Question: Can we speak with each other here at home?
Before answering, let me preface by saying that I’m an immigrant, a U.S. citizen and someone you read about in stories of the true American dream; the ultimate meaning of the success and potential, which this great country presents and provides to anyone that strives and doggedly pursues their passion.
I learned to speak English at school, poorly, when I was a child in Iran. What you learn in a language class is minimal at best. The only way to really speak and comprehend a language is to be in an environment in which you’re forced to speak it, day in and day out.
This happened to me when I left Iran to live in a variety of families in England. I attended English classes full-time, every day, watched BBC when I could and basically was forced to wire my brain to directly think in a whole new language. Not being able to say one Persian word during the whole time was what forced me to learn.
This was a good thing for coming to the USA in 1977. I immigrated to Boston on a student visa, and starting in 1979 I attended Northeastern for a year and a half. The revolution in Iran and the intense persecution of any non-Muslim people motivated me to apply for a refugee visa. I was honored with a green card and ultimately citizenship in 1991.
After working at a few electronics and avionics companies, I started my own business in 1985 with six hundred dollars to my name, traveling around L.A. and installing alarms in people’s cars. Through 22 years of ultimately having my own manufacturing and distribution company, I hired hundreds of people and gladly paid millions of dollars in taxes to pull my weight. I sold millions of products that I invented and manufactured in the U.S., with pride, and sold to places like Wal-Mart, Target, Radio Shack, Costco and many more.
I am in no way elitist or insensitive to the plight of the poor, the hungry and persecuted, reaching to us here in the land of everything possible. I’m for people of all lands to have an equal opportunity to come to a new home that will welcome them and allow them to not only assimilate, but to also keep their own beliefs, culture and language. This is the true American dream and the spirit of the constitution.
With this said, my answer to the question, “Can we speak to each other here at home” is a sad, “not much anymore.”
We are at a pivotal moment in this country, which has quietly and innocently placed itself in a position of political correctness, trumping the rule of law and consideration for the law abiding, and trampling on our Constitution and basically bankrupting ourselves, regardless of how hard we work, what we produce or how efficiently we get the job done. Why? Well, to simplistically say it, undocumented (sorry, illegal) immigration. But let me get to this a bit later.
I can tell you that with my first-hand knowledge of becoming a citizen, you must learn to speak English to become one; you must be law abiding and you must pay your taxes. When someone is here illegally, they don’t have to do any of these things. They get to be here, speak only their own language, watch TV and read papers only in their own language, and basically skate through our legal and taxation system to their own and our detriment. If I could tell immigrants one thing, it’s to learn English before anything else. Otherwise, you’re holding yourself down.
Unfortunately, our highly generous nature is not helping such people. They never get to rise to the place of equivalence in the society. We get to hire them for cheap to pick our fruit and our weeds, not realizing that this is tantamount to slavery. We hold them down for our own benefit and pay the price for it. Remember this when you buy your produce. If the flat of strawberries costs you eight dollars, double it. That’s the true cost of the fruit and of our own lack of vision.
Still, we pay for the hospital and urgent care for such immigrants through our taxes, we school and feed their children and give them many of the entitlements reserved for the tax paying members of our society. But we have to do these things as human beings. We have to treat them with kindness, which is blind to the legal status of anyone.
But we can fix this mess. We can make everyone learn the language of their new home, urgently and completely. Only this way can we be a society with any possibility of success. I would really appreciate being able to call the cable company and not have to press 2 for English. A couple of years ago, I stopped by a McDonalds in Dallas to get a quick breakfast. I stood in a short line of three people. Every one of them got the wrong item served to them and had to speak to the manager to get them corrected. This included me, which no matter how slowly and carefully I tried to convey my order, was not understood. I asked to speak with the manager. I told her that the position of cashier requires the attendant to speak English. She lowered her voice and replied: “This would be discrimination. We can’t do that.” How sad.
Yesterday, my wife and daughter could not even get store closure time from a Wal-Mart employee. Is this helping America? Not in my mind. We’re not communicating any more. We can’t even tell each other what we want or what we need.
Last year, our quiet home in Malibu was shaken by an intruder while we were in the kitchen. We watched through the kitchen window as a day laborer entered one hundred feet into our yard, get on a bicycle and take off. I chased him up the street and held him for the police. The man was an illegal and he had to be released until the trial. This would be the last anyone would see him.
Recently I needed to tell one of the gardener’s employees to use a tool to weed with instead of his bare hands. He simply said, “No English. No English.” I felt a bit of frustration that I had to call his boss so he could tell him what I wanted. Wow. Is this the American dream for this poor fellow toiling in my field? I assure you not. I want for him, for everyone, the same thing as I had: a chance and a choice. But, we, the collective America, are afraid to say anything, and with that we only hold others down, maybe for our own benefit, in the guise of a free, open door policy that in the face of sense and kindness, is gray at best.
So let’s be smart. Let’s close the border on the south side, which is leaking grossly. Let us not forget that with Mexico yelling at us if we do so we’re being hatemongers, that they, themselves, have the same issue with their own border with other countries to their south. Mexico has tanks on their border and severely punishes anyone entering into and residing in Mexico illegally. Please remember, there are millions of people who are poor and impoverished, persecuted and murdered, hungry and tired, who also want to come to America. But they just don’t have the benefit of a porous border to the United States. They have to apply legally and wait, while others simply take their place.
This is a very complicated matter, no doubt. But we must face this matter with honesty and tough love. Let’s get people expedited into the country to work legally. We must make the immigrants speak the language, which is a must for one to flourish. We have to pay attention to our own immigration quotas, which are set in order to allow the immigrants space to assimilate and be absorbed into the society, with an appropriate and proportional burden on the society in order to absorb them.
Immigration is a must in order for America to continue to flourish. If we had not let Albert Einstein and Werner Von Brown to come to America, we would have lost World War II, the space race and much more. We’ve absorbed labor, money, brain power and know-how into a uniquely welcoming, inclusive and sometimes imperfect society. We need to continue so, for our own survival. But, we must remain vigilant and committed to order and the law. We must maintain our dignity and not abuse our legal, working population, and yet still remain humane and open to the plight of others. This includes the newcomers as well as the citizens of the most envied and fascinating experiment, the New World, our America.