By Tom Dodge, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-517335.mp3
Dallas, TX –
I complain too much about my community's recent extreme growth. Ugly houses fill the pastures. Our trees are dozed down for a football stadium. Cars clog our streets. Fast-food emporiums are everywhere. There used to be a playground behind my house. It's a parking lot now.
It's easy to lose perspective because as I age I see all change as bad. I have referred to newcomers as influxers, a pejorative term, I guess, though I'm referring only to those who come and take, giving nothing in return.
It's unfair to complain about all newcomers and the changes they bring with them because we have all been newcomers, if just by birth. School children are taught to revere the original influxers of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1620, but teachers seldom if ever mention that they were undocumented.
In any case, in addition to the plunderers and exploiters, which would be those who come to take advantage and give nothing in return, there were also newcomers who were brought in captivity and tried to make the best of it. Slaves and descendents of slaves have overcome this burden in great numbers and their social, literary, and artistic achievements are obvious to see.
Others coming of their own volition have also contributed greatly to their new surroundings. They built the railroads in the western states and they built New York's magnificent bridges, buildings, streets, and traffic tunnels beneath the rivers, and its subway system.
All around us immigrants are building our malls, schools, houses, highways, roads, bridges, and freeways. They're fighting our wars, roofing our houses, mowing our grass, cleaning our houses, cooking our food, ironing our clothes, all at a relatively low cost.
I get Internet petitions from time to time asking me to sign in protest of illegal immigration. I don't sign though I wish illegal immigration could be stopped if for no other reason than to dispel xenophobic hatred. Last year I reported for jury duty on a case involving undocumented immigrants whose business had tax problems with the government. I was surprised to learn that those most hostile to the defendants were those who had recently become citizens themselves and now consider themselves middle class. When I was questioned about the case I said only that I believe immigrants have contributed greatly to America and are still doing so. I wasn't chosen.
One way to combat the problem of illegal immigration would be to insist that our children compete for these jobs so that America, for the first time in its history, would not be reliant on immigrant labor to do the hard work. This is not likely to happen. They do good work. They're artists. And they enjoy working. Our own children need to learn the value of these traits, however, before they can compete.
I was an influxer once. And so are we all. The question is what we can do together to preserve and enhance the beauty and integrity of our environment.
Tom Dodge is a writer from Midlothian.
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