Dear Mr. Future President:

Dear Mr. Future President:
Greetings from the small town of Wilmington, Ohio in the heartland of our country. I am writing you today because I feel that there are a few things that need to be clarified.
Why the anger you ask? I was just at the grocery store sir, a depressing act all by it self, and overheard a conversation between my neighbors; neighbors in the loosest sense of the word.
You see, like every other frustrated consumer that makes their way to the store, my neighbors were complaining about the cost of food, clothing, and health care. They are anticipating the elections and hoping that the new president elected would walk across the aisles with fiery sword in hand and slash the prices that oppress the masses.
Sir, I know better. I know your administration will have nothing to do with prices, I do not hold you responsible nor do I expect the impossible from you. My neighbors, however, were more than ready to assign blame.
Perhaps it was the fact that this morning there were two of us at the grocery store.
Us, you know, Hispanics.
Maybe it is the fact that the vegetables are incredibly expensive and they associate farming with us. Maybe it was that their coffee didn’t taste right this morning. Regardless of the reasons why, they said, loudly, “it is those damn illegals making everything go wrong.”
And see? This is where I have an issue. Let me explain it to you.
For every illegal that works and that is not paying taxes, there is another set of illegals that does work and that works at a company where the taxes are taken from their checks, naturally, as it should be. Now, those illegals cannot file taxes and get that money back. Let me repeat that. They do pay taxes and do not get it back.
What happens to that money??? Where does that money go???
I have never, in the twenty years that I have lived in this country, ever heard of anyone giving that money back to the company. Never have I seen the IRS account for that money, nor explain where it was distributed to. There has never been any acknowledgement of where that money goes.
So let’s get this straight, minimum wages in a heavily “illegal” populated area is 6.55 an hour, if you multiply that by 40 hours a week and then take away the 18% in taxes and then add it up for the whole year, and then you have yearly contributions of $2452.32 per year, per illegal. Now, being that we are so numerous this should take a sizable chunk for all of the liabilities we have created.
Another point that perhaps needs clarification. Illegals taking away jobs.
I am sorry, the last time I spoke to anyone able to work, that had papers and was willing to go out and work wanted a minimum of $10/hour to walk out of their house. Illegals do the job that everyone else refuses to do. From working in farms for far less than minimum wages to taking construction jobs where they work outside, exposed to the weather and risk their life, because remember there is NO workman’s compensation if you are illegal. Has anyone thought of the price of produce if they did not work for as little as they do? No? Well think what would happen if “regular” people did those jobs, where you, sir, would have to make sure they received unemployment benefits and ensure that all Is were dotted and Ts were crossed. What would be the cost of our food? Perhaps, we haven’t considered that.
Another thing, and not to sound disrespectful sir, but….
In the 20 years that I have lived in this country, I have seen illegals work all kinds of hours, living 20 to a house and carpooling to work in order to ensure that they were able to work. I have also seen sir plenty of people, native born, that did not want to work, chose not to work and rode the system. They complained that there weren’t any jobs and that they couldn’t make it happen. Sir, if someone without papers can make it happen, how do we sit back and accept that from people who do have the opportunity to make it work and choose not to work???
They go to the hospital and don’t pay. Yes it is true, they will go to the hospital and uses the hospital and not have the means to pay for it, but half of them are afraid to death to show up there and will self-medicate until the illness is so advanced nothing but a hospital will do.
They don’t learn English and cannot be assimilated. I have worked for the government sir and I know what kind of money the government pays to provide bilingual information for the “illegals” and other “aliens”. You see, what someone has failed to realize is that printing up that information gives work to the people that print that material. Bringing food from other country to indulge “Us” reinforces commerce. We have to hire more people to deal with them and therefore produce more jobs, yes I can see how having illegals is a problem, more jobs, more need for specialized services, more commerce, yes dreadful. The money that we spend at the store is the same color green as everyone else’s. We pay the same fuel tax, sale tax and every other tax that is impinged upon us whenever we are parts of this society.
Even when you are a “legal” alien, you are still expected to have the same responsibilities in paying taxes and going to work and abiding by the rules, but when it comes to election time, I have to let Bubba, who can’t get a job, who did not go to school, who I would not leave in charge of my cats, I have to let him pick the president. I believe that is criminal. It is also taxation without representation.
I know sir; you were going to suggest that I should become a citizen. I am in the interminable process of doing so, it has taken over 2 years and more than 750.00 to accomplish this and I am almost there, I think. You see sir, navigating the immigration system such as your legislators have designed it requires a lawyer’s legal knowledge, an accountant’s accuracy and a saint’s patience, oh yeah, and a bailout plan as well. Most of us who are legalized don’t take the step further because it is price prohibitive. Everyone who has something to say about illegals constantly say that we should become legalized and therefore naturalized but they don’t realize the process.
The cost is outrageous, the bureaucracy that hinders every step is overwhelming and the testing is a joke. I had a harder time answering questions to get a grocery savings card than at passing the naturalization test. One would think, sir, that if becoming part of this great nation was such a feat, you would require more understanding and more knowledgeable comprehension from your “would-be” citizens.
Because even being the “alien” that you have categorized me as, I am more informed, more aware and more educated and cultured than most of your denizens. I arrived in this country and I had to learn another language, learn another set of customs and another set of rules to the game. I have worked hard, studied hard and developed my skills and achieved more than most of your naturalized children have and yet my children will still be looked at funny because of their features and the color of their skin, and when I go to the grocery store, I will still be profiled and called an “illegal”
Therefore, Mr. Future President of the United States, take heart, yours will not be an easy task. You will have to show the country that what ails it are not the illegals, its not teenage pregnancy, it is not even the troubled youth or the education system.
Your biggest problem is greed. Greed that makes it ok for someone to buy cheap and consume endlessly without wondering where those resources and production came from. Greed that allow us to work someone inhuman hours and not pay them decent wages when we know that they have a family to care for. Greed that does not permit us to set up low cost clinics so that everyone has access to healthcare. Greed that thinks it is ok to call Hispanics “illegals” in a derogatory manner just because they left their country to get something better for them and their families (Like the Pilgrims and Italians and Polish and….. well EVERYONE, with the exception of the American Indians)
Greed and Ignorance.
Ours is a socioeconomic cancer that eats away at a culture that is so disconnected from its base it has no idea that it’s attached to the putrefaction at the core. Their “That is them and this is us” attitude which they feel will save them from the world. Poor fools, they haven’t yet realized, we can’t escape each other.
Sir, yours will be a difficult task.
Godspeed.