Stephen Colbert of Comedy Channel is famous for being humorous, but he was on Capitol Hill today, testifying on the work conditions and life circumstances of undocumented farm labor, which is responsible for our supplies of fruits and vegetables at cheap prices!
Colbert tried a day of this backbreaking work and came away with an understanding of why very few American citizens are willing to do that kind of work in the broiling sun, with the tremendous physical strain on human bodies as a result!
We all want to buy fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices, and yet we have people who rail against hard working immigrants who pay taxes and Social Security, work for very low wages, and yet complain far less than the average American worker about their work conditions!
If we did not have this immigrant labor, some of it undocumented, we would not have our food supply which is the most varied in the world!
Also, do most Americans want to cut their own lawns and clean their own houses and businesses? The answer is NO, and immigrants, including undocumented ones, do so without complaint!
Many immigrants also are involved in other tough jobs, including construction and taking care of young children, and millions of Americans count on them!
But yet, we have demagogues who keep on telling us that all undocumented immigrants are criminals, and should be deported!
Were we to turn against the reality that we are all immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, we would soon discover how much we need them, and we just might show them respect and allow them to get on the line for future citizenship on the basis of the 2007 McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill backed by President Bush and future President Obama!
But sadly, even Senator McCain has become a demagogue on this issue to win the support of Arizona voters! 🙁
Instead, we allow politicians to exploit the issue and divide us, and give America an ugly image of being a nativist nation! 🙁