September 2010

Re: A Pueblo Immigrant (August 2010)

Two items:

1. SB1070's main objective was to get Republicans (re)elected in the state of Arizona.  It is a hot button issue. Politicians have no qualms using disinformation in their quest to obtain or stay in office.

2. Comprehensive immigration reform must also include renegotiation or elimination of NAFTA.  Many of the undocumented workers from Mexico are desperate.  Their families are on the verge of starvation.  The US employers that hire the undocumented are taking advantage of human beings in ways similar to indentured servitude or slavery.

Wayne Boese [via PuebloPULP.com]

Corporate profits are increasing as reflected in the stock market. Unemployment is high and at its highest point in some time. You would think that if companies' profits were up, it would be reflected in lower unemployment numbers. Not so. Why?

A lot of companies are outsourcing jobs overseas. When they do this, they can reduce labor costs & take advantage of tax loopholes that can save them tax dollars. They are also hiring illegal immigrants instead of American citizens. This is affecting employment in this country.

The Obama administration is trying to get the tax loopholes changed so that companies would hire labor here at home. This would help.

[...] If the federal government started to severely punish employers for un-American hiring practices, much of this problem would go away. The reason people are coming to this country in droves is that they can get work here. [...]You can build as many walls as you want but this will not stop this problem. It's a simple case of supply and demand. [...]Stop the demand; your supply will also stop. [...]This has nothing to do with race. It is a money making practice many employers are using to increase their profits.[...]

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other." Abraham Lincoln

Rich Van Manen

Pueblo, Co

Re: Let There Be (August 2010)

In response to Christian Piatt's article, "Doing Nothing Does Something," I was fascinated to discover that Christ's suggestion of carrying a Roman's pack the extra mile was a cunning act of psychological and public humiliation. Was Jesus a really clever passive-aggressive personality? This image of him will probably make him a more accessible icon to contemporary man.

I would have thought that carrying a Roman's pack might soften Roman steel and attitude toward an occupied people, calming the relationship between the occupied and the determined occupier.  I thought it symbolized a path out of the sectarian violence of a religion-riddled Middle East that has changed very little in the last two millennia.

Render unto Cesar that which is Cesar's.

Legendary