re: That's Illegal!

Saved for posterity, in case you-know-who gets all delete-y tonight. Jose wrote:

Ms. Taft:
Let's see if I have this straight. You drove by a day
labor center. There was man standing there with a sign looking for
work. He is obviously of Mexican or some other hispanic ancestry. You
snap a picture of him. He tells you "hey that's illegal." You've posted
his picture on your website.
The irony was lost on him, alas, you say. He's an ILLEGAL!! What irony!!
There is something that is not lost on me. It is not irony. It is the naked ugly face of racism.
I
am of Mexican ancestry. I don't look all that much different than the
man in your picture. He's a little slimmer and much better looking than
I am. I was born and raised in this country. My father served in the
United States Army in World War II. My brother served in the United
States Navy in Vietnam, earning three medals. My uncle died in Vietnam.
My niece served 20 months in Iraq and is being called back next winter.
If you had driven past ME standing there, holding up a sign and looking
for work, you would have snapped my picture and posted it here and
accused ME of being what you so hatefully and ignorantly call an
ILLEGAL ALIEN. A term of anger and hatred. Aimed at me. Because my skin
is brown.
My only response to your actions should be a string of
nasty words that my father taught me never to use. I will respect his
teaching, but I must say that sometimes those words are the only
appropriate ones. I'd actually use them but you'd just delete my
comment.
Did you stop and talk to the man? Did you check his
documents? Can you tell me for a fact that he was here illegally? Did
you ask him how many children he has to support? Did you ask him how
much of the money he earns here is sent to help his family in Mexico or
El Salvador or Guatemala every month? Did you ask him what church he
goes to? Did you do anything even as simple as asking his name? Or did
you just snap a picture of a man with brown skin, put it on your
website, and cry ILLEGAL ALIEN?
Could you possibly, Ms. Taft, in
some far off and long forgotten corner of your Christian heart, find
room to admit to yourself that this man might even have been an
AMERICAN CITIZEN who was born in this country? Who just needed a job?
It is utterly beyond imagining that someone who's here legally, some
who was born here, even a white person, might go out and hold up a sign
looking for work?
Stop calling names. Stop spouting hatred. Stop assuming that anyone with brown skin is in this country illegally.
If
you'd like to convince people that your viewpoint on immigration is not
motivated by racism, stop conducting yourself like a racist. Stop
looking at the color of someone's skin and making false assumptions
about that person. And for God's sake stop the name calling.
Next
time you go to a day labor center, do something else. Look deep into
that far far lost corner of your Christian heart. Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. Love
your neighbor as you love yourself. Get out of the car and walk up to
just one man looking for work. Look him in the eyes. Jesus demanded
that we recognize that every single human being on this planet is a
child of God. Look the brown skinned child of God in the eyes. Ask him
what his name is. Ask him how many children he has. Ask him how much
money he sends home to help his family. Ask him where he goes to
church. Post here on your blog his name, where he's from, how many
children he has, how much money he sends home, where he goes to church.
Then
go to his church, confess your sins, and pray for forgiveness. You have
judged another child of God by the color of his skin, without so much
as knowing his name or looking him in the eye. It's a good thing
forgiveness comes from God. As a mere human being, my capacity for
forgiveness is being pushed to its limit by this kind of hateful name
calling taking the place of appropriate political discussion to address
our nation's problems.
Please, I can only ask again, please stop the name calling. Please stop the name calling.