A Day without A Hypocrite

I can't believe the ease with which so many of my neighbors 'dis' Mexicans. Even the term "Mexicans" is disrespectful when used generically because it ignores an immigrant's country of origin, which may be Mexico, or some other country in Central or South America. Regrettably, far too many Atlantans have so little regard for the dignity of their fellow human beings that it doesn't matter to them.

I moved to Georgia17 years ago from New Britain, Connecticut, where my family and I lived in an expanded Cape that measured 30 feet on a side. It had three small bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room on the first floor. It had a full basement that housed and ancient coal furnace converted to oil. Half the attic was finished, and we let the kids play up there in bad weather. I always aired the place out first though, even in the dead of winter, because the sub floor under the cheap carpet stank of formaldehyde.

I sold that gracious estate in '88, and we moved into a huge (for us) house in an Atlanta suburb. It had four upstairs bedrooms and another four rooms downstairs. We bought this house for thousands of dollars less than we sold the old one for.

What enabled us to move from a little Cape Cod on a postage stamp lot to a spacious house with a big fenced yard and still have enough change to buy a new van? In a word, 'immigrants'. They made our housing fantasy possible, because their labor kept the price unbelievably low.

Our daughters are grown now, and we've swapped for a townhouse condo, finally escaping the tyranny of lawn care and exterior upkeep, but even here we benefit from immigrant labor. Our complex is tended by a crew of mostly immigrant workers that maintain the grounds in a Disneyland like state. I often wonder when I drive through the complex, "Where would we be without these guys?" And it doesn't stop with construction: food would cost more too if not for immigrant farm labor. This has been the case for many decades.

There is a recent movie entitled "A Day Without a Mexican" that dramatizes the degree to which we depend on their labor. I haven't seen it yet. It should be enlightening. Our standard of living is based on the work of immigrants -legal or otherwise- from our south, so people's resentment of their presence is unfair and even ungrateful. Immigrant labor makes our lives much easier, and has made developers and corporations rich.

They are here looking for a better life, just like my own ancestors were when they fled the frozen fields of Canada and deprivation in Ireland. Just like my forbearers, they are starting at the bottom rung and creating wealth and ease for the already fortunate. I wish my privileged neighbors would gain some perspective and empathy. Or to put it another way, have a heart and get a grip.

There are some, especially unskilled workers, who have a legitimate gripe because they have been unfairly denied the work immigrants now do. This is a repeat of an old story too, as when mill owners of the past recruited new waves of immigrants to undercut wages of existing workers. Then as now though, their beef isn't with the immigrants, but with the people who benefit from bringing immigrants into the job market. People like contractors, developers, corporate farms, and oh yea, me. And my neighbors.