The pain of how we as people feel at times. Many of us struggle, rarely does anyone live a perfect life, perfect for me is not perfect for others. My perfect life would be to live a day where I don’t have to worry about those things that many worry about like Money, taking care of a family and have a successful career.
Don’t get me wrong I am not complaining, Life is what it is for everyone, there are those who struggle a lot worse than I do, like someone who is Homeless or has a deadly illness ticking away their life each day, Also fortunate to live in the United States, even though there are country’s who have strong society and take better care of their citizens.
Again I am grateful and thankful to be here, but it can be a stress living here and see our country turned upside down by politics, people who are crazed fanatics and don’t seem to have anything else to do with their time but to focus on our political Leaders, I wish I could tell those people go get a hobby, read more, spend more time with your family, Love More, Stop the Hate, be unified and stop being US VS Them mentality
Get a Hobby
You may be asking where am I going with this? Well I will tell you where it starts, throughout my life I have NEVER been about politics, to be frank I could have cared less, I lived in a bubble for many years where I had no idea what was happening in our country, To this day I find politics very stressful and damaging to our culture and mind, where now it seems people are focused in putting their faith in those who run the country and not in what is important like focusing on the good, live your life, go to work, read, write, start a company do something more valuable in your life.
Reading that you may say well Joseph, I do take care of my family, I do provide for them, I do spend time with them, I do Love them. OK, that’s great! So maybe there is one thing you do more often that is not healthy like watching to much TV, watching Political commentators tear each other a new one, create Hate for Profits and at the end of the day it’s perfect ok because it is entertainment after all, no one takes that really seriously.
Oh but people do, we have seen it, and it’s unfortunate we have to live through these times to see, because it appears other countries don’t have to deal with certain issues like Gun violence, Mass murders like we do. I will Not say other countries don’t experience it just not to the level we do.
The Fear is Real
I fear for my family, especially my Wife who immigrated from El Salvador in 2002 and is Now a U.S. Citizen. It is my belief that she has a target on her back for racism and hate because of where she came from. Even I worry for in her jobs where People I see have an image of my Wife being different, unworthy to work with them because they were born and raised in the Good Ole U.S.A.
Growing up I believe we are a nation of immigrants Legal and Undocumented, but ultimately we are a nation who gives chances to those who want a better life because other countries are either too poor to offer resources or don’t have the structure to help those in need.
I have no problem with people wanting a better life, those people who come here searching for that, only wish to work hard and do jobs no one wants to do, unfortunately its what we call modern day slavery for low wages that NO American wants, the biggest argument I see well these people are taking jobs, they are taking American Jobs, that could go to us first. Ok yeah well that may be true to a certain extent, but many self intitled American would work 16 hour days for $12 bucks an hour, Not many I guarantee you that.
Marrying someone who came from the Norther Triangle El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala those countries are poor, corrupt and could care less about their citizens at time, but ultimately there are good hard-working people who cannot feed themselves let alone their families.
Many Don’t want Facts
What many don’t realize is that people from El Salvador have a major Gang problem that strikes fear in people every day, stopping people from living a normal life, something we take for granted at times. The good people of El Salvador have to fear death itself each day, be exhorted, robbed and even not allowed stay in their own neighborhood without fear of being Shot and mutilated as those gangs could care less for the people its own citizens about their lives.
Don’t get me wrong, I care about the issues affecting our country especially gun violence, homeless and our own gang problems, but what gets me is the heartlessness for others who are human beings and the hate that has taken over.
It is my belief that the Hate and racism has bubbled up in our country has always been there but has been enhanced because those in power who have made it acceptable to act. People feel emboldened to act this way, but it doesn’t make it acceptable or Right.
The History Speaks for Itself
History of how we treat people in the United States can be kind of appaling to how we have treated African Americans to Latinos to Native Americans to Immigrants, to Color of people, to Races of People, the list could go out, but for Immigrant that is nothing new, but you would think over time we would learn, one interesting piece of history called Operation Wet-Back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback – Yeah you read that right!
Operation Wetback was an immigration law enforcement initiative created by Joseph Swing, the Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in cooperation with the Mexican government. The program was implemented in May 1954 by U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell.[1] The short-lived operation used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants—some of them American citizens—from the United States. Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century, Operation Wetback was designed to send them back to Mexico.[2] The program became a contentious issue in Mexico–United States relations, even though it originated from a request by the Mexican government to stop the illegal entry of Mexican laborers into the United States. Legal entry of Mexican workers for employment was at the time controlled by the Bracero program, established during World War II by an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments. Operation Wetback was primarily a response to pressure from a broad coalition of farmers and business interests concerned with the effects of Mexican immigrants living in the United States without legal permission.[3] Upon implementation, Operation Wetback gave rise to arrests and deportations by the U.S. Border Patrol.[4][5]
Yes we are a country of laws and order, but the question I ask myself is many of us who are born in U.S. say that we follow the law and we are all Law abiding citizens, until we become a country that people stop following the law. The United states is NOT immune to becoming lawless even though that may never happen, because of our structure and the checks and balances that exist and our incredible law enforcement, but what could happen is people feel more emboldened to harass, spread hate and I Believe it has already begun with Social Media.
Open Your Hearts and Minds
As someone who is married to someone from Central America, these people are called horrible horrendous names, yet you never really hear anything from those being harassed. You never hear people from Those countries spreading Hate but Only wish to come here to survive. Yes Survive, not coming here to get rich, but just live, provide for their families.
Having been with my Wife I have come across many here who were undocumented , many barely scrapping by to eat as the jobs they have or had were changing from week to weekly, not a lot of stability, taking odd jobs no ones wanted, you know the type the guy cutting your grass, the painter who does a pretty good job painting and not charge you fortune. The women cleaning your crappy toilet’s or picking up after you as if you’re a five year old.
Film depicts struggles of Immigrants
I am reminded of a film I love call “Pretty Dirty Things”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Pretty_Things_(film)
A story about a man named Okwe, an undocumented West African Immigrant living in the UK, who drives a cab in London during the day and Works in a Hotel at Night. The Hotel is staffed with immigrants, both legal and illegal. A doctor in his home country, he was forced to flee after being falsely accused of murdering his wife.
In London, he is pressed into giving medical treatment to Poor immigrants, including fellow Cab drivers. Throughout the film you has very close friends Juliet a prostitute, Senay a Turkish Muslim seeking asylum, who works in the hotel as a cleaner. Throughout the film provide examples of illegal immigrants fear trying to survive and really being used for cheap labor. There is so much more to film without giving it a way, but a recommended watch.
The point is immigrants legal and illegal In woven into each society because other countries don’t fulfill their objections to care for their citizens forcing people to leave.
Many people across the globe share the thought well they should just stay in their country, stay in their country to Die, to starve, to be exhorted, to be raped, abused and who knows what else.
These countries may have laws but those in power are corrupt, except in a recent change in El Salvador where the new president is working to curtail those coming to the United States, trying to stop gang violence and clean up the country. There is NO magic ticket for this to happen it takes time, but it’s being done.
So Getting to this point, you may be asking what is the point of what I am saying, I am saying that as an American, a Father of an American and My Wife as a Naturalized Citizen, we are American’s, but we are human of course, I hope the time will come that we treat those who are different looking, different culture, different education with respect and dignity. But I question if our society is too far gone, I choose not to believe that but may be proven wrong.
We all deserve Dignity
The argument that someone doesn’t deserve to be treated with dignity and Kindness, many of those coming here are not here to cause harm to you or me, but to work, to survive without fear of death each day. If we were in an alternate universe and the United States became unlivable due to lawlessness, Hate, extortion, Murder and making it unlivable surely we would leave to a place that we had peace in our lives.
Lastly, what prompted this impassioned Blog well It’s about equality, not being seen less valuable because people of different cultures are not from here, because your are wrong. We as Americans may have to abide by the rule of law in the United States, but I nor you own this country, it doesn’t believe to us it belongs to God.
As someone who was raised here, I see myself how I am treated as If I don’t belong here and even more so by my wife by how others treat her with infuriates me as if they are more worthy then her, they are not. Each day I guide my wife how to deal with those who feel empowered to look down at her, and to those people I say Scream them, they are the ones who have no value because this is not how we treat people.
In the end we all get put in our place, no matter where we go, there will always be someone richer, more educated, higher in power who looks at us and looks down at us, why must people continue to do that when we are all just trying to get through life with as little hassle as possible to survive. I think to myself do people have nothing better to do then hate, and then I think to myself maybe they don’t maybe Hate is ingrained into their being that it’s easier to hate, it’s easier to blame others for our misfortunes.
I don’t blame anyone for my hardships, I blame myself, I made choices, Living in the United States I had opportunities that I either blew or succeeded at but at the end of the day those were my decisions. Those who choose to come here for a better life to escape hate, violence and death, came here to live, survive away from Hate.
Those who practice this towards others hate when it’s done to them, are we just filled with a hate filled world, I choose to think we are better than that, but let’s try a little harder to respect those around us, to like and even love those around us who are different.
Joseph’s Adventures in Writing 