[AGL] plight of immigrants - second response

Sat Jun 3 00:33:51 EDT 2006

Phainopeplas are a member of the waxwing family, common in high desert areas all the way to southern Mexico. I guess we could call them immigrants...I know that they eat mistletoe, don't know what else. They are a stunning sight, so black and slim...just a flash of white on wings.

I plant winter wheat, sorghum, and sunflowers for the birds. Of course the flycatchers come for the bugs. Says Phoebes are my closest neighbors, returning annually and nesting under eaves. In early fall Black Phoebes show up for awhile. Love to watch the flycatchers in the late afternoons, doing their acrobatics and whacking lots of bugs.

My place is so full of birds at present I can't begin to name them all. I live in an elm grove, lots of them. The big elms are leafed out now and the variety of songs coming from them makes it hard to hear just one.

Our lives couldn't be much different. I spend practically no time in cities anymore. No attractions there for me. Try to keep it very simple...small footprint and all that. 
G

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Connie Clark 
  To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
  Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 9:53 PM
  Subject: Re: [AGL] plight of immigrants - second response

  Hey Gerry,
  I wasn't demonizing you - I must not have made it clear.  The larvae (worms) will chomp precious crops.  I know you are not cruel.  Sorry it came out the wrong way.

  Thanks for the responses to the email otherwise.  I think we are exchanging pretty good on the subject of immigrants. I wouldn't argue with your suggestion that the cooperative effort like the European Union might be a better way. From my personal experience, not everybody will get the good deal or be included in a level playing field. So, I just feel that we would nonetheless still have plenty of undocumented workers coming from over the border.

  In reference to your past working life - I remember that you had said that you were union musician rep.  In response, I would say in general, that anyone who joins a union is definitely interested in solidifying a decent wage as well as other benefits and job security.  For a worker, that is the cause.

  You don't know me, but don't second guess my motives for working.Sure I work for money - who doesn't?  But it has nothing to do with greed.  I have been working all of my adult life - nobody has ever paid my rent. And being a woman most often put me at lower wage scale, and in the skilled work I knew how to do - no union rep was there to help out - that's a fact - and is precisely why I went back to school and got a higher education in a field dominated by men - so I could earn a living wage. btw. I came to work in Houston not for big money, but, as a single mother, I needed the support of family who lived here. Anyway, I might understand the desperation of immigrant workers better than you think.

  Ok, I'll check on the bird in question's diet, my books are mostly eastern range, but I should have something on the shelf.  I just thought you might have put out a seed feeder, or seen it perched on a wire waiting for the next juicy morsel. I enjoy hearing about your SW environment - what it is like out there - don't mean to discourage that.

  Connie

  Gerry <mesmo at gilanet.com> wrote:
    <<But Gerry, sure there are a lot of immigrants - what is new? "

    The numbers, Connie. Far more than ever before.

    <<Why now is it all-of-a-sudden described as a crisis that must be resolved.<<

    The House of Representatives passed a bill which would identify all illegal aliens and anyone who comes to their aid as felons. It won't pass in the Senate but some kind of compromise will. I would not like to be identified as a felon because I help the trabajeros who come by my place for a drink of water on their way north.

    <<Particularly irksome is the idea that a wall should be built for this problem.<<

    Amen.

    <<As for your discomfort with the presence of too much law attempting to catch the immigrants - well the poor fools walking, wading swiming to get across to find hard labor work in America have my sympathy.<<

    Mine too.

    <<Hope you are not one of those minutemen.<<

    Me? Your views seem more in line with them than mine. I am pro open borders. I want to see a cooperative effort similar to the European Union, protective of worker's rights, insuring just wages, helping to level the playing ground between the two economies. In case you forgot, I spent much of employed time as a union rep--not to get rich but to serve the cause.

    <<As you say I should spend more time on the particulars of NAFTA, but I would be surprised selling corn and wheat to Mexico is the main reason for going with free trade. On the other hand, I do not underestimate the power of ADM.<<

    Informed estimates have the number of farmers losing their livelihood since NAFTA at up to 2,000,000.

    <<You probably hand-pick and smash the little buggers to preserve precious crops.<<

    Where are you coming from? Why do you choose to demonize me? Fuck you. 
    If you knew shit from shinola you would know that butterflies don't eat crops, the eat the nectar in flowers. I have a large row of flowers just outside my main windows so that I can watch the butterflies come and go. As for those creatures that do eat my crops, you can bet your ass that I hand-pick and smash them at every opportunity.

    What do Phainopeplas eat? 

    Read your bird book.

    G

    ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Connie Clark 
      To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
      Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 12:28 PM
      Subject: [AGL] plight of immigrants

      But Gerry, sure there are a lot of immigrants - what is new? Really, the scenario you described to me is much the same as the one described to me 15 years ago by my Aunt and Uncle living in one of Texas' border counties. Why now is it all-of-a-sudden described as a crisis that must be resolved.  Particularly irksome is the idea that a wall should be built for this problem.  As for your discomfort with the presence of too much law attempting to catch the immigrants - well the poor fools walking, wading swiming to get across to find hard labor work in America have my sympathy.

      Hope you are not one of those minutemen.

      As you say I should spend more time on the particulars of NAFTA, but I would be surprised selling corn and wheat to Mexico is the main reason for going with free trade. On the other hand, I do not underestimate the power of ADM.  

      Never seen the pretty little phainopepla - flys too far west - are they fly-catchers?  

      How about butterflies? Can you id butterflies?  Mary Ann Wilson turned me on to butterfly gardening last year, and I have a dozen or so monarch and swallow-tail larvae munching away at various milkweed plants and pipevines - looking forward to some 5 inchers flitting about later this summer.  You probably hand-pick and smash the little buggers to preseve precious crops.

      Connie

      Gerry <mesmo at gilanet.com> wrote:
        Connie,
        Your naiveté is surprising. No crisis? Where have you been? There is a flood of immigrants headed north and finding many obstacles along the way. To recap all the news stories reporting this is not something I have the time to do. I would think that most concerned citizens are aware of the situation. Very surprised that you are not.

        400 would be immigrants died in the desert last year trying to make it into the country. At present in the small town of Columbus, NM near the border there are hundreds of hungry immigrants who made it across, barely. Drives to collect food for them reach up here to Silver City where volunteers are trucking food and donations from local residents. My neighbor Baghdad Mary is involved. She says they (immigrants) are everywhere. 

        I had a young man knock on my door recently, a wetback. "Agua, por favor," he asked. After drinking nearly a gallon we had a chat. I couldn't offer him any work since I too am poor and do my own work. But I sent him to a neighbor who gave him a few days work. Wish I could afford a helper...On the way to SC I see an ever increasing number of Border Patrol vehicles, the migras.

        In Arizona the local populace is up in arms over the stream of humanity moving through the state, millions of them apparently. In AZ there are lots of police and migras and they stay busy 24/7 trying to catch and deport as many as they can catch. I hate to drive over there anymore, literally bristling with law enforcement vehicles.

        NAFTA was in part about selling surplus US corn and wheat to Mexico. Mexico lives off corn tortillas which are subsidized by the government so that the poorest of the poor can afford them. The US corn which has taken over markets is cheaper than the locally produced corn. Why? Huge government subsidies to the corn growers in the midwest. There used to be a tariff but it was removed in the name of "free trade" (NAFTA). So now the corn tortillas are now made with US grown corn and the Mexican corn growers (that's what most of the farmers down there grow) are out of business. Can you imagine what would happen in the midwest if, say, Brazilian corn came in at a lower price and outfits such as ADM started buying it for resale instead of the locally grown product? And your Kellogg's Corn Flakes were suddenly from Brazil? There would be blood on the streets in Illinois.

        The "currency crisis" in Mexico preceded NAFTA. It resulted in a revaluation of the peso, downward. The US loaned Mexico a few billion and obtained special oil concessions in return. Once again, I don't have time to educate you on all the nuances of the NAFTA sham. Now that the ENRON chiefs are out of the headlines perhaps you can find time to inform yourself.

        Saw the season's first Phenopepla yesterday, 2 of them in the yard. Also Lawrences Goldfinches. Lots of birds moving through at present. Nearly as many as immigrants...
        G 
          ----- Original Message ----- 
          From: Connie Clark 
          To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
          Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 6:40 AM
          Subject: RE: [AGL] Flood of immigrants

          Jon and Gerry,
          Thanks for your coments regarding the flood of immigrants.  I wouldn't dare to challenge the prestigious Economic Policy Institute, but who declared the issue of immigration a 'crisis'.  I have my doubts that it actually is a crisis.  The only thing that I noticed different happening of late, is that there were mass demonstrations by the latinos calling for better treatment of hard working undocumented workers.  The street scenes, especially the flying of the Mexican flag insensed the impressionable mostly anglo masses.  Now everybody is calling for something to be done about them. (sort of the 'issue or distraction of the week'.)  The contention that the only reason we have a flood of immigrants here is because we didn't give their countries aid is specious.  I feel sure the surge of immigrants coming to work in America for American wages was well underway prior to NAFTA.

          I don't recall a whole lot about the NAFTA debate back in the nineties, but the part about treating Mexico to some kind of financial assistance doesn't ring a bell.  What was the rejected alternative, pump money into their corrupt system of politicians?  Anyway, currently 10s of millions of dollars are being wired into Mexico and other Central American countries every week.  Doesn't that count as financial assistance? I believe so.

          You opened the debate, and I responded with what admittedly limited knowledge or impressions that I have of NAFTA.  So far, including the submitted EPI article, I have  found nothing that makes me think that NAFTA or the concept of free trade was or is conclusively a huge error.  I am certainly willing to learn more.

          Connie

          Jon Ford <jonmfordster at hotmail.com> wrote:
            This is the truth of the matter (as I currently understand it). NAFTA was 
            shoved through congress by Wm. Jefferson Clinton, Democrat, the Free Trader.
            G

            Fueling Illegal Immigration to US
            Wednesday, 31 May 2006
            Opinion: Between The Lines

            BETWEEN THE LINES
            Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine

            NAFTA Played Critical Role in Fueling Illegal Immigration to U.S.
            Interview with Jeff Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute,
            Conducted by Melinda Tuhus.

            Sad but true, Gerry!

            Jon

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