I’ve hired two Mexicans to paint the Florida room in my house. It’s a hard job, lots of windows and trim work, sanding, old leaks that stained the sheetrock, damage from the raccoons who lived for a time in the area above the ceiling.
I’ve gotten to know these men. Both are married. They have children. The one who barely speaks English has four. “Three women and a man,” he told me. The word polygamy flashed through my mind. But no, he meant he had three girls and a boy. The other has one child, a boy. They work very hard to earn money to send back to their families. They take pride in their work. I’m pleased with the job they’ve done. In a week they’ll come back and do the backsplash in my kitchen.
I would not hire again the pushy man who did my living room. Nor would I hire the surly man who did the kitchen. The jobs they did were adequate. Yet I was not entirely comfortable with either of them.
I asked the living room man to remove the nails from the stairway. He didn’t. I asked him to get rid of the old electric heat control, and he promised he would. But he forgot. When I reminded him, he did it, but he left a gaping hole in my wall.
The kitchen man resented it when I asked him to remove the toe kick. It was clear he wanted more money for a job that took about ten minutes. When he was finished, and before he left, he showed me a crack between the window frame and the wall. “Get someone to fill that in,” he told me.
Then I saw the job the Mexicans did in my Florida room. The ceiling is primed and painted, cracks filled in, peeling paint sanded away.
There’s a word for the job they did. Magnifico. (That’s spanish for magnificent.)
I have no doubt that they did a good job. In AL, we are hiring more Mexicans for public jobs because blacks don’t want the work. The Mexicans are loyal to their families, eager to work, eager to please, and capable of doing a good job. BUT, if they are illegal, I am breaking the law to use them. I will be doing what countless ELECTED OFFICIALS have done. I will become a criminal. My mama taught me better!!
Mexicans have many opportunities to become citizens here. There are laws in place and help available for them to learn English, apply for green cards, pay taxes, take classes and tests, and gain citizenship. They should. AFTER that, I would love for them to come work for me for a week and get my house ready to sell!
SOMEDAY, SOMEONE WILL HAVE YOUR JOB FOR A CHEAPER WAGE AS WELL……..THEN YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE WILL BE UNEMPLOYED AND HAVE YOUR STANDARD OF LIVING LOWERED DUE TO UNFAIR COMPETITION AND A GOVERNMENT WHO DECIDES WHICH LAWS TO ENFORCE. RULE OF LAW….I BEG TO DIFFER. WAKE UP!!!!
I can appreciate the Humanitarian in you however, compassion does not make a prosperous community. These men paid no taxes on the money they earned doing a magnifico job, resulting in a failing economy which has lead to (especially here in CA where tax dodgers AKA illegal aliens are aplenty) many cuts in our schools as well as our police force and firefighters just to name a few. For the U.S.A. to take care of its own, it needs to be less concerned with caring for others and more concerned with ENFORCING the laws that have been in place for years in order to care for it’s own….It’s legal taxpaying citizens!
Rita,
You may have had extremely good luck with the Hispanics who did your “FL” room, and extremely bad luck with the men who did the LR and Kit.
You didn’t say if the man in the LR or the man in the Kit. were licensed, or, just surly, or had anyone recommend them to you. Neither did you say you got the 2 men in the FL recommended to you, or, was it, “just the luck of the draw”.
But, that’s not the point. I am happy for you that you had a good experience with the FL rm.
Put 20 workmen in a row and pick 2. You have a chance to pick the best workmen in world, and, a chance to pick the worst. It doesn’t matter what you pay them.
The point here is Our country, Its heritage, and Its laws being enforced, or not.
And, You should care! Especially If you are a White American. If not: Maybe you should live in the country of your forefathers. I don’t care if you were born here.
Love it, or leave it. Stand up for it or be quiet about it. Own it or loose it.
I didn’t like the 55 MPH speed limit. But I didn’t kill the police who enforced it on me, when they caught me… I don’t like the seat belt law, but, I make it seem like I am wearing one in compliance with that law while I do my duty as a citizen to attempt to band together with those of same persuasion to get it legally repealed – as a Law! I have no bone to pick with those who choose to wear theirs—I just don’t like that I MUST wear one because I drive. I still don’t shoot the cops who enforced it on my 3 times in a row.
There is no other country in the world that is as lax as ours about enforcing the Immigration laws that are on the books. And look at us. Panhandling is at an all time high since the depression. Why??? Who’s doing the jobs teenagers used to do? Mowing lawns; scraping paint; washing cars (except for church fund raisers) Little odds and ends jobs that you couldn’t get an adult to do in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
States are going broke. Why? Take CA for example. One of the largest illegal populations of the 50 states. Now teachers and government workers are asked to take IOUs for money owed them in wages. One third of the hardened criminal population is Illegal Hispanic invaders. Old and jungle diseases are carried into this country, from who knows where, but, in the bodies of illegals!! Schools are forced to teach English to people who never intended to learn it. States are forced to print placards and instructions in several different languages instead of the one that has ruled in this country since Plymouth Rock!
Get a clue!!!! If nobody cares; If You don’t care; If WE don’t care, this will soon become what nobody here really wants: A third world trash heap, and the Country of Babble!