Free Los Angeles, Go Fix Mexico

Southern Californians protest nothing...usually. The lifestyle is as wide-open and apathetic as its sprawl of homes from the Mexican border north into Ventura County. I'm a native Angeleno, which means I was born in Los Angeles -- East Los Angeles to be exact, so don't bull me about being rooted somewhere else.

My mother is a native Angeleno too. Our family does touch back to England, France, and Germany, but those ancestors immigrated to the states legally. I'll repeat the word "legally," which means they applied and were accepted before they arrived. They learned and spoke English, and they paid income taxes. They never expected nor requested handouts. They made the conscious decision to live the rest of their lives in the United States as legal, law abiding, and active participants in society. They did not earn tax-free cash here to send it back to Europe. These ancestors were never arrested or fined for public intoxication, lewd behavior, or for littering their yard with beer cans.

There are two main reasons I left Los Angeles in 1991: Rampant crime and the influx of illegal aliens from Mexico -- and those two reasons are connected statistics show. Now, on 25 March 2006, the illegal aliens took their stomp to the streets of Los Angeles with what seems to be a clear message: "We are here, we are illegal, and proud to be Mexican."

Anyone who disagrees is called a racist.

In what is now labeled the largest protest in the history of Los Angeles, 500,000 marched in downtown streets to slam federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants and penalize those who help them stay.

The marchers were loud, stretched 30 city blocks, and chanted si se puede! (No clue what that means, nor do I care. This is the United States -- speak bloody English or go away.)

Behind the protest are new legislative efforts to reform immigration laws. One proposal could include legalizing some 12 million illegal aliens, but this is apparently not good enough for those illegal aliens already living in Los Angeles. They want more and they want more Mexicans to freely immigrate.

The Catholic Church (and by no surprise should the legislation pass,) is urging priests to 'defy' the law and not report employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens...of course this comes from the same church that defies laws to protect pedophiles too.

But questions remain that no one, except this writer, seems brave enough to ask. With illegal aliens entering the United States by the thousands each day, why wouldn't they rally in Mexico for democratic or social change? Why wouldn't these same illegals stay in Mexico and fix their own country as we attempt so do to in the United States?

What is wrong with Mexico? Gotta dictator? Can't put food on the table? No jobs to be found? Well, join the club, for life is no better in the United States for poor and middle class blacks and whites.

The only difference is now we whites and blacks have to pay socially and financially for those Mexicans who enter this country and work for cash while they avoid paying income, property, and school taxes. But Mexicans get healthcare and public school education -- for free. If we tried avoiding taxes the IRS would be on our door before you could say si si. If we show up at hospital expecting free assistance we'd die while waiting in the emergency room without health insurance.

Here is one possible all encompassing answer: Life is easy for the Mexicans. It is easy to enter the United States illegally and stay under the radar. It is easy to come to the United States and pop-out a baby to gain citizenship and apply for welfare. It is easy to work here for $8-per hour cash, pile-up 20 illegals in a one-bedroom apartment to save rent and split the cost of a beer keg on the weekends. It is easy to build political clout with the sheer influx of immigrants along with the baby boom that follows with each new family.

It seems ironic that illegal aliens gathered such steam in Los Angeles to march, considering they offer no intellectual exchange to advance innovation in this nation...other than halting laws that infringe upon their own special cause. Be proud of Mexico: Go home to build a life your children can boast was the effort of their parents' hard work and reform. Meanwhile, rest assured, we are telling our children that there is no free ride in the United States...unless one is here illegally from Mexico.