A little political unrest

I'm irritated with my own culture.

Here's what's bothering me: when we have a problem in this country, we only want to deal with the symptoms of the problem. Why is it that we can't see past right now and address the root causes?

I'll give you an example:

Illegal immigration. i.e. Mexicans.

First of all, instead of talking about illegal immigration, we should just talk about Mexicans. Because we all know we mean Mexicans. Nobody's got a problem with stealthy Canadians sneaking across the border (if such a creature even exists). We certainly aren't talking about Chinese sex slaves in New York City, or stowaways on cargo ships. Nope, we're talking about Mexicans.

Illegal immigration from Mexico is a complex problem, right? I mean, there's work here. It's work corn-fed, red blooded Americans don't want to do. And businesses love it because they can pay a Mexican 50 cents an hour and he'll work twice as hard as any white guy. So we need the workforce, but the thing is, they don't pay taxes. And that's definitely a problem. Not to mention their drain on services - hospitals, schools, public transporation. Everything's affected.

Our answer? We decide to build a 700 mile fence across a 2,000 mile border.

Does that strike anyone else as totally ridiculous?

Everything I've said about illegal immigration is a symptom. We can't even figure out how to deal with the symptoms effectively, so we stoop even further and build a fence that wouldn't even keep my grandmother out of Texas.

What about the root causes? You know, the things nobody talks about:

1. The Mexican economy is in a shambles. People there are so poor that they can earn more cutting your lawn than they can as professionals, like doctors, lawyers and architects.

2. The Mexican government would like nothing more than for all its poor, huddled masses to sneak into the United States, earn massive amounts of cash (by Mexican standards), and send it back home to their families (and the economy) in Mexico. They like that all of this can happen while Mexicans aren't actually in Mexico, which means they aren't using Mexican services. Therefore, the Mexican government is actively encouraging Mexicans to sneak into the U.S.

3. (the biggie) U.S. BUSINESSES ENCOURAGE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BY CONTINUING TO HIRE AND PAY ILLEGAL WORKERS WITH NO CONSEQUENCES.

You want to stop illegal immigration, Mr. President? Announce that any business that regularly pays more than 10 undocumented workers will be fined $500,000 and the officers will be banned from serving as officers in any other U.S. company forever.

That's how you stop illegal immigration. No more work, no more Mexicans.

As a sidebar, it would be noble to tell Vicente Fox that he'd better stop corruption within his government and start taking care of his people, or else he might face some serious economic sanctions. We can get away with that. I don't think they have any oil.

That's Just the Beginning

There are countless other examples:

1. Education. We try to "fix" our failing education system by forcing underpaid teachers (some of the most selfless people in our society) to teach to a test, and when they fail to reach children who a) come from broken homes, b) have parents who sell crack out the bedroom window and c) only eat at lunchtime because that's when they get free or reduced lunch, we take funding away from their schools or threaten a takeover, which will result in their schools being run by bureaucrats in Washington.

2. Crime. You did the crime, you do the time. 14 years old? Have a drug problem? Can't read? We don't care! Just get your ass to jail and start thinking about the guy in the next cell who has a temper and a shank made out of a toothbrush. You remind him of his ex-girlfriend. We'll deal with you at parole time, when your spirit has died from a lack of meaning in your life, rendering you totally psychotic.

3. Terrorism. (Oh yeah, I'm going there). We're going to stay in [Iraq/Afghanistan/who's next?] until we defeat or kill the enemy. We're not concerned with the fact that our actions are creating more terrorists. In fact, terrorists are being created at a rate that far exceeds our ability to kill them (or capture and hold them indefinitely). We don't really care why they hate us. We don't even try to understand their culture or how to bridge the cultural divide. Hell, we don't even speak their language! And what's that chicken scratch? You're kidding - that's writing?

In closing, I am reminded of one of Jon Stewart's observations. Most of us are in the middle of the political spectrum, but the discourse is dominated by the extremes. That's because those of us in the middle - the true silent majority - are busy doing stuff.

I sure as hell don't know how to fix it, but until we start focusing on the root causes, we will continue to face the same problems over and over and over again.