It is disheartening to hear a recent acquaintance of mine tell me he is voting for Trump because he wants all the Mexicans gone from America. I told him that no one would work the farms to pick the fruits, nuts and vegetables. Since generations of Mexican undocumented immigrants have been coming to America during the harvesting seasons. This is nothing new, for over a century Mexicans have trekked across our western lands working the fields and groves. My acquaintance, I won't call him my friend, thinks that we can get younger folks to do the harvesting so the migrants need not come back to America.
If that had been the case, that our American youth would suddenly turn into harvesters, it would have happened long ago. Harvesting is an underpaid and back breaking job. I know no one who could last a day at the pace the migrant harvesters perform at. Let alone survive off the meager wages they are paid. But for my acquaintance, this was his big issue, kick the Mexicans out of America. I thought about our exchange for awhile after we disconnected our call. It is surprising to me that as he is getting older and more in need of social security and medicare, that protecting these services wouldn't be more important to him.
Then I thought about where he was raised and who influences him. He has some built in biases and prejudices that have been fostered by those around him. Surely he could well have been a different person if his lifelong enculturation had more enlightenment to it. Stereotypes and superstition seem to have ruled the day with him and now he cannot find reality and what is best for him and most of the rest of us because his filter won't let him raise his own ability to see comprehensively. I suppose over some time of him interacting with me I can be persuasive but then again he still has to want to learn. Living in a vacuum where everything is comfortable enough seems to be an attraction too many who don't appreciate knowledge find safe and empowering.
If that had been the case, that our American youth would suddenly turn into harvesters, it would have happened long ago. Harvesting is an underpaid and back breaking job. I know no one who could last a day at the pace the migrant harvesters perform at. Let alone survive off the meager wages they are paid. But for my acquaintance, this was his big issue, kick the Mexicans out of America. I thought about our exchange for awhile after we disconnected our call. It is surprising to me that as he is getting older and more in need of social security and medicare, that protecting these services wouldn't be more important to him.
Then I thought about where he was raised and who influences him. He has some built in biases and prejudices that have been fostered by those around him. Surely he could well have been a different person if his lifelong enculturation had more enlightenment to it. Stereotypes and superstition seem to have ruled the day with him and now he cannot find reality and what is best for him and most of the rest of us because his filter won't let him raise his own ability to see comprehensively. I suppose over some time of him interacting with me I can be persuasive but then again he still has to want to learn. Living in a vacuum where everything is comfortable enough seems to be an attraction too many who don't appreciate knowledge find safe and empowering.
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