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American Borders Forum

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Site updates each Wednesday


Immigrants Looking For The American Dream In A Nightmare Economy: Left of Center View

When pausing to examine the disillusionment factor our nightmarish economy is having on the American Dream the obvious is often overlooked. Americans, assuming that the dream is less shiny now that the reality is a single car in the garage and but chicken parts in every pot, are looking at their commercialized version of the promise and fail to see that the essence of the dream itself is still very much alive.

The economy is bad, but not just here in the U.S. The global economy has faltered to the point where almost every industrialized nation on the planet is affected by it. But what we are really lamenting is our pride. We may still claim to be the richest most powerful nation in the world, but our standard of living is slipping. To be sure we still have multitudes of the uber-riche, people with fortunes so vast that they live fairytale existences, but we have multitudes of the uber-poor as well. People starve to death in America. Children die from easily preventable diseases and lack of proper medical care. We have become specialists in the placing of blame and the re-assignment of fiscal responsibility. There is plenty to go around were it not horded by those with access, for ours is a culture as hampered by our excesses as we are by our shortfalls.

For all our complex problems and issues, for every child in psycho-analysis, every stress related ulcer, it is easy to overlook the essence of what makes the dream real for so many other around the world. We have clean water. We have schools with mandatory attendance. More importantly, aside from a few horrific instances, we as a nation can go about our daily lives with little fear of extreme violence. We forget the horrors we send our military personnel into because we have been generations without conflict on our own shores. We go to sleep at night without the fear of where the bombs may fall, but we are so accustomed to this that we do not recognize it for the luxury that it is. We forget that the promise of the pursuit of happiness must begin with freedom from pursuit.

Over the years the American dream has come to be measured by the size of our televisions and automobiles. We forget that the dream began as a flight from persecution. That our nation was founded not just on economic opportunity, but religious and political freedom. Even the poorest amongst the population are allowed to express their individuality and dream, on concrete pillows, shivering under newsprint blankets, but dreaming none the less.


Kyle Pesonen - Staff Writer | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

Got a liberal viewpoint? We want to know what you think.

Next week's subject: Finding Vacation Destinations Inside The U.S. To Help The American Economy

Send in your view from the Left to be our featured Left of Center View for the week.

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Last Week's View from the Left:
Is The Global Economy Stabilizing Enough To Begin To Bring Jobs Back To America?

Reform America Articles Archive



Immigrants Looking For The American Dream In A Nightmare Economy: Right of Center View

The American Dream is more than just money and fame. The American Dream is about the freedom to become more than you were before. The people who have fought and died for this country have sacrificed so their sons and daughters would have a chance at a better life than those who came before them. What they didn’t fight for was the freedom of outsiders to come in and steal their opportunities. Somehow in the last several decades we have lost sight of that and have been selling off the American Dream bit by bit.

The once highly sought-after American jobs have been steadily moving overseas while the jobs that are here are going to people from other countries. The H-1B visa program is going strong with tens of thousands of foreign workers coming into the U.S. every year while unemployment is over 10% for American workers. Despite the latest reported numbers from the Department of Labor showing 9.7% when you take into account workers that have been unemployed so long that they no longer qualify for benefits the number is well over 10%. For them the American Dream is all but dead.

The truth of the matter is that Americans can no longer afford to welcome all of the worlds poor and oppressed with open arms. We do it now to the detriment of ourselves. If the American Dream is not accessible to Americans it should not be accessible to foreigners. We need to stop bringing in foreign workers and focus on getting Americans back to work. While we can be sympathetic to the needs of people around the world we need to take care of business at home first. We need to get illegal immigrants and imported workers out of jobs in America and get Americans back in them.

The American Dream needs to be accessible to Americans before we worry about foreigners achieving it. Yes, people from other places deserve a chance to better their lives but they don’t have to do it at the expense of Americans. Once we’ve stabilized our own economy and gotten our own people back to work we can start thinking about giving people from outside our borders access to the Dream. Until we get our economic house in order, we need to focus on the needs of our people. Common sense dictates that you have to take care of yourself if you want to take care of others. We are in crisis and need to help ourselves before we try to help the rest of the world.

Tony M. - California | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

Got a conservative viewpoint? We want to know what you think.

Next week's subject: Finding Vacation Destinations Inside The U.S. To Help The American Economy

Send in your view from the Right to be our featured Right of Center View for the week.

Click here to submit your article.

Last Week's View from the Right:
Is The Global Economy Stabilizing Enough To Begin To Bring Jobs Back To America?

Reform America Articles Archive

A Legal Immigrant’s Perspective

If you are not a Native American, you are an immigrant, so am I. I came legally to this country at the age of five with my parents who worked hard, paid taxes (even Jesus paid taxes), lived by the rules of this great nation and never took or accepted a penny from the government. We came seeking FREEDOM from a communist country. It was months before we were able to enter the US legally. I remember us getting medical exams, shots (small pox), background check, references, and going through numerous interviews once we arrived. I also remembered people coming to the US from all over the world who waited years since it was based on "Quotas". Read more...

Solving Our Immigration Problem

The major problem our country is facing with illegal immigrants today is because of the exploitation of these immigrants. We believe the solution to this problem is two-fold. First, we should allow more immigrants in this country to cut down on the number of illegal ones. Second, all immigrants should be educated about their rights at the expense of the government. Below, you will find an in-depth look at our suggested reforms.

Reforms for immigration limitations:

-New immigrants can't equal more than 1% of the US population in a given year (the population being from the last recorded census). That 1% will be further divided up to allow only a certain number of immigrants each month.
-Each country of origin for immigrants will be allowed a certain percentage of that 1%. No country could receive more than 10% of the total amount and no country can receive less than .1% of it. The left over percentage will be divided up between all countries as follows: Read more...

Do Elements Within the La Raza Movement Pose a Threat to America?

La Raza means literally “The Race” in Spanish. The movement was formed in 1968 to promote the interests of the Mexican-American community. Like the NAACP and other affirmative-action minded organizations, La Raza has many members that are interested in being part of America and promoting equality for all Americans. The fundamental goals as stated by the movement are benign and represent the ideals of American diversity and cultural pride.

There is another movement affiliated with La Raza that has historically been more militant and still maintains documents within their organization that point to isolationistic views Read More

A Plan

The one major thing that seems to be lacking in the immigration debate is a real plan that addresses the legitimate concerns with illegal immigration. There are strong opinions on both sides and a lot of rhetoric but there isn’t really any solid plan being promoted to address the illegal immigration issue in a way that is both fair and logical.

So, that being said here is my idea:Read More

Trucking Cross Borders

This is mainly a concern for the trucking business. If we allow these people to come into our country, bringing cargo that we in America have, and can supply, then we are saying that the American working people are not needed, and have lost all say to legally enforced DOT (Department of Transportation) laws.Read More



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