Never in my lifetime has the media become so blatantly misrepresentative of the idea of the founders for our press and 4th estate as it has in more recent years become.
This story, below a picture of the continued riots going on in Iran over the election, bore the headline "For Immigrants, Living The Dream Is Getting Tougher." Interesting headline, given I am a political refugee now living in another state due to three "illegal" immigrant crimes due to the U.S.'s appeasement policies and open borders with that questionable government.
I say questionable because some of the past corruption of the Mexican government is well known by those who live within 200 miles of the border, or have been frequent visitors there.
Of course no distinction was made in the article in order to support the headline between the recent immigrants, illegal immigrants, or first or second generation Americans. There is a difference in their experiences in this country, and as an only second generation American on one side of the family can also truly attest.
In the story, written by a writer from Chicago no less on the Sanchez families hardship, it did point to the fact that originally this family were illegal immigrants "who swam across the Rio Grande" in 1967 to fulfill a dream of bringing Mr. Sanchez's family here and working together.
Mr. Sanchez is now 63, and I lived in a border state during that time period also as this piece actually simply demonstrates how long this situation has gone unaddressed by our federal government actually.
His story of working as a butcher for only $1.85 per hour, taking a second job at a candy factory and working 14 hours a day is told in vivid detail. He eventually brought his wife, family, siiblings and parents here, although again after originally entering this country unlawfully.
The writer also makes note of how "immigrant" owned businesses such as Mr. Sanchez's are a key part of the U.S. economy, and now being threatened by the recession. He stands to lose one or two of the three clothing stores he now owns.
I'd like to compare Mr. Sanchez's story with a more personal one of my own "legal" immigrant familes, who came over to this country, and how they compare, as a second generation natural born American on one side, and fourth or fifth on the other.
My grandparents came over to this country in the 1920s from Scotland, with my grandfather betrothed but still as yet married due to the poor economic conditions in Scotland at the time, and the high taxes there.
He applied for a visa and green card from Scotland, there was a thorough background and medical check undertaken prior to its approval, and he then booked his ship passage, after having arranged for a German family to sponsor him during the minimum two year approval process at the time for citizenship.
He worked in a shipyard long and hard hours, saving every penny he had in order to eventually send for his betrothed and his mother. My family still has some of his letters to them which they found after his death many years ago. He wrote of how kind his German immigrant hosts were, and lived in a section called Germantown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He eventually made enough to send for my grandmother, and his mother and they married and settled in Philadelphia. Soon the kids began to arrive (five in all), and my grandfather began working in a union shop as a tool and die maker (cutting the holes for cabinets). He did not make a fortune, and there were few benefits even with his union membership.
They bought a simple row house in Philadelphia and were living the American dream, although frugally.
Then the depression came, and they lost their home and their life savings. Whatever monies they had for retirement were gone and had little savings. The house was gone, and ended up renting from another kind soul who exchanged rent for the odd jobs my grandfather performed for the rental properties. He also sold a Scottish delicacy, "blood sausage" for extra money on the street corners in Philadelphia.
During this time they lost one of their children, who had contracted spinal menningitis which was misdiagnosed by a doctor as "teething." She was 18 months old at the time.
After Roosevelt's "New Deal," they did eventually get back on their feet, of course, after my grandfather found work, and he eventually had his own small shop but found that being an employer left him little family time and he was undercut by the major large companies. He again went back on the assembly line, and his son later joined him.
They did eventually get their American dream home, another simple row house in Philadelphia. And that was their legacy. Their entire life's wealth consisted of that small little house.
My mother and father married later in years, after World War II ended, and my father was fortunate enough to have served this country honorably, and was awarded with the GI Bill and graduated from college. First in his family as a fourth (or fifth, we're not sure) generation American.
Due to the number of applicants, he got in through the good word of one of the alumnists whose son was a friend from his service time. He waited tables in the women's cafeteria to help pay his expenses, since the cost of tuition was the only "free money" he received after his tour of duty.
He graduated and they were married, and he was then employed by successive non-profit business organizations in his line of work, a chemist specializing in wood technology. He mainly worked for lumber manufacturers and small businesses. We also had a rather large family, four children, and at the time of my high school graduation my father still made less than $10,000 per year with a college degree.
The recession of the 70's hit, and he was laid off. Fortunately, they had some savings put aside for a rainy day and were able to make their mortgage payments of less than $300 per month while my father collected unemployment, and worked in a sawmill cutting timber until he could find work in his chosen field. He finally did, back in Pennsylvania and our family was separated for almost a year until they could sell their home in Arizona. My father only could "visit" us once a month for two days during that time.
They left and I stayed in Arizona, got a job after high school since there was no money and few scholarships or grants at that time, and began working in a bank in 1972 for less than $320.00 per month (less than Mr. Sanchez since minimum wage then was $1.60 per hour). My apartment rent took nearly 2/3's of that, and my car payment the other third. I ate bake potatoes quite a bit.
My fiance attended ASU at a cost of $160.00 per semester for 16 credit hours, $10.00 per credit hour. Today, that tuition cost is eight times the increases in the consumer price index at over $6,000 per semester. He went to school on student loans at low interest, although we had to pay them all back within 10 months of his graduation.
I worked, he went to school during the fall and worked summers. We moved to Nebraska eventually so he could continue his degree and were separated summers while he found employment in Arizona through a job connection he had there.
We married, and after three children as 50% of the marriages in this country do, eventually divorced. Much of the stress of those early years contributed, and other factors of course.
But I was faced with living in the increasingly dangerous City of Phoenix, with the highest property and identity theft rates, Mexican gangs and drug problem in the nation as a single mother of three. I used up what savings we had attempting to be a "present" parent but even that was not enough.
The effects of the divorce and its complications, and my fractured energies meant I was not as good a "supervisor" as I needed to be in that city and also became the victim of three illegal immigrant thefts my last ten years living there.
I am without a "home," either state or physical dwelling. And not simply the choice of which of my stores I might need to cut loose.
Maybe next week USA Today will do a story on how much tougher living the American dream is becoming on natural born AMERICANS of two or more generations.
By the way, I'm 56. Hardly the age to be rebuilding either from scratch, and with the loans still as usurous as they were when I had to refinance, not very likely I will ever own a home as my grandparents eventually did.
And today, the illegal immigrants who canvas neighborhoods or who solicit work independently in Arizona want $10.00 per hour for their services, twice the minimum wage, but are threatened by employers with reporting them to CBP if they ask for increases by those corporate employers hiring them, which then leads the less satisfied to steal from the general public in order to survive, or sell the drug cartels product lines on the side in order to afford their cell phones and souped up and many times stolen automobiles.
So it is actually the lawful American citizens that are the victims in this scenario in the border states and beyond, either paying outrageous rates for work for hire privately, or subject to subsidizing the corporate entities through theft or public welfare benefits scamming those in their employ.
And it is the border hoppers that are creating most of the criminal activity, those that do not in any way ever intend to become U.S. citizens and would not take up any offer of amnesty if it were extended. In fact, with the situation in the border states as it is now and all the benefits now granted to illegals through federal provisos which even supercede state laws, there is not a single reason at this point I could think of that would make it advantageous for any illegal in this country any longer to naturalize.
Since the Bill of Rights appears now to apply more so each any every year to corporation "person-hoods", and foreigners and not those for whom it was actually intended, the lawfuly natural and naturalized U.S. CITIZENS as "We the people."
