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[May 9th, 2007] KEEP THE MESS ON YOUR SIDE

I know Willamette Week can do better than “Chop Shop” [May 2, 2007] in addressing globalism’s injustices. This article completely lacks any objective sober thought and is rife with logical fallacies interspersed with inane tear-jerking.

FACTS: Illegal immigrants are illegal because they broke a law. Americans are losing family-wage jobs and wages decline across the board due to outsourcing and illegal workers. This is union-busting on a massive scale by corporate America. If labor and immigration laws were enforced, wages would be up and Americans would fill the jobs performed by illegals. Most importantly, the deplorable work conditions over which Beth Slovic cries in her fruit salad would come to an end. With no work for them here, Mexican citizens would be forced to confront the mess on their side of the border instead of bringing it here.

America is no innocent, but do you want to point

fingers or should we fix this mess? Solidarity does not equal mutual suicide.

Glenn McCarthy

Southwest Jefferson Street

RUSSIAN TO JUDGMENT

In Mr. [Byron] Beck’s article “From the Mouth of Babes” [WW, April 18, 2007], he writes, “Go back to Mother Russia and leave my ass alone!” His statement, unfortunately, is an epitome of the anti-immigrant and xenophobic sentiment among Portland’s queer community.

For the record, most of these immigrants from Russia did not come from the “light[ing] candles and sing[ing] their chants” background. Rather, they left Russia because their Evangelical, Baptist or Pentecostal faiths were under attack by both Soviet communists and by the current Russian regime. Isn’t it a bit ironic that they came to America because they were persecuted for being followers of “American imperialist religion” only to find that they are told by Mr. Beck to go home?

The immigrant communities today face real challenges. Every day they face scapegoating, discrimination, police brutalities, lack of adequate civil liberties and human rights protections, arbitrary detentions, and even random mass deportation. Please remember that only 40 years ago, gays were the “illegal humans” facing a similar fate. Keep also in mind that many members of the queer community also come to America for freedom to be who they are. Portland’s queer advocacy has long been too preoccupied with advancing white, middle-class interests while being insensitive and ignorant of the people of non-Western cultures and the poor.

Queer community and immigrant community have much to benefit from mutual solidarity. What is needed the least now is to pit one group of marginalized people against another.

Sarah A. Morrigan

Church of Divine Heart

Via wweek.com