In my inbox this morning:
——Original Message——From: G.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:44 AM
To: P. H.; S. D.; K. D.; S. H.; ‘Roxanna’; ‘monoye@gg.com’; ‘Priss D’; ‘ll@yahoo.com’
Subject: FW: Fw: Must read poem!!!
> > ILLEGAL ALIEN’S POEM
> >
> > I visit US, get treated regal,
> > So I stay, who care I illegal?
> > I cross ocean, poor and broke,
> > Take bus, see employment folk.
> > Nice man treat me good in there,
> > Say I need to see welfare.
> > Welfare say, “You come no more,
> > We send cash right to your door.”
> > Welfare checks, they make you wealthy,
> > Medicaid, it keep you healthy!
> > I go to college, for me it’s free,
> > and now I have a Ph.D.
> > By and by, I got plenty money,
> > Thanks to you, American dummy.
> > Write to friends in motherland,
> > Tell them come as fast as you can.
> > They come in turbans and Ford trucks,
> > I buy big house with welfare bucks.
> > They come here, we live together,
> > More welfare checks, it gets better!
> > Fourteen families they moving in,
> > But neighbor’s patience wearing thin.
> > Finally, white guy moves away,
> > Now I buy his house, and then I say,
> > “Find more aliens for house to rent.”
> > And in the yard I put a tent.
> > Send for family (they just trash),
> > But they, too, draw the welfare cash!
> > Everything is very good,
> > And soon we own the neighborhood.
> > We have hobby—it’s called breeding,
> > Welfare pay for baby feeding.
> > Kids need dentist? Wife need pills?
> > We get free! We got no bills!
> > American crazy! He pay all year,
> > To keep welfare running here.
> > We think America darn good place!
> > Too darn good for the white man race.
> > If they no like us, they can scram,
> > Got lots of room in Pakistan.
> >
> > SEND THIS TO EVERY AMERICAN TAXPAYER
——Original Message——From: H.A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:52 AM
To: S. D.; T.A.; J. W.
Subject: FW: Fw: Must read poem!!!
How is this poem utterly wrong?
How is this poem utterly wrong?
Let me count the ways.
Not only is it a horrible use of rhyming sing-song;
but it’s bigoted in what it says.
Why does G. forward me these things? I always want to scream, “You’re a freaking Native American for Christ’s sake. Do you have no sense of minority compassion, or even cross-minority loyalty?”
“Beyond that, do you not see the irony of forwarding me this when you live in a ramshackle house with a roaming pack of partially-wild dogs and a bathroom that is basically a stall OUTSIDE? And you have the audacity to label OTHERS “trash”?”
Good God.
——Original Message——From: J. W.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:55 AM
To: H.A.T.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
Well, she is native american. They, technically, have the right to piss on everyone here.
——Original Message——From: H.A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:06 AM
To: J. W.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
No one has the right to piss on anyone. That’s a victim mentality, and it’s ineffectual and petty. It does nothing but breed a sense of entitlement and a lack of personal responsibility (which is, ironically, something that the poem itself is poorly attempting to lambaste).
And, no, I don’t believe that one is allowed to be openly racist just because one is a minority.
——Original Message——From: J. W.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:09 AM
To: H.A.T.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
Look beyond the minority. We took over their country and killed them off with diseases and superior manpower.
Nothing peaceful about it. Don’t see why they’d let it go.
Same with African Americans, who would arguably not be here in such large numbers if not for the slave trade.
Because of Anglo-Saxon greed, we created most of this hate. And because of stupid religious superiority, it has carried on until this day.
We bitch and moan about Israel and Pakistan not because what they’re doing is wrong, but because it’s gone on for so long. If it was ended within 5 years, everyone would be okay with it. Then they’d be just like the rest of us “civilized” nations.
Bleh. I need to get back to work, this stuff irritates me.
——Original Message——From: H.A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:11 AM
To: J. W.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
Conquests and violence are a part of history. Doesn’t make them “right” or “fair,” true, but it’s impossible to get past them if you use them to define your existence. The simple truth is: Life isn’t fair. Everyone suffers, and some suffer more than others.
Is it not this need to hold onto a sense of injustice that, in effect, created the attacks against us on 9-11, and, it is not this sense of injustice that has led us to retaliate on a world-wide scale?
Shall we really talk about how our own guilt at helping to create the Jewish state, and, in essence, this ongoing conflict, has led us to consistently take sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
Shall we really talk about how the Indian tribes were more than willing to help the white man, in bits and pieces, fight their own enemies (i.e. other tribes)?
Shall we really talk about how the same thing happened in Africa with the slave trade, and how competing tribes sold each other into slavery?
Shall we really talk about how the Irish people—now lumped into the Caucasian category—were vilified and treated the equivalent of African Americans and slaves between 1850 and 1920?
Shall we really talk about how the only thing that kept the Balkanized states from fighting each other for most of the last century was the common fear of Communism?
The devil is in the details, you know. But, so is personal responsibility and the messy, disgusting, not-so-nicely-divided-into-”good”and“evil” truth.
All right. Go back to work. I won’t write about this anymore. Swear.
I’m just trying to get over how bad the poetry is. It’s really just an indication of how sloppy the thinking is, of course, and inaccurate: most illegals are not “welcomed” into the United States as the – I hesitate to call it a poem – the “message” implies. They are routinely rounded up and deported. The fact that they continue to stream across our borders, through sometimes deadly desert conditions, is a testament to the draw of the United States, where even a job at which most of us would turn our noses up will still provide a living far superior to what they know at home.
Were we willing to nail up shingles on a roof all day when it’s 100 degrees; were we willing to harvest cabbages in California for less than minimum wage; were we willing to push reasonable loan conditions through the IMF, allowing the debtor nations to get on their feet economically and lowering the incentive for their people to flee toward opportunity; then perhaps we would have the right to complain.