By Gary Milner, Corvallis
I read Dee Gibney’s July 7th letter regarding undocumented “illegals”. Phrases such as “not good moral character” or “sick and only want to SUCK off the free meal ticket” and “we don’t need more beggars and diseased people” are used. Her experiences with these folks are different than mine.
I grew up near the Houston Ship Channel. Exxon, Shell, and Chevron are just a few of the many refineries there. During summers in high school I worked in some of those places. The hiring process was like the movies. A large group of us would be on one side of a chain link fence. The bosses would arrive in a pickup truck on the other side and point to who they wanted. We made about 7 dollars an hour as laborers and our tool was a shovel.
Except for one summer when a high school friend worked with me, I was the only white person on the crew. It is hot in Texas and the work required hard hats, safety boots, long sleeves, and safety glasses be worn all day. It was me and about 15 other men who were all undocumented from south of the border. Simply put, these undocumented men were doing work that other American citizens would not do.
I think the issue of undocumented workers is being exploited by some politicians. These politicians use fear and scare tactics to reach a certain group of people; and it works. We often call ourselves a “Christian nation” and I wonder how fear and anger have replaced compassion and caring. That dichotomy is both striking and sad to me.
There are border issues that need addressing in a comprehensive intelligent manner. But using anger and fear is not the way. If the border truly is a problem, here’s a suggestion for those hardliners. Let’s stop going after families and individuals. Instead let’s focus on businesses or individuals who have undocumented people working for them or on their property. If an undocumented person is found at a business or home, the owner is fined 100,000 dollars for each person, they spend 10 years in jail with no parole, and their assets are frozen until they are out of jail. I’ll bet for those hardliners, it will be easier to project anger towards the people coming to the US than it is to direct their anger towards the Americans who hire them. Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida might be a good place to start, as it’s now known they’ve hired undocumented workers.
If folks are truly serious about the border issue, as Mrs. Gibney seems to be, they could challenge themselves to not eat any produce or meat, unless they can verify that it’s all been picked and/or processed by a legal American citizen. If unable to do that, perhaps a silent prayer before each meal to thank those undocumented workers who’ve help provide the food that’s on the table is the thing to do.