My views on immigration

This will probably offend someone, maybe even more than one someones. A lot of my views seem to. Do I care? No. Am I willing to have a healthy debate? Yes. Will I allow you to comment on my blog and go off on me and be rude and ignorant? No!

My view on immigration is best put like this:
If someone were to come to my front door and knock I would most likely let them in, offer them a seat, maybe something to eat or drink. However if someone finds an open window and sneaks in my house in the dead of night, you can bet that they will find a Smith & Wesson or a baseball bat or a knife or something when I see them. If that were to happen everyone would say "well done!" "You were protecting your family." "Glad you are ok." so on and so forth.

I believe the same should be done with those, from ANY country, who come to the United States illegally! If you want to come to the United States, do it the right way. Knock on the door, so to speak. Don't come sneaking in through the window of an unguarded border.

Another thing that irks me is when immigrants, legal or not, come to the United States to make a new home for themselves yet they refuse to adapt to the American culture. Why did you come here if you are still going to speak your native language 24/7, still going to dress the same, act the same, ect... that you did in your native country?

Let me go back to my original comparison. If someone knocks on my door and is invited in and then they proceed to speak to me in a language I don't understand, they will be asked to leave. I will not adapt to you when you are in my house. However, if you come in and you at least attempt to speak the same language as I do then I would be more willing to meet you half way and attempt to speak your language (if I can).

A couple of examples here:
1. My husband works at WalMart. At one of the stores he worked in (he's transferred a couple of times due to moves) there was an electrical fire behind the wall where the ammo was kept for the guns that the store sold (obviously this was before WalMart stopped selling guns). The store was evacuated. At this time the store had a maintenance crew that was from Mexico (no idea if legal or illegal...doesn't matter for this story). This crew lived and worked in northeastern Ohio yet refused to learn to speak hardly any English. So when the store was being evacuated, this crew did not understand what they were being told & continued to work. My husband tried to do the universal mime for a cig. lighter hoping they would get the picture that there was a fire. He was told "we no smoke." FINALLY someone who knew a little bit of Spanish conveyed to them that they needed to get out. If that fire had been any worse those workers and the employees who tried to get them to leave could have all been killed because of the language barrier.

2. When I was a cashier at WalMart I would have foreign people (some Mexicans, some not) come through my line. They would have fresh produce that I did not recognize. I would ask them what it was so I could find the code to ring it up. They would stare at me blankly while talking in their native language. This would cause me to stare at THEM blankly. Finally I would have to hand them the code sheet, point to the produce, and shrug my shoulders. This USUALLY worked. It was very frustrating for me as well as for them.

3. Last example: Again, while I was a cashier at WalMart a woman from Germany came through my line. She brought her daughter with her to translate for her as she spoke little to no English. While I do speak a little (VERY little) German, it pleased me to see the consideration she had for the people she would come in contact with. Since I was able to recognize that the two ladies were speaking German to each other, I was able to use my minimal German skills to address the elder lady directly at least to say hello and goodbye. This pleased her as well. Now, had she not brought her daughter to translate, I am not so sure I would be as quick to use my minimal German skills to communicate with her but since she showed me and my fellow employees the courtesy of bringing a translator, I showed her the courtesy of using what little I knew and include her in the conversation.

I don't care what language you speak with your friends and family. That doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is when someone makes the assumption that we will adapt to them and bend over backwards to figure out their language just because they can't be bothered to learn ours.

Try going to Germany or France or where ever and NOT speak their language at all. See how far you get and what kind of service you receive. Oh and I don't mean go to the touresty places like The Louvre. I mean go to the mall or discothèque (dance club) in Stuttgart and see how far you get. I went to both. Thankfully I had a distant cousin with me to translate. However, I did attempt (at least at the mall...was drunk when we got to the discothèque so my German went byebye).