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Letter: Show some courage

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Staff

Thanks to Senator Kinnaird for her column of March 12th concerning the treatment of Hispanic people lately in North Carolina.

The issue is complicated but the bottom line is that bad things are beginning to happen to good people. Of late, this is where I get up on my soap box. I always point out that we have to deal with things as they are, not as they ought to have been. It ought to have been that someone could show up at the border and ask for permission to look for work as a dishwasher. Surgeons and web designers get to do this.

A little paperwork and an orderly monitoring of border crossings would likely have supplied the extra workers that we needed while a lack of demand would have stemmed the tide in leaner times. Instead, grudging, difficult and understaffed policies were put into place piecemeal. Of course, people came anyway because of the seemingly limitless demand.

Men came first, but because of the difficulty of traveling back and forth, families began to follow. For years, the authorities generally looked the other way. Now that we are in harder times, these people are being portrayed as a threat and a nuisance by some. It is presented as an instance of us and them.

If the global meltdown has shown us anything, it is that we are all us and we are all also them. They are blamed for rising unemployment. Not so fast. These guys always start on the bottom rung. While the idea of disgraced investment bankers washing dishes in restaurant kitchens is appealing in many ways, it wouldn’t really be a sign of economic recovery.

Ten years ago, landscapers, contractors and restaurateurs welcomed these workers, not because they were less expensive, but because they were willing to do good work for what small businesses could afford to pay. They are still here and we need to remember that they are people, not labor statistics. Sensible, thoughtful new policies are needed to deal with today’s realities. It’s time for all of us to show a little courage and speak out.

Bill Smith
Chapel Hill

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