Tuesday, April 11, 2006

first day back plus other stuff...

I hate the first day back at work after taking some time off. Nothing like digging through all the crap that piled up while you were gone. You also have to dig the subtle jabs at you when you get back for waiting so long to do something. I was taking my first vacation in a very long time. Nothing like that to raise my ire.

So, I'm not sure if people have been following this immigration thing going on but I don't know how you couldn't. One thing I don't understand is why other minorities that have been oppressed in the history of this country aren't rallying with the hispanic community. This isn't the first time the land of the free has attempted to keep people from coming here. I know it was a long time ago but let's not forget the Chinese Exclusion Act from 1882. It kept Chinese people without family already in the US from entering the country and Chinese Americans weren't allowed to even apply for naturalization. The Exclusion Act wasn't repealed until 1943 only because China was an ally in WWII. In 1952 first-generation Chinese Americans were allowed to apply for citizenship and all the restrictions weren't removed until 1964 with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Only 42 years ago were there restrictions on Chinese Americans from becoming full fledged American citizens, so why won't more Chinese Americans stand up for another ethnic group that is about to be subjected to similar restrictions? Are we afraid of rocking the boat? I sure hope not, because all the reasons they are saying now sound an awful lot like what they were saying back then. So it's about time we do something before this country ends up making the same mistakes again.

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