally it’s very suspect (grandfather clauses being nearly ubiqitous in any change of situational legality) and then there’s the “dick” factor.
“Yeah, OK, we’ve totally been sitting with our thumbs up our asses for about 25 years now. What to do? LET’S GO DRACONIAN AND START REALLY TURNING UP THE JERK!” It’s fine to start enforcing once the legislation passes, but attempting to change 11 million people instantly to FELONS is just plain wrong. It’s catering to a largely uneducated core class that thinks their property tax bills will drop by 20% once they don’t have to pay for the guys they have doing their landscaping.
“I’m pro-immigration, anti-illegal immigration.”
You cannot generally be in favour of immigration while being against illegal immigration. The laws, written by those who oppose immigration, make it extremely difficult to become an American citizen. Legal immigration is simply not a possibility for the vast majority of all who wish to enter America. If you are pro-immigration, you should not be opposed to illegal immigrants, but rather to the laws that brand them illegal merely for coming to America.
“Somewhere along the line, though, we stopped “melting” and started what I call “excessive tolerance”. We started catering to every obscure group out there, and worrying about everyone’s opinion. As a result of some of this excesssive tolerance, the newer arrivals in this country stopped trying to assimliate (because they no longer HAD to) and just started up their own localized territories, where everything was in their own language and culture.”
This is how immigration in America has always been — immigrants have always stuck together and claimed their own geographical regions. Eventually, these regions mixed with the surrounding culture, producing what’s there today, but it was never immediate, and it has always been a source of miscontent among the cultural majority.
Dude, you live in a place called Santa Clara. (that is a Spanish name, in case you are curious of it’s origin) The Spanish speakers were there before the English. Isn’t about time you started to “assimliate”?
I remember having a similiar discussion with some co-workers a few years ago. They were complaining of all the Chinese coming over here without learning the language first. To which I replied: “The English didn’t, why should anyone else?”
I love this comment:
You cannot generally be in favour of immigration while being against illegal immigration. The laws, written by those who oppose immigration, make it extremely difficult to become an American citizen. Legal immigration is simply not a possibility for the vast majority of all who wish to enter America. If you are pro-immigration, you should not be opposed to illegal immigrants, but rather to the laws that brand them illegal merely for coming to America.
That is some 100% pure, grade A, crap right there. “Legal immigration is not possible.” Uh, ok, so then how exactly do we have these folks here, who are legal? Some sort of magic? Payoffs?
FWIW, Bill, I agree with your sentiment. Course, if voting could change anything, it would be illegal. Let’s be realistic – the political parties are really two sides of the same coin.
I’d suggest calling the county this morning and raising some hell on WTF they are doing. Maybe also call the papers; but that might be an exercise in frustration.
So, please enjoy your stay in Atzlan!
TR
Legal immigration isn’t impossible, it just seems that way sometimes. Those of us who were born here, of course, never need to have contact with CIS (the entity formerly known as INS). Let me tell you, as an American who has, it’s not a pretty sight. Say, you marry a foreigner and being the red-blooded American you are, you want to her to live in the Greatest Place on Earth. That’s the USA. No, I’m not being completely sarcastic
If you were to go through the normal process, it would take CIS upwards of a year just to process the initial I-130. Now, if you think your IRS 1040 form is a hideous torture tool created by The Man, the IRS has nothing on CIS. In addition to the fee (around $130), you have to collect a large amount of documentation, most of which have to be duly notarized. Already, I’m sure this alone would be beyond the bureacratic paperwork threshold for most IT geeks, but it gets better. After the overburdened CIS processes your I-130, your spouse will receive a second packet of paperwork to fill out and will have to undergo a medical exam at a US-approved facility and of course, the interview at the consulate or embassy. Assuming these all go well, your spouse will receive a stamp in her passport, that will act as a temporary and conditional green card. And, even then, you’re not finished yet. If your marriage is less than 2 years old, you’ll have to petition the CIS to remove the conditions on your spouse’s green card, which means another form, another fee, and some more evidence that your marriage is legit. If that is all good, your spouse finally receives a real green card. Unless of course, the CIS screwed something up, and then it’s an appointment to go to the local office, some more paperwork, you get the picture. If things are really fucked up, you’ll need an immigration lawyer, and if things really go bad, you get to face time in immigration court. Fortunately for me, my experience was very good, with one glitch that needs to be cleared up.
Marriage visas represent the easiest immigration path. People without family connections are basically SOL, or at the mercy of the green card lottery. Most people who dutifully follow the rules are waiting many long years to get into this country.
In that sense, for me, illegal immigration is unfair to the millions that have applied and are waiting. The senate legislation’s provision to fast track amnesty and provide citizenship to those who have crossed the Rio Grande really does not make any sense to me. Why full citizenship?
I do understand why so many would want to escape the poverty and bad situations south of the border. We can build walls and put a bunch of people there to watch the border, but we’ll only slow the flow a little. Unknown to most people, we already have a guest worker program, it’s just that very few employers ever use it, since it requires paperwork and paying migrants more than they currently pay illegals. Would expanding it really work? Not until employers know that the feds are serious about enforcing the current laws, and that requires money to be allocated to enforce the laws that make hiring undocumented workers illegal.
Finally, assimilation. I think we’re living in a time, like the early 1900s, where there’s a large influx of immigrants. In my experience, first generation immigrants tend to huddle together. Some might take the effort to assimilate, some might not make any effort, and most tend to straddle the line. I don’t think they’re actively resisting, they’re lazily sticking to what they know. If you immigrated to Japan, for instance, are you sure you wouldn’t be seeking out other Americans, esp around Thanksgiving? This is certainly annoying to those of us who operate primarily in the “mainstream”, seeing signs in various districts in languages we don’t grok (hey, someone who knows only one language is American, right?
But this is a land of liberty, after all, and that means people will make their own choices. Seemingly dumb choices, but that’s their right. I don’t see a meltdown of our culture, whatever culture that is we see as American. In fact, this generation of immigrants is, thanks to our mass exportation of our “culture”, more aware of what “America” is than those who arrived a century ago, dumped off in a completely alien land. Even if they don’t know about Paul Revere, they know that they are to aspire to a home in the ‘burbs (with a pool), an SUV, and a lot of BLING. They know about Ben Franklin, he’s on the $100 bill. Same with George Washington ($1) and Ulysses S. Grant ($50). Let me assure you, as a son of immigrants, that we in the second generation are just as “american” as any snob who delights in telling people they were descended from the Pilgrims.
Bill, what you’re expressing has always been expressed about immigrants. In the early 1900s, with the influx of immigrants, California was one of the hotbeds of the nativist movement, and subsequently banned ownership of land by anyone that wasn’t a citizen. Yet it was the Chinese who built the California portions of the Transcontinental railroad, and the Japanese who started cultivating crops throughout the state (until they were whisked away during WW2…)
Of course, people back then weren’t being called and greeted with Chinese or Japanese (“nihao” or “moshimoshi”). That there, is right fucked up, and you don’t need to be assimilated to figure that out.
TM,
In response to your comment I highly agree with you. I am a daughter of an american woman and an arabic father. Thank God I was born in the United States so I would not undergo the Citzenship process. I have a delimma to all of you who commented above. About a year and a half ago I married to a Syrian man that came here completely illegally, nearly died in the process. Got caught in the airport in Porta Rico by the INS and was imprissoned for a week ( 6.5 years ago). His cousin paid $5,000 to bail him out and hired a lawyer to try to get him an Asylmn. His application got denied by CIS, immigration court and now we have the final appeal in the Supreme court which till now we are waiting for a decision. If they choose to deport him he will be banded out of the U.S for 10 years. On
top of that even if a new law comes out to entitle citzenship to illegals it would not help him due to the fact that his case is pending in the Supreme court. The only outlet is for a miracle to happen and his case will be thrown out from the Supreme Court due to a technicality. Which is highly unlikely. Do you know what it feels like for me as a US citzen who served in the Army has to endure each day of my life not knowing what will happen to us. I want to continue my education but I can’t because I am afraid he will get deported any time soon. I can’t open a business because his status is not legal like mine. I live in CA and it’s community property so his qualification has to be the same as mine. Anything I try to do is closed in my face. There is no way in hell I can live in Syria for 10 years. Thats just wrong. And there is no way I can live without my husband for that long either. Let’s assume his case gets thrown out of court, now, I have to deal with this horrible process of getting him legal. First, i filled a petition which than will go to the NVC to get a visa #. then, I have to file an I-485 (adjustment of status, affidavit of support, medical examinations, biography, fingerprinting, and much more documents that I cannot even think of, let alone the money it will cost me for all these application. And assuming all things go well in the process without errors. You are talking about at least 5 years before he can become a citzen. What I am trying to say is you cannot (bill) be against illegal immigrants because you do not know each individuals situation. Some people that do come here legally pay someone to get married to obtain citizenship they do not marry for love. So, please have an open mind and know peopple do things for a reason. My husband because he was Christian living in an Islamic world they tortured him forced him into military, put his life in jeopordy and amputeared one of his testicles. He tried several time to come here legally witha visa but the Embassy kept on denying him, He had no choice now we are both suffering,
Bill, in case you are wondering, JD and tm’s experiences are in line with mine. As an immigrant (and as of recently, a naturalized citizen), I must tell you that the US CIS (former INS) is the must fucked up bureaucracy I have ever had to deal with. The CIS is doing a great job – that is, if that job is to get potential future citizens to hate the federal government.
From what I understand about the INS, I agree with everything you all said. I’m not saying that the bureaucracy is fucked up — it most certainly IS. However, tacitly allowing illegal immigration may appear to benefit people, but in reality it creates a shadow economy that actually brings down the main economy. My taxes are higher, our schools are doing extremely poor, and our healthcare systems are stressed to the maximum.
Please don’t misconstrue my sentiments as unsympathetic. I do feel bad for JD’s husband — I simply can’t relate to anything like that. What happened to him was evil beyond belief. I don’t blame them for wanting to get somewhere where they could be free. That’s what this country was founded on, after all. However, as wrong as that was, that still does not change the fact that if they arrived in the US illegally then THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY!
Look, at some point, this turned into an huge immigration debate. This post was mainly a way for me to rant about the fact that we as a society are catering to a section of the population who should not even be here in the first place, because they are here illegally.
Is it fair to my friend Charles and his family, who have been trying to get citizenship since ’99, for a family who snuck across the border to gain citizenship before they do? Of course not. If the INS is doing a bad job, then they need to be reformed. If the law is unfair or wrong, then it needs to be changed. But illegal is illegal. Period. We take in more legal immigrants per year than all the other countries in the UN combined… at some point we need to draw the line, if for no reason than our infrastructure can’t handle the ongoing pressure. As idealistic as it is to care for every suffering person in the world, we simply can’t AFFORD to do that, as noble and good a goal as that is.
And with that, I’m closing comments to this post.