Day without an Immigrant

Yesterday's "day without an immigrant" protests passed, from my particular vantage point, with a whimper. There was no noticeable effect on me except the early closure of the El Pollo Loco by my house. But traffic seemed to be lower, so that was bonus.

I know that half a million people marching the streets of Los Angeles is an impressive show of force.

Everyone has an opinion. Mine is a common one. There should be a strong border so that there can be control over immigration. If there truly is a lack of foreign workers, the quotas for foreign workers should be expanded. Everyone that comes here legally as a worker should have a path to permanant residency and then citizenship.

It is not as if there is no path to legal immigration. People immigrate legally all the time. That needs to be remembered. But that process is slow and not responsive to the workforce needs of Los Angeles employers.

As to the current illegals, we could absorb them easily enough. There could be an amnesty. But that would just encourage others to come unless the border is stronger.

I don't believe in true multiculturalism. I do not believe that it is okay to come to California and to remain wholly untransformed from one's country of origin. The great liberal advances of our society need to be protected: English as a common (second) language, freedom of religion, gender equality, a societal quest for fairness, a live and let live attitude. We can't be truly multicultural because true multiculturalism leads to conflict, because it implies the absorption of cultures unwilling or incapable of being tolerant enough to live in a multicultural society.

Or, to be more blunt, the older immigrant populations are almost at the point where they won't beat up gays in the streets. I hope it stays that way.

And if I say that I think that Islam is pretty silly, I hope I won't be killed.

Thus, Mexico is an advantageous place to find immigrants because we are culturally more similar than we are different. Mexicans can assimilate well. They have the tools to become Californian.