Empty Streets.....
Last edited Tue Jun 19, 2018, 09:45 AM - Edit history (1)
I live in a small town in New Jersey. I've lived here a long time. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. Mostly. About 25 years ago "they" started showing up. To a lot of the locals they were the "Mexicans". Single Hispanic men who had come to work on the farms in the area. To be sure, some of them were from Mexico, but they were also from Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador and Costa Rica. But if you didn't ever talk to them, you wouldn't know that. They worked here and kept to themselves. Over time they brought their families here. They started working jobs off of the farms. The car wash, the grocery store, landscaping, construction. Many of them worked more than one job. You would see them walking on Main Street. Riding bikes on the highway to and from work. If you weren't a farmer, you probably didn't know them.
Then a funny thing started happening. Their kids were showing up in school with our kids. The local Catholic church started having a special mass in Spanish on Saturday evening. A few of these nameless people started their own businesses in the area. This being a small town, you started to get to know them. You got to know the kids, you got to know the parents. You got to know the familiar faces you couldn't help but see every day. They became names and people that you knew and liked. They were just trying their best to make their way just like the rest of us.
Yes, there were a few people who continued to mockingly call them the Mexicans, but they were surprisingly in the minority in this very conservative town. Open the local paper, there were Hispanic names on the honor roll at the local school, called out at graduation, playing on the sports teams. Saturday evenings you would see families walking to church together to the Spanish language mass. Sunday mornings were a time for pick-up soccer games at the local fields. When the World Cup came around-well then you knew who was Mexican and who was Honduran and who was from Costa Rica. Their jerseys were worn proudly and the flags of their home countries flew whenever the national team was playing. But make no mistake, when you talked to their kids who had lived the majority, if not all, of their lives here, they were Americans. The same way my family and the vast majority of American families became American.
This past Sunday was different. Mexico was playing Germany in a World Cup match. There were no Mexican flags flying. Nobody walking down the street wearing their jerseys. In fact, on an achingly beautiful June morning when the sky was so blue it hurt to look at it, when the air was soft and warm, there was nobody walking down Main Street-at all. There were no pick up games in the park. I hadn't thought about it until the next day, but on Saturday, the usual procession to church was missing. The street looked empty. It was empty and it was unnerving. And by it's absence, you could get a sense of the life that had been brought to our little town by the latest wave of immigrants and that was now missing.
This is Donald Trump's world and the world of his fellow travelers. Strip us of our diversity. Drive people to the shadows with fear. Its one thing to turn on the TV and see the havoc he's brought us on a grand scale. It's a different perspective to see it up close and personal. Both views suck. We can bitch and complain, but it isn't enough. This is about real people. Real families. It's about the future of our country. It's about the soul of our nation.
We can't let this happen to strangers who look to our country for hope and we damn sure can't let this happen to our neighbors who are making their lives here. Find a way, big or small, to make a difference. It might not work, but then again it just might. No matter where we're headed as a nation it is important. If it turns out badly, you want to be able to say you did what you could. If it turns out well, you want to have had a hand in it. Either way, you don't want to say you stood by and watched. This is my town and my neighbors and my friends and I'm going to stand by them any way I can. I hope they would do the same for me-but it really doesn't matter. This will be for my benefit as much as it is for them.
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Thanks!
rocktivity
every time I try to get out-DU pulls me back in! Good to hear from you.
At any rate, I hope my stewardship of the remainder of the Christie Crime Digest did you proud...
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10661400
rocktivity
"In fact, on an achingly beautiful June morning when the sky was so blue it hurt to look at
it, when the air was soft and warm, there was nobody walking down Main Street-at all."
We need more real-life stories like this from around the US. The entire country has benefited in many ways from hard working immigrants for decades - mostly in jobs Americans don't want.
Between these anti-immigration moves and the tariffs, Trump may bring our economy to its knees with his ass-backwards policies.
..........
when you're able to get a personal perspective, the scene before you changes. That's a big part of what I was trying to convey. And you are correct, that's how eventually you move society. My neighbors? It's complicated. This is a real conservative town. But some of the things they do will astound you. What they say is one thing, what they do-sometimes I just can't explain. I could probably write a book about it. Anyway, I'm from the northern part of the state. We have farms too 
, just not like the great vegetable farms where you're from.
I haven't had a decent tomato since I left the state. My grandmother used to raise tomatoes and corn in her home garden that would bring tears to your eyes!"just not like the great vegetable farms where you're from."
Now there's a lesson for all of us. 
..if it's between exit 168-172 on GSP 
Excellent post and I agree with all you have poignantly said. My children and I have also built friendships with many of the families in our town who immigrated from Mexico and other Latin American countries. They are truly at the top of the class, activities, etc and their families models to follow.
This time last year my 8th grader went on the school trip to Washington DC. Many of the white students wore MAGA hats and taunted these students throughout the three day trip. Because they could. The VP of the high school is a T. rump supporter as are a few of the teachers and they are quite vocal. (I teach high school on a nearby town and would be fired on the spot for some things I have heard these teachers and admin say).
So I got involved in the school community by volunteering for some positions in the schools and attending social events (many did not include the Hispanic community). What I found was horrifying. Parents in the town I once considered friends were espousing openly racist beliefs against these families. They told me they openly voted for T. rump and were hoping many of these families would be deported. One family lost everything in a fire and had to leave the community and I heard again and again "good riddance". To top it all off, during my first meeting as an parent advisor of a school club a faculty member expressed openly racist remarks and disclosed confidential information about a specific minority family. When I raised the issue with other parents and administration I was told I was over-reacting and "everyone feels the same way about the Mexicans". I am still trying to make a difference but I feel very much alone in this town.
Sorry for the long rant. Just wanted to point out that this is also happening in wealthy northern NJ town.
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