The Problems of America
Loss of Identity

It is said that Cinco de Mayo is a more popular holiday in Los Angeles than the 4th of July. Could just be a rumor or a way of exhibiting an animus toward our Mexican neighbors. Whatever the case with respect to celebrating the 5th of May, Roger McGrath, in the March issue of Chronicles [Vol 32 NO 3] reports some eyeopening statistics about his native California. Here they are:

Last year [2007], 263,000 citizens left the once Goldrn State—and a similar out-migration has been going on, with a few anomalous blips, for the last 15 years.

Nearly 30 percent of California residents are now foreign born; as stunning five million of them were born in Mexico.

For most grammar school students in the city of Los Angeles, English is a second language. For some, It is a third language behind one of several Indian tongues of Mexico and Spanish. Hispanics now make up 75 percent of the students; whites, a mere 7 percent.

Twenty-six of the city’s high schools are now 80-percent or more Hispanic. Eighteen of those have student bodies that are 90-percent or more Hispanic, and seven are 98-or 99-percent.

This is a startling trend. McGrath calls it “ethnic cleansing” or a “foreign invasion”. No one knows how many are legal or illegal. But, we know for sure that it is changing the face of California. It does not stop there. Midwest states like Nebraska and even PA have seen a significant influx of Hispanics in the last decade.

Why do they come? Looking for a better life, but unlike other immigration waves there are two problems. One, the Hispanics do not seem anxious to become part of our American culture. That is why English is a second language. Second, the fragile economic situation in the USA is less able to absorb this invasion. Much has been made of NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] in this primary election cycle. Who was for it and who was against it.

Opponents argue that is has devastated USA businesses. But, what of it’s effects in Mexico? Mexico’s agriculture has disappeared. They now import agricultural goods from the USA as part of NAFTA. So, Mexican farmers now at a competitive disadvantage to the massive agricultural machine in the USA can move to Mexico City or the USA. What would you do? Recently I was in New York City for the first time in twenty [20] years. I noticed two things: one, increased safety in Manhattan, and two, the number of Hispanics in the service industry. Twenty years ago you took you life in your hands at night in NYC. And, most of the service workers were whites, many from Eastern European countries.

The need for the Hispanics, legal or otherwise, is promoted and argued for on the basis that for no one else will do what they do. But, with respect to the illegals, the taxpayer is picking up their medicals, educating their kids and paying welfare benefits. It may be cheap for employers, but we make up the difference. It is hard to see how this benefits the taxpayers of the USA.

What to do with the 12-20 million illegals is indeed a thorny problem for which there are no easy answers They are even an issue in Hazelton, PA, the heart of “coal cracker” country for heavens sake. We must deal with this Hispanic invasion…our very identity as a nation of common language, place, history, memory and belief is at stake. Here is a question each citizen must ask: Does our identity as a people really matter anymore or has the USA been reduced to a concept or idea?