I noticed this opinion piece in this morning’s Examiner; I guess my attention will be drawn to any item that features a picture of day laborers hanging out in front of Grace UMC in Gaithersburg. Ms. Barber’s commentary is mostly an I-told-you-so gloat:
Listening recently to frustrated folks call a local radio talk show to vent about illegal aliens loitering in front of stores and cramming into $400,000 houses in their neighborhoods, I wondered if those same liberals accused pro-enforcement Americans of being “nativists,” “xenophobes” and “racists” for complaining about the same problems.
Now that illegal aliens have migrated to their neighborhoods, such liberals have become pro-enforcement all of a sudden.
I read this item with some frustration: I thought that she had a point, but that her exposition of that point was deeply flawed. Her premise would appear to require that all owners of $400,000 suburban homes are generally clueless liberals, and her point seems to be that the movement of illegals into these liberal-infested neighborhoods is knocking the scales lose from these liberals’ eyes. Well, sure, there’s probably some of that. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of those houses contained complacent conservatives — or even the occasional libertarian landscaper who had heretofore been a prime contributer to the very job market that attracts these illegals — and that these residents are just now being woken from their slumber exactly as are their liberal neighbors. No, what Ms. Barber describes is not liberal nature so much as it is human nature. No one wants to believe that a problem exists until they are directly confronted with the consequences of that problem.
Whatever, Ms. Barber is soliciting the stories of those who are living in neighborhoods with illegal aliens. She says:
I’m working on a project and need your help. I’m looking for stories about your experiences living in neighborhoods with illegal aliens and competing with illegal aliens for jobs. Most importantly, I want to know how the culture of illegal aliens (in this case, Central Americans) has affected your life for the better or for the worse. You may respond in the comment section or privately at barbersview [at] yahoo [dot] com.
If you respond, be sure to note if you happen to not be a liberal but your thinking has still been changed by the sudden presence of illegals.