Ill-eagle, ill-eagle, ill-eagle. I have a houseful of them. This problem goes back to the Second World War. When we were short of labor for the war effort, we imported workers from Mexico and points south. They were not treated very well, even at that time; they lived in poorly constructed barracks and worked for low pay. Many of them married citizens and stayed here – to paraphrase a famous saying, it’s hard to return to the farm after you’ve seen Pairee.
But these folks and those who are the subject of so much grandstanding at present are not the ill-eagles I am referring to. I’m talking about the ill-eagles crossing our borders and taking our jobs, sent here by our own corporations that have left our shores in search of cheap labor and tax havens, fostering inferior products on us consumers.
These ill-eagles range from food to clothing, from automobiles to appliances to medicine. They are created with no regard for the quality of the product. There is no “return to sender,” as one cannot easily determine who the sender is.
These imports are everywhere. Sometimes they are just cheap and inferior, such as the goods sold in Walmart. Sports franchises hawk ill-eagle items from overseas. Even our own American Legion here in Cortez purchased ballcaps from China.
Then there are the imports that are worse than just bad, they’re dangerous, like the deadly plasterboard and flooring used in homes sold by big-box stores.
These are the imports we need to worry about. The people who come here looking for work and a better life doing the work we won’t do should have our respect. They allow us to garner the benefits of lower prices for our produce, our motel rooms, our construction. They take the jobs that we refuse to do, and are damn good at them.
At one time we had a trained and decently paid manufacturing workforce. We were proud of our efforts and products. Then we began to welcome these items of inferior merchandise and products that keep children and adults in poor nations from attaining a lifestyle similar to ours. Whether we accept it or not they are part of the human race and as such should be treated as such. How can we as a supposedly Christian nation be proud of ourselves when we are living off the tribulations and trials of others? So many Christians, so little Christ.
To demean others who would like to enjoy the lifestyle that our forefathers left us is unfair. We are the ones that purchase the cheap merchandise brought across our borders that is helping to destroy this nation. As Pogo stated, we have met the enemy and it is us.
The oligarchy cares not for borders or people, their aim (and they are close to implementing it) is to make themselves the ruling class and all others peons instead of persons.
If you care to notice, they put very little into education. This nation that brags about being the greatest should have in place a free educational system that takes all who want it.
Until we consumers stop buying these sweatshop pots, pans, and garbage cans, the oligarchy will continue to prosper and make willing slaves of all who labor.
And don’t forget our poorest workers here at home. McDonald’s motto really irritates me: I’m lovin’ it. I would guess he is, as he draws a $9.5 million salary while employees get minimum wage and rely on the taxpayers to get by through food stamps, assisted housing, and costly medical treatments by the emergency rooms. Minimum wage is almost as bad as outright slavery. It leaves one to imagine they can succeed if only they work harder, and harder, and harder.
We the consumers are paving the way to destroy the living wage of that hated labor group called the middle-class worker. The only time in history that this country was truly prosperous was when we had a go-to-the-moon educational system, labor had a living wage, and everyone from business to bus boys paid their fair share of taxes.
Remember the line from the film “A Few Good Men”? “You can’t handle the truth!” I would like to add to it. We can’t handle truth, nor can we handle freedom. Avarice gets in the way. We destroy each other while the oligarchy waits like a buzzard to swoop down and devour the remains.
Galen Larson writes from Montezuma County, Colo.
