by Jerome du Bois
We received a long-winded comment on the Huevos posting from someone named Catherine Herrera, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (Listen: she called us idiots first.) She gives no information about herself, but I googled around and tentatively conclude that she is either (1) nobody special, like us, or (2) an independent filmmaker from San Francisco who lived in Mexico for years and once made a film about Vincente Fox's election. If the latter, which is likely, then I further conclude that she is even more sinister than she is foolish. (She runs Malinche Productions.) Anyway, I'm going to assume it's the filmmaker, because she fits the profile.
I don't know why, if she's based in the Bay Area, she suddenly showed up in the comments now, way out here on the edge of the blogospheric galaxy. (Maybe that Sopa thang at the Paper Heart?) But that doesn't stop her from illogically blaming us two long-time Arizonans for many things, including the fact that "1/3 of your legislators haven't even graduated from college!"
So sorry, but this is a San Franciscan throwing stones, remember; and one who didn't graduate from either college or film school, according to her own report. She's probably angry because Arnold is on our side of the border security debate.
Anyway, I decided to fisk this Catherine Herrera's comment.
She begins:
I feel real sorry for the people who are suffering from the overwhelming crush of immigrants crossing over from Mexico and a hundred other countries.
We two are two of the people suffering from this crush, but she doesn't feel sorry for us. We each pay $700 per year so that illegal aliens can get health and welfare benefits for free. (My seriously diabetic adult stepson --50% Mexican and 100% legal-- pays the $700 and then gets whacked again whenever he has to go to the hospital, which is several times a year, with ever-rising hospital costs and overcrowding.) With $1400, we could probably finally have a honeymoon after five years. Two years ago, while bringing my 86-year-old mother home from the doctor, I rear-ended a vehicle who stopped too soon in front of me. Nobody was injured. It was driven by an illegal Mexican alien; his passenger, also a Mexican illegal, made a big deal in Spanish about his back. The cops came, took a report. (Which is when I learned they didn't have driver's licenses.) Later, these two pendejos never showed up in court. It cost us $4000 to fix the car. Do you feel sorry for us yet, Ms. Herrera? If so, shove your sympathy; we don't need it.
And you don't really want to get into the subject of "a hundred other countries" when you try to call yourself a "real patriot" at the end of your screed. Some of those countries want us --the US-- obliterated.
I know their concerns are real, should be heard and addressed. Unfortunately, people like you are making it all but impossible to hear their voices over the din of your own.
BEHOLD THE MIGHTY VOICE OF THE TEARS OF THINGS, SHATTERER OF WORLDS!
ALL ACROSS THE GALAXY OUR NAME IT DOES RESOUND!
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT SAYIN' NUTHIN'!
Don't you have anything better to do with your time then [sic] spout out lies, hatred and fire?
First, you have no say in one minute of our time, now, then, anywhen. We are free, free, free at last. We don't tell you what to do with your precious moments. You obviously felt it was worth your time wasting ours to spout on and on your own damned self, didn't you? Because you're not helping the conversation we're trying to advance, you're hindering it. Second, you name not one lie. Third, our hatreds are well-documented. Which ones do you love? As for fire, watch your eyebrows.
Only insecure idiots that came to this land themselves must defend it with the vile [sic]that you do.
After rereading this sentence many times --she means "venom," I'm sure-- I still find it hard to understand --that she means it, I mean. Some of my ancestors struck out from Holland in a small ship into the darkness of the unknown future. Other parts of my family, like my wife Catherine King's, were lowland Scots-Irish who also set out on "insecure" ships with nothing but what they could carry. They all headed to the New World. And they made it.
They weren't idiots; they were saving their skins. They weren't insecure; they were certainly braver than you, who would rather bend over and kiss the ass of a criminal oligarch like Vincente Fox than stand up for the difficult truth. And we will certainly defend this land they helped to shape --to the death if need be, in a heartbeat. You tried to say it: venom. Well, there's a lot more substance and gumption to it, but --damn right. Beware. The snake's warning was written down long ago, and it's still in force: Don't Tread On Me. Lest ye get bit.
I don't hear you whining--
You don't hear us whining at all.
--about all the electricity being shipped effortless across the border from Mexico to the U.S.,
--which we pay for, I believe-- separately from the $13 billion the illegals sent to your buddy Vincente Kaching Fox last year so you can thank us later jerk--
--or all the trash you dump south--
When did we, my wife and I, do this? We recycle, anyway.
--and on Native American reservations--
Oh, you don't want to go there, either. Having lived or stayed on three different US reservations, one's eyes are opened to the myth of the ecologically sanitary Native American Indian. Some of them, being human beings, are slobs. And besides, what does that have to do with we two, who don't go near any reservations? And what's all this obsession with waste?
--or the dumping on Mexico of all that unneeded corn from 26,000 Iowa farmers, leading to the displacement of small subsistence farmers as prices drop down so far Mexicans are forced to migrate north to the U.S. for work --work, by the way, that business in the U.S. are happy to offer to the undocumented.
Now we know who the culprits are, those responsible for 11 million illegal Mexicans in the US: 26,000 Iowa farmers who did something with corn. I say we arrest them all! We know where to find them. They're in Iowa; how far can they go? By the way, we two have never been to Iowa, so how do we have any responsiblity for whatever happened?
And we, like most who want to close the border, completely agree that US businesses should not hire a single illegal. That's our position, has been, we've written about it before. You're not telling anybody anything they didn't already know. And I'll be glad to pay $8 for a head of lettuce until I get my own grown, which I've done before and can do again. Plus, there's plenty of other cheap greens to eat. If some US agribusine$$ goes down due to the shrinking head lettuce industry --well, pass the kleenex, buddy; you should have stood up for your country instead of indulging those who should (and could) build up their own, just to line your own pockets.
It's a sad day when you can spout the lies you do, when you can shout out your limited vision of such a complex issue and then tell yourself your [sic] some kind of better American than me.
Again with the lies. Which sentence have we written that contains a lie? Type it down and send it to us. Shouldn't be too complex for you. Comments are open.
Since we are sane and rational, we certainly admit to limited vision, which is why we are always reading, blogging, digging, questioning, so as to expand our vision. We know it's complex, but again, you're just yammering to hear your head rattle. And we suspect anyone who believes they have unlimited vision.
As for being better than you, we could care less for such comparisons. We have no idea who you are. Never heard of you. Why do you bother to measure yourself against us? We didn't bring it up. Are you feeling defensive? Did we touch a nerve?
I find that so hard to swallow coming from someone in a state where a 1/3 of your legislators haven't even graduated from college!
See note before the jump. Also, given what's been extruded from colleges in the last twenty years . . .
This whole conspiracy that you guys have devised in your head about reconquistadores taking over parts of the U.S. is just plain racist nonsensense, [sic] and an excuse to belittle and disparage people working to resolve this complex issue.
This whole notion that you have devised in your head that we are imagining MeCHA, Aztlan, Republica del Norte, and so on will come as a surprise to local activist Salvador Reza and ASU professor John Jota Leaños, for example, and a whole bunch of California Hispanics. What are you trying to do --there goes Elvez? We don't distract.
And we don't make excuses. We'll belittle stupidity the livelong day. There's really no excuse for people not to educate themselves, when the internet is available at every library.
You do our country a disservice by exisiting [sic]--
Whoa. Think about what you wrote. You just implicitly called for our deaths. You want to try, Ms. Herrera? Best do your homework on us first. (And, when delivering a wish for our obliteration, try to spell correctly. Jeebus. It's only polite. Idiota.)
step down from your racist perch and go back into the shadows where you belong, you shame us as Americans. Step back and let the real patriots clean up your dirty mess.
Ms. Herrera, we will proudly put everything we've created next to everything you've created, and let history judge who stands for this country and who does not.
We are just getting started stepping up, stepping forward, loudly, proudly, prolifically, in the light, always, in the light of truth.
Get out of our way.
Posted by Jerome at May 28, 2005 03:15 PM | TrackBack