Text 340, 101 rader
Skriven 2006-05-08 15:34:32 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Chapman on protests
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What do you think of his take on immigrant protests?  I must say he does seem
to have a point about the flags.

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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.chapman08may08,0,4887888.
story?coll=bal-pe-opinion

From the Baltimore Sun
Outrage over immigrant protests doesn't add up


By Steve Chapman

May 8, 2006

CHICAGO -- The immigration protests held across the country last Monday serve
as a perfect Rorschach test: What reaction did you have to the sight of
hundreds of thousands of immigrants marching down American streets, calling on
Congress to accommodate them? Dismay? Ambivalence? Admiration?

A lot of political debates turn on facts and arguments. This one is mostly a
matter of competing emotions.

Among many conservatives, the emotion is outrage. Republican Sen. Trent Lott of
Mississippi said the protests "make me mad." Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of
Colorado fumed, "All these folks that are here illegally know they can protest
brazenly."

Mr. Tancredo is one of the prime supporters of a bill passed last year by the
House that would criminalize being in this country without authorization, erect
a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and bar illegal immigrants
already here from gaining legal status. That bill, more than anything else, is
what has brought so many immigrants into the streets to demonstrate - which
seems only to harden the views of the hard-liners.

Former presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan wrote in The American
Conservative magazine, "That hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, all
subject to deportation, would defiantly march under foreign flags in U.S.
cities suggests the government of the United States has lost its moral
authority." Another contributor said the rallies show "a more menacing side" of
the illegal population.

But up close, that side was nowhere to be found. The mood in Chicago was
cheerful, and the behavior was peaceable. Despite the influx of nearly 400,000
people, Chicago police reported no arrests and only one minor scuffle.

This was not a mob bent on upending the social order. Instead, the marchers
were asking, in a sober and restrained manner, to be included in that social
order. They were not looking for a fight - they were hoping to avoid one.

As for foreign flags, it will come as news to veterans of St. Patrick's Day
parades that banners of other countries are inherently offensive. But by my
count, foreign flags in this protest were outnumbered at least 5-to-1 by Old
Glory - not counting all the stars and stripes on T-shirts and caps.

The complaint about "foreign flags" is especially nervy coming from Mr. Lott,
who as a cheerleader at the University of Mississippi used to carry a
Confederate battle flag onto the football field. Unlike the architects of the
Confederacy, those people waving flags from Mexico or Honduras never tried to
tear this country asunder.

Conservatives defend the Confederate flag as a legitimate way for Southerners
to honor their heritage. It doesn't occur to Mr. Lott and Mr. Buchanan that
maybe immigrants brandish the flags of their mother countries for similar
reasons, not out of contempt for America.

True, many of these people are violating immigration laws. But whose fault is
that? Critics act as though we've been invaded by hordes of outsiders. In fact,
Americans have invited them in by declining to enforce our laws and providing
them with ample employment opportunities.

The furor over a Spanish version of the national anthem revives fears that
Latino immigrants have no interest in assimilating into American society. In
fact, today's immigrants behave pretty much like those of the past. Almost all
second-generation Hispanics speak fluent English, and 72 percent of
third-generation Hispanics speak nothing but English at home.

The closed-border crowd thinks those who violate immigration rules represent a
danger to law and order. But the opposite is true: Latino immigrants are more
law-abiding and less inclined to criminality than native-born Americans.

Harvard sociologist Robert J. Sampson attributes the steep drop in crime in the
1990s to the arrival of so many foreigners. His study, he writes, "found that
immigrants appear in general to be less violent than people born in America,
particularly when they live in neighborhoods with high numbers of other
immigrants."

The immigration hard-liners insist on seeing everything illegal immigrants do
in the worst light - as hostile and subversive. The protests made it clear that
they don't want to destroy our way of life. They only want to share in it.

Steve Chapman is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His column appears
Mondays and Wednesdays in The Sun. His e-mail is schapman@tribune.com.

Copyright + 2006, The Baltimore Sun | Get Sun home delivery
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