Seth Williamson wrote:
Oppressed minorities from all over the world want to come to this nation
because there is more justice, not to mention material wealth, than
anywhere else at any time or place in human history. Conversely, almost
none of them wish to leave. These facts are a mute but huge reproach to
your notion of America.
JW reply:
Can you substantiate the statement that people come to the US for more
justice? I would think that most minorities emmigrate to the US to flee
a specific persecution, often life threatening, or in the hopes of
expanded economic opportunities in a less crowded society. The fact
that people choose the US for either reason does not exonerate the US
from the guilt of its own forms of persecution, some of which they
newcomers will fall victim to, not from its worsening record of the
widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.
It is not much praise to say that one place is good because all of the
other options are worse. The fact that almost none of them wish to
leave, as you put it, may speak more to the conditions in the place from
which they came or could possibly go to, than the conditions in the US.
Also, as for leaving the US, I know lots of people up here in Canada who
did just that, me included, and a number of minority and other
immigrants are also arriving here daily. This place has its problems
too, but on the average it is a much safer and humane society in which
to live with more public regard for the welfare of its citizens than
most places in the US.
-- Jerry West Editor/publisher/janitor ---------------------------------------------------- THE RECORD On line news from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast An independent, progressive regional publication http://www.island.net/~record/
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