A Revolution Of One

I was sent this forward tonight of a column by someone named David Bresnan. It's the typical conservative anti-illegal immigrant speil. First the forward and my response follows. I sent a copy to Mr. Bresnan.

The Forward:
Dear President Bush:

I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family,
and I would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across the
border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few
arrangements. I know you can help with this.

I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration
quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do
here.

So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I'm
on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the
following:

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might
need, whether I use them or not.

3. All government forms need to be printed in English.

4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.

5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the
flag pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.

7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy
access to government services.

9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won't make any
effort to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo
from Pres. Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all police
officers speak English.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals on
my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any
complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and
don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.

13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and
never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place
on the economy.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things
for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that
Pres. Fox won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

However, if he gives you any trouble, just invite him to go quail
hunting with your V.P.

Thank you so much for your kind help.
Sincerely,

David M. Bresnahan

C 2006 David M. Bresnahan - All Rights Reserved

David M. Bresnahan has over 30 years of experience as an award-winning
journalist, broadcaster, radio station owner, talk show host, and
business owner. David has been a prominent writer for many Internet
newspapers.

My Response:
Dear Mr. Bresnan, I received a forward recently of a column of yours. A letter to President Bush stating your intent to cross the border and expecting all same favors in Mexico you believe Mexican illegal immigrants get in this country. But I think you left a few things out. You should add this to your list.

1. The reason you have to cross the border is because a treaty with Mexico (NAFTA) resulted in the buying up of all the land that you used to farm, so there's no work for you and you can't feed your family.

2. You risk your life to cross into Mexico and see many people die trying to get there because they are so desparate for work. Dozens of people die in the desert, are killed or maimed hoping trains or are killed by drug dealers and criminals trying to cross the border every month.

3. You pay someone thousands of dollars to get across the border. Money that will come out of the very low paying job you'll get when get across. You'll be lucky if that person, a coyote, doesn't rip you off. And if you don't get deported several times before you can find work in Mexico.

4. You do back breaking work in Mexico for such low wages that you can barely afford to feed yourself and you have to send money back to your family in the US so they can eat.

5. Everyone in Mexico looks down on you for taking the lowest kinds of jobs, working harder than the average Mexican for the lowest pay, work they wouldn't do for the same pay. Yet they hire you to do it.

6. They look down on you for breaking the law to feed your family, but if their family was starving, wouldn't they break the law too?

7. Your employer takes advantage of you, cheats you, makes you work long hours and in unsafe conditions, but you have no recourse because you can be deported if you complain.

8. Rich journalists, talk show hosts and politicians whose life has been a cake walk compared to you will say things to the Mexican public that will make them resent you. Accuse you of taking their jobs and social services as if you had a choice.

9. At the same time they will eat the vegetables you farm, hire you to clean their pools, do their gardening, be nanny to their kids, but they will never look down upon the people that hire you and are the reason you came to Mexico, as much as they will look down on you.

10. Funny how people don't resent the handouts that the rich get as much as they resent benefits to people like me, the poorest of the poor. Like tax cuts for the richest of the rich that President Bush wants to make permanent during a time of war and a national debt over 8.4 trillion dollars. Don't the rich have to sacrifice during war too? Or the billions of dollars defense contractors like Halliburton are making off the war. Or the record oil profits the oil companies are making during an oil shortage.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." -President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"War is a racktet." US Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler

11. Funny how the people who's parents, or grandparents, or great grandparents were immigrants, have so little compassion for the immigrants among them and how easily they forget what their ancestors had to go through and the discrimination and hatred they suffered. Through revisionist history their ancestors are the noble ones who worked hard and did everything right and legally and weren't looked down upon and denigrated by the citizens of their time.

Wonder how many people will forward this?