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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]17:21 How did the Irish take more than their share at the time? They even started their own schools on their own. [/quote]

What, in your opinion, is an immigrants "fair share?"  Show me, with hard statistics, where these immigrants - legal or undocumented - are taking more of their share of resources than they are putting back in by the work they put in by the sweat of their brow?  I do not want anecdotes.  I want hard, empirical evidence.  If you don't have that.  You have no argument.

However, this is what I can say.  Reading contemporary accounts attitudes towards the Irish immigrants coming to America during the time of the An Gorta Mor, I very much see the same attitudes displayed by America's WASP forbears being displayed by our anti-immigrant PP.  As I wrote, "plus ce change plus ce la meme chose."  The immigrants who came to American in the past, and those who arrive today are seeking the same economic opportunity my Irish and Polish ancestors sought by coming here.  On my street, I believe we may one of the few actual "white" families, except for the "rednecks" two doors down. My immediate neighbors are from Mexico, El Salvador, Vietnam and India. Every single one of them are hard-working, contributing members of the community.  Three of them own their own businesses.  I welcome them and others like them as my neighbors and would much rather live next them that PP ignorant bigot. In fact, they are the kind of hard-working, family values people the GOP should be courting instead of trying voter suppression tactics as they are in Texas, Florida and North Carolina.

Perhaps, too I am very comfortable with living among large numbers of immigrants.  In addition to spending time with my Polish working class great-grand parents and grand-parents, speaking Polish, my hometown - Miami - has been at the forefront of absorbing America's latest immigration wave for over 40 years now.  54 percent of the population of Miami-Dade County is foreign born. The city is bi-lingual and is more or less the business, financial and cultural capital for much of Latin America and the Caribbean.  What was once a sleepy southern beach town is now a major international city.  South Beach, which was a slum when I was a boy, is now a hot international tourist destination for the international trend set.  When I was in high school, there were "Will the last American to leave Miami please bring the flag?" bumper stickers on cars.  I think we have moved on from this.  We absorbed the best and brightest of another country after the Cuban Revolution and they made it possible for the Marielitos and later waves of immigrants from other countries of LA and the Caribbean to find a home in our great city.  I love going back to visit and it has a palable energy and vibe about it that is like no where else in the United States.

My daughter attended both a high ESOL/FARMS elementary school and a high ESOL/FARMS and she is more than fine. In fact, when we moved here in 2008 after living in Russia, Ukraine (my wife's birthplace), Ethiopia, Kenya and Korea my daughter remarked that she felt right at home because everyone was "just like her - from somewhere else."

As to being born with a silver spoon in my mouth, no one handed me a thing.  I am a third - generation American, and the first on my mother's side of the family to attend college.

Finally, there are Hispanic families in this country who have been here much longer than any descendents of Americans who settled Jamestown or came on the Mayflower.  The oldest permanently inhabited European settlements in the United States are Saint Augustine, Florida - founded in 1565 - and Santa Fe, New Mexico - founded in 1607.  I have not counted San Juan, PR, since Puerto Rico is not a state. But San Juan was founded in 1521.

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