A Day With Ignorance
Today's historic "Day Without Immigrants" touched our non-immigrant lives in a very small way. Elijah's teachers joined the protest, so Regina took Elijah to the park. His entire class, plus parents, was there. I stayed home to do very important work, which continued after they returned home around 1 PM. Meanwhile, Regina and Elijah watched Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (a very educational movie), for the third consecutive day.
Then it was off to the gym. We dropped Elijah off at the atrociously named Kids' Klub for 45 minutes. Regina went to do the treadmill, while I headed for the schvitz. While I was towelling myself off in the locker room, some TV coverage of the protests on Wilshire Boulevard came on. A diverse crowd gathered. With a somewhat Slavic accent, a middle-aged man bemoaned the poor intellectual quality of American newscasting. A young black guy shook his head a lot, but didn't say anything. The only Mexican guy in the room spent his conversational capital on calling Teri Hatcher "a slut who demeans the sacred institution of marriage in this country," while I spouted my usual line of psuedo-populist semi-Marxist bullcrap.
But the whitest guy in the room, someone who, by appearance alone, might have been an SS officer in a previous life, spoke the loudest.
"They should all go to jail," he said.
"I believe that the Constitution allows people to assemble," I said.
Like most of his kind, this man showed no interest in the Constitution.
"Why don't they go back where they came from?" he said. "They don't even speak English."
"So?" I said. "Either did your parents, or grandparents, or whoever, when they came to this country."
"But they learned it."
"What? And Mexicans aren't learning English?"
"They don't want to learn."
"I disagree."
"Language. Border. Culture. That's what makes up a country."
"Actually," I said. "A country, or at least this one, is made up of competing economic interests that are bound together by a social contract that allows them to co-exist in relative peace under the law."
And yes, I really said that, because I am a Sarah Vowell-style civics dork.
"Language. Border. Culture," he repeated.
"But..."
"Language. Border. Culture. Language. Border. Culture."
For the last 15 years, I haven't lived in a neighborhood without immigrants. And I mean a lot of them. I've had Nigerian neighbors, and Bosnians, and Pakistanis, and Guatemalans, and lots and lots of Mexicans. Some of them I've liked, and some of them I haven't. I've even, on occasion, called the cops, usually if the least savory of said immigrants were soliciting prostitutes on my front lawn, which happened far too frequently when I lived in Austin. But it never even occurred to me for a second that these people didn't belong in America, even if they were here illegally. Diversity is one of the few things that makes this country tolerable these days. If we made 12 million people citizens tomorrow, none of our lives would change for the negative; our current economic problems are not their fault.
I picked up my bag and headed for the door.
"Enjoy your white America, guy," I said. "Glad I don't have to live there."
Comments
If ignorance is bliss why are people like him always so angry?
Posted by: Neil | May 2, 2006 4:13 AM
I went through a brief period of listening to Michael Savage, being morbidly fascinated in just how terrible and offensive he was. I seem to recall "Borders. Language. Culture" being one of his grating catchphrases. Sounds like you had a run-in with a member of the savage nation.
Posted by: phil | May 2, 2006 8:17 AM
Because ignorance is not bliss in all situations. The poem says, "where ignorance is bliss / 'Tis folly to be wise." There are a number of situations in which ignorance leads to much sweating and gnashing of teeth, such as during Final Jeopardy! In the case of this particular Aryan sauna-doofus, it's pretty clear that ignorance is causing serious constipation, possibly even a large impacted mass in the lower reaches of the alimentary canal. Look for him on a future episode of House.
Posted by: T. Gray | May 2, 2006 9:30 AM
I'd be curious to know what he thinks American culture is besides a hodgepodge network of diversity and diverse associations with a somewhat common goal. Or that Sarah Vowell stuff you were talking about. That's cool too.
I have a slew of black teenagers in inner-city Newark listening to your album. Just thought you'd like to know someone's spreading the Rock.
Posted by: RK | May 2, 2006 8:41 PM
I agree with 99% of your sentiments, but your "whitest guy in the room" comment, while understandable, is a depressing and unoriginal crack.
Posted by: Jon Boyd | May 3, 2006 8:42 PM
"language, border, culture" is a Michael Savage thing. His fans are dangerous parrots.
Posted by: info guy | May 5, 2006 11:24 AM
I agree with you on all of it, but... how does it help us? Someone comes to this country, breaking a law to do so, works here illegaly as an unskilled laborer in the service of whitey, pays no taxes, and sends a big chunk of the money he makes back home to his family. On an individual basis, it's impossible for a decent person not to empathize, and easy to see that at least the children of immigrants al learn English and are here for the opportunities and not to get drunk and shoot their pistolas in the air, but I think giving amnesty to illegal aliens isn't so different from pulling down all the border fences and welcoming all comers. I don't know that it's a bad idea, but it seems like one.
Posted by: Rob | May 8, 2006 2:37 PM
His three-thought summation to define America sounds like a talking point script. Apparently he has the culture part down.
Now if we can only herd 'im in to a gated community, so the border part is done. And get a national guard perimeter to keep 'm from stealin' my margarita.
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