Mexican standoff?

By Dimitri Vassilaros - Friday, July 22nd, 2005 - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The only thing more disturbing than Jorge Castaneda's testimony about illegal immigration was the lack of outrage from the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Mr. Castaneda had been the Mexican foreign minister in the current Vicente Fox administration. He now is a New York University professor and independent candidate for president of Mexico.

Opponents of illegal immigration are incensed because Castaneda said the United States cannot secure its southern border without Mexico's blessing. And that it will not have Mexico's blessing until America agrees to a series of almost non-negotiable demands.

Many here in North Carolina are equally lacking outrage. Before I moved back to North Carolina a year ago I would have been surprised at this attitude. I recognized that the intentional invasion of America by Mexicans was ignored by most people away from the West Coast. However I really did not understand the hostility that drives the attitude. Having returned after nearly 50 years, I find it surprising how many people here respond to the invasion with the attitude that they would just as soon California and Arizona be given back to Mexico.

The reaction to the planned reconquista of Aztlan (their name for the Southwestern U.S.) by Mexico seems of no concern to many here in North Carolina. Many actually don't think of California as a part of our nation and the people there as people they care about. They dislike the Californians more than they dislike Mexicans. This is extremely discouraging to me. The only reaction I have is to suggest we need to remember the famous poem by Martin Niemoller. It seems that America is ignoring history. There is no better lesson ... and we have forgotten.

"First they came for the Communists
.... but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Gypsies and the Trade Unionists
.... but I was neither, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews
.... but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me
.... there was no one left to speak out for me."
-- Martin Niemoller --

If North Carolina does not care about California now, who will care about North Carolina when this nation is coming apart?

Australian High Court chief justice Harry Gibbs accurately described the problem with Mexicans, even though he was talking about Muslims: "While it would be grossly offensive to modern standards for a state to discriminate against any of its own citizens on the grounds of race, a state is entitled to prevent the immigration of persons whose culture is such that they are unlikely readily to integrate into society, or at least to ensure that persons of that kind do not enter the country in such numbers that they will be likely to form a distinct and alien section of society ....."

We are being invaded by people who plan that you will learn their language, Spanish, because they have no intention of learning ours. They plan that this nation will be ruled by their culture, because they have no intention of learning ours. Just as an explanation of how hostile they are to our nation, they call us gringos because they hate us. It is not a term of endearment.

They have laws that prevent any gringo from ever becoming a citizen of Mexico. Incredibly, you can marry a Mexican and your children cannot be Mexican. Only if the percentage of Mexican blood exceeds 50% can your children ever be citizens. No matter how many generations lived in their nation your children will never be citizens until they are predominantly hispanic. Mexico is more racist than Nazi Germany ever thought about being.

With the current unconcerned attitude of many about their fellow Americans I do not see how we will survive unless this ongoing invasion is halted. The starting point is re-learning the need to care about our fellow citizens and our own culture.