Many of my Eons friends are going to disagree with me on this but, immigration is not my issue. This is a country founded and built by immigrants. Unless you are a Native American, someone in your family tree immigrated here. My mother is a direct immigrant to this country from Brazil. My father’s ancestry is Scottish. America is a melting pot and always has been.

Over the course of time Americans who have a long family history here have become arrogant about being American. Notice, I said arrogant, not proud. We have truly been blessed as a country, and have achieved an unbelievable presence in this world of ours, but times have changed. The economy has gone global and the United States is slowly losing its position as number one in everything.

These days, the Latin-American immigrant has become the whipping boy of the American public. We make a phone call to just about any business and we get a message system that asks us to press 2 for Spanish. I have to ask if we are “pissed off” because they are offering the same message in Spanish or because we got a machine instead of a live voice. I really think it is the frustration of waiting through some message before we get through, God only knows, how many other numbers before we actually get to talk to someone, if ever.

Then there’s the screaming about them taking our jobs from us. Manufacturing has taken a hit, but in reality, that has more to do with many jobs being shipped overseas than a Latin American invasion. Add on top of that the effect of years of union contracts and legacy payments and you have no reason to wonder why those jobs are going away. Just take a look at what has happened to the Detroit automakers and you know what I mean. Did immigrants cause this, or was it greedy unions who helped bring the downfall of the Detroit automakers? Most of those immigrants, both legal and illegal, are working out in the fields picking the fruit and vegetables that go in our stomachs.

I grew up in Miami during the era when many were fleeing Castro’s regime in Cuba. They risked everything, including their lives to get here. Those coming from Latin America today are coming here for a better life than what they have in Mexico. We have become so incensed by the events of 9/11/01 that our prejudice against them has grown just because the color of their skin is similar to those that want to kill us. Build a fence? I lived in Berlin when the wall was still up. Ask any East German who made it over or under the wall to freedom if it was worth the risk. We do need to improve border security, but is a fence really the answer.

Immigrants to this country should learn English. It certainly would make things easier for them, but to deny them their cultural traditions and events is to take away from their history. Perhaps along with Americans not celebrating Cinco de Mayo we should also not celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or Chinese New Year. Oh, that’s right, St. Patrick’s Day is okay, after all, they do speak English.