I don’t want to write an article about children being separated from their parents. I’ll just get in the middle of a nasty controversy.
And things not always being what they appear, this actually is an article about national pride!
I’ve got it all planned out, First, I want to set things up with this recent phone conversation I had with a friend in Florida:
My Friend: I used to teach preschool, but now I can’t because I don’t speak Spanish!
Me: How long did you teach preschool for?
My Friend: A lot!
She was probably very good at it, too!
There don’t seem to be any laws requiring preschool teachers in Florida to speak Spanish, but there are laws that require public schools in some states provide preschool spoken in Spanish.
My friend is Italian by heritage, American by birth, moved down to Florida years-ago and never came back. She has a very Irish name.
I knew there were a lot of immigrants in Florida, but I only recently found out there are tons of people everyday casually walking across the U.S. border from Mexico. I’m not writing about the children that were detained, and don’t want to, but the only reason there’s a problem is because there’s so many of them! Otherwise it wouldn’t even be a news story; it would just be everyday laws being enforced for a relatively few people. I was amazed at the problem, but mostly because there’s so many of them in such a short amount of time!
But that’s not what this is about. My article is about national pride! I want people to be proud of who they are. No matter what nation they’re officially and legally from. Don’t sneak across the border thinking it’ll be easy to get away with and you would have never been able to do it legally. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would have been perfectly qualified; they just didn’t want to bother!
But that’s not what this article is about! This article is about being who you are, raising your hand and saying this is where I’m from – this is my heritage and I’m a contributing member of society who isn’t planning on hiding as a criminal for the rest of my life. This article is intended to encourage all of us to be proud of who we are, then make decisions about living in somebody else’s country secretly.
I’m proud of who I am! I’m a skinny white guy that lives in New England. I was born in the United States and have no plans of leaving.
I love people who sneak into my country. I love people no matter what they do, by default. I am a person and I live in the Earth and I understand. I love black people and white people, gays and lesbians. And you know why? because I don’t care!
And that leads to the heart of the matter. I have to follow the laws, and I’m a white guy who lives here.
I’m not sure I care what your race is, or if you’ve done all your paperwork! I know there’s lots of different types of folks in the USA and I think it would be fair if we’re all treated the same!
It’s important people know who they are, and more important what their history is. It’s important that people can brag about their ancestors and ancestry.
I don’t want to live in a country filled with people who prevent themselves from being proud, contributing members because they have a freaking rap sheet before they even get out of bed.
But somehow still get the job!
I’d rather have my neighbors and co-workers respect the same laws I do. From such a position we can move forward and be proud together, and make history, not with our heads down in shame, hoping we don’t get caught.
On which note, I’ll turn to a bit of wit to end this thing. I couldn’t help sharing this article; it talks about the whitest and the blackest. These are intended to help people picking baby names perhaps, or just an article of general interest.
I think it’s a real hoot!
Guten nacht meine freunde!
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