I try to keep this blog focused on natural history, but some times I become aware of an issue that compels me to stand on my soap box and shout my outrage to the world.
I’ve read a couple of excellent books this summer–Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (my favorite writer), and Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis. The former is a novel that delves into the plight of undocumented immigrants seeking a better life in this country, and the latter is a biography of Led Zeppelin. There are many fascinating details about history’s Number 1 rock band in Hammer of the Gods, but a few incidents during the group’s concert tours of the south in 1969 seem eerily similar to how conservatives view undocumented immigrants. Of course, southern kids loved Led Zeppelin and were always the band’s most boisterous fans, but the adults did not treat these hippies with southern hospitality. Police threatened to physically brutalize the band, forcing Atlantic Records to hire their own thugs for protection. Waitresses refused to serve them, and some old southern fried fucks literally spit on the band members. Hotel owners told the band members not to swim in the hotel pool because they didn’t want them to spread disease. This last nugget of ignorance is what rings a bell.
Thousands of young children from Central America are escaping the rampant gang violence of their home countries by crossing the U.S./Mexican border. U.S. border patrol agents are arresting them and confining them in small holding cells, even cages. OUR TAX MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON PUTTING INNOCENT CHILDREN IN CAGES. This is outrageous. To justify this inhumane treatment, stupid redneck politicians claim these children might spread diseases. These hypocritical politicians don’t give a shit about children getting sick. Conservatives invariably fight to weaken or overturn environmental laws that prevent children from getting sick. All of a sudden, they are concerned with childhood sickness? Well, I say innoculate these children and send them to elementary school. Put them up for adoption. We should welcome them, not put them in cages like unwanted cats and dogs.
The United States can’t even spare a bed for these poor kids? What a disgrace.
Conservatives claim the cost is too high to care for the children. These are the same people who oppose abortion. They favor forcing women to have unwanted children, yet are unwilling to pay for the care of children after they are born. Conservatives should look at it this way: the Central American refugees are the replacements for all the aborted fetuses for which these jerks shed their crocodile tears. We should adopt them, educate them, and let them be the future generation that supports us in our old age. Opposition to accepting Central American refugees on the basis of economics is selfish and short-sighted. It may cost more money to care for them now, but in the long run they could potentially pay us back with tax revenue from future labor. Tax revenue from immigrants is the best hope of saving Social Security.
This is all the technology required to defeat the racist wall politicians had built along our border with Mexico. There is no wall across our border with Canada because most Canadians are white. The wall costs billions to maintain, yet does not keep a single person out.
The fence along the U.S./Mexican border is a racist symbol. It prevents no one from crossing the border because it is easily defeated with a low tech ladder. It costs billions of dollars to maintain–money that would be better spent on the care and education of the children who want to live here.
Conservatives refer to these children as “illegal aliens.” This dehumanizes them and makes them sound as if they are monsters from outer space. The other day, I listened to a local radio talk show host, Austin Rhodes, constantly refer to them as “illegal aliens” in one of his recent rants. What really had him upset was the possibility that a child of an undocumented immigrant might get an education in a public school at taxpayer’s expense. Really? A kid getting an education is a catastrophe? His racism was obvious. According to his point of view, “illegal aliens” were like something subhuman who didn’t belong in school with real people. He considered them all “bad guys.” His sanitized racism appeals to the same types of old fart racists who spit on Led Zeppelin 45 years ago.
Austin Rhodes–Augusta, Georgia’s hate radio propagandist. His sanitized racism still has a great deal of appeal in the south. He referred to “illegal aliens” as “bad guys.” His beef? The children of undocumented adults might get a free education. Heaven forbid! What a catastrophe! A child might get a free education. This coward is a total shmuck who once threatened to send men to my house to beat me up. Why? Because I merely repeated a fact published in The Metro Spirit–a paper that publishes his asinine weekly column. His former producer, Troy, the Apeman, Bradley warned me I should “pray I never meet him in the street.” I guarantee Bradley would do nothing to me, if I met him on the street. He is also a cowardly bully. Bradley was too afraid to even take or return my phone call when I called him after his macho boast.
Statue of Liberty
It is against American principles to keep poor oppressed people from living in this country. We are a nation of immigrants. Immigrants make the U.S.A. strong. Undocumented immigrants are not all bad guys, as redneck conservative pundits claim. They are simply seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Conservatives need to pay a visit to the Statue of Liberty and read these words.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” –Emma Lazarus
Tags: Austin Rhodes is a racist, children and Led Zeppelin diseased, redneck politicians, southerners spit on Led Zeppelin, U.S. arrests children and puts them in cages
GeorgiaBeforePeople 
Leave a comment