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    "Meet powerhouse artist/activist Favianna Rodriguez — a leading voice in the movement of artists raising awareness about U.S. immigration issues."

    - I am OTHER

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    The Untold Story of Latinos in America “We are all Americans of the New World, and our most dangerous enemies are not each other, but the great wall of ignorance between us.”

    Juan González, Harvest of Empire

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"Meet powerhouse artist/activist Favianna Rodriguez — a leading voice in the movement of artists raising awareness about U.S. ...

Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts

Thursday, August 18, 2011

"A Price Tag in the Billions" - Immigration Debate


The New York Times ran a series of articles on immigration, August 18, 2011

I collected some humanitarian comments from the article that I wanted to highlight.



"Gandhi had it right – all work should have dignity.
Fundamentally, in our immigration, outsourcing, and energy policies, we have tried to get something for (close to) nothing." -Frank Stoppenbach, Red Hook, NY

"The conditions are inhumane and bring to mind the communist idea of farming. It's ironic isn't it, that both capitalism and communism in the extreme make farming so oppressive and repellent." - Meg Virginia

"So we should collude in exploiting undocumented workers because we need them for our economy? Seems to me, if they are that essential in building America they have every right to claim her for their own, just like the rest of us, and that, should that be the case, we should design ways in which they could obtain citizen status for themselves and their children. And we should definitely design better ways in which to protect their rights as workers and citizens." -Kurt, NY

"Why don't we expand and simplify legal immigration?
Keeping the immigrants in the shadows allows them to be exploited more easily so it might contribute to keeping the prices down and profits up, but allowing them to work openly, unionize, stand up for their rights might improve working conditions and undercut the anti-immigration activists' absurd arguments that all immigration is bad." -Nancy, Upstate New York

"There's a reason Republicans like cheap labour. It busts unions and removes any clout by workers. It becomes a one-way street of control." -Talbot, New York

Source

Sunday, December 26, 2010

U.S.A. Perfect Imperfections






3 good things & 3 bad things

Good

1. That we are united from all countries, we're a melting pot, that we are a nation of immigrants who welcome immigrants.
2. That we have many world class universities and free public education from kindergarten through high school.
3. I like that we have freedom of speech and freedom of press.
And like my critical thinking teacher from Guyana said, "Imagine the world without the United States". He said "Regardless if the Democrats or the Republicans win - the country is doing something right."

Bad

1. I don't agree with having immigration quotas in a country made up of immigrants. What's happened is that the English invaded the land of indigenous Native Americans (at least 500 Nations were disrespected, disregarded, displaced & disenfranchised). Then for 100 years there was no immigration policy and the English encouraged immigration to populate the land that they stole. After the English had spread to the west coast they said, "Okay we're good. Let's start excluding people from immigrating now and let's base it on race.
2. The second thing I don't like about the U.S. is that our taxes do not pay for preschool or college tuition.
3. The third thing I don't like is that our taxes do not provide health care for everyone. Our taxes provide free police and fire departments which are essential and even free libraries. The library is of no benefit if you're dead.