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Illegal Aliens Cloak Themselves in Symbolism of the Civil Rights Movement - A convoy of buses is headed toward Washington, D.C., as part of one of the biggest hijackings in American history. In this case it is not the buses that have been hijacked. Rather, it is the symbolism behind this orchestrated event that constitutes one of the most blatant misappropriations of revered symbolism. The so-called “Freedom Ride of 2003,” which is bringing illegal aliens from all across the United States to the nation’s capital to demand rights and concessions from lawmakers, is a shameless attempt to draw comparisons with the struggle of African Americans to achieve equality 40 years ago. While the media have as the organizer’s intended drawn superficial analogies to the civil rights marches of the early 1960s, about the only similarities between the protestors of today and those of yesteryear, is the mode of transportation that is bringing them to Washington. The freedom riders of two generations ago were people who faced unjust treatment by our society based solely on who they happened to be. The people who are arriving in Washington this week are an assemblage of people who have broken our laws. What they are demanding from American society is not basic justice, rather a reward for illegal behavior. The fact that many of the people congregating in Washington this week have violated our laws in no way absolves the employers who exploit the illegal aliens. Conversely, the greed and occasional cruelty to employers who take advantage of an army of illegal labor does not negate the illegal behavior of the aliens. Nor does the fact that we can easily comprehend the economic motivation of illegal aliens mitigate their responsibility for their own actions, anymore than the motivation of someone who fails to declare income on their taxes. In addition to social justice, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s sought economic opportunity for all citizens. Great strides were made toward this goal through the mid-1970s before the floodgates of mass immigration reopened, widening, rather than narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Sadly, those who purport to be the heirs to leadership of the Civil Rights movement have embraced the cause of illegal immigration that has proved so detrimental to the people an earlier generation had sought to lift out of poverty and despair. Ironically, on the eve of the illegal alien march on Washington, the Census Bureau released troubling data that indicate that poverty among African Americans is on the rise and that nearly one in four black households 40 years after Martin Luther King’s memorable speech at the Lincoln memorial subsists below the official poverty line. Mass immigration, particularly illegal immigration, is but one factor contributing to the chronic poverty that afflicts black America. But while it is clearly not the only cause, it is a very important one. Reputable analyses from such highly respected institutions as the National Academy of Sciences and the UCLA Chicano Studies Center draw an inexorable link between mass immigration and chronic poverty among those who face direct competition from newcomers. In many of this nation’s largest cities, jobs in the constructions trades and service industries, which have traditionally served as portals to the middle class, have been closed off to African Americans and other Americans seeking economic and social advancement, as immigrants, often illegally, have flooded labor markets. New Census data indicate that these phenomena are no longer limited to a small number of urban areas of regions of the country, rather they are becoming endemic throughout the United States. The idea that the symbols of the struggle for social justice are being expropriated by people who have consciously broken this nation’s laws should offend the sensibilities of anyone with the intelligence to see beyond the superficial similarities. The fact that the people who are brazenly demanding to be rewarded (more than they already have been) for their illegal behavior are undermining the very people who symbols they have co-opted, adds insult to injury. The Freedom Ride of 2003 has nothing to do with social justice and everything to do with bare-knuckles special interest politics. The Freedom Riders of the civil rights movement were demanding that the country live up to its most basic principles of equal treatment under the law. The ill-named Freedom Riders of 2003 are demanding to be rewarded for breaking the law. The difference between then and now could not be more stark. |
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