listening skills...

Does anyone really listen to what others say these days?  In my humble opinion, the answer is a resounding "NO!!!"    Case in point:


... so, my phone rings yesterday morning... waking me up...

"hullo?"

"may I speak with David Cobb?"

"David Cobb doesn't live at this phone number."

"do you know him?"

"No."

"can I leave a message for him?"

"I don't know him."

"oh... ok... good-bye."

...and I thought I was the one that was half asleep during that conversation...

HT: youth on the edge

Immigrant Workers... Immigration Reform

In my humble opinion, we have a horrendous problem here in the United States...  that being how we think of and treat those who cross our borders, albeit illegally, in order to make a better life for themselves, because they feel they have no other choice.  


We lump these undocumented immigrant farm workers together with those who would cross our borders to cause harm through violence and drug trafficking and thereby sooth our consciences as to the ways that they are treated here in the great United States of America.  We conveniently forget that many of these workers were brought here and are exploited by the very people they work for, and that they have little or no recourse for obtaining justice under our laws.  While slavery may not legally exist within the USA,  never-the-less, many immigrant farm workers are treated little better than those slaves of history past.


We hide behind present legalities and economic situations, contending that [undocumented] immigrant farm workers are taking jobs away from "good red-blooded Americans" who are in desperate need of employment.  While I don't doubt that in these times there are thousands of good red-blooded Americans in desperate need of employment, I sincerely doubt that many of them would want to endure the harsh working conditions and low pay associated with migrant farm work.  


And while this type of farm work is back-breakingly hard, it is needed!!  Crops cannot harvest themselves.  Although there have been technological advances in mechanical harvesting, reducing labor needs and harvest costs, which allow farmers to remain competitive in the world market, there are still many crops that are hand-harvested.  According to authors James F. Thompson and Steven C. Blank in a research article entitled Harvest Mechanization Helps Agriculture Remain Competitive  "much effort has been devoted to these crops [current crops still hand-harvested], but in the last 20 years there have been only a few advancements in developing commercial harvesters."  


Surely we in this great nation of ours can find a way to come together to reform immigration policies, so that people who need work [even if they come from our neighboring country to the south], can legally find it in the US, so they will not be exploited by those for whom they work and will not have to live in fear of their employers as well as our police forces, and in the process of working in our country, contribute to its economic growth.  


Ahhh... but perhaps, giving workers from our neighboring country to the south the ability to legally enter our country for work purposes, possibly reducing the exploitation they suffer, giving them legal recourse for justice, and thereby eliminating the near-slave status they endure, is something that those with power to make such changes do not really want...  after all, the workers might not want to work down on the farm anymore...   and then where would we be?


This morning I watched a YouTube video of Steve Colbert as he testified before a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security.  He has done a marvelous job of using satire to comment on the issue of immigration reform.  I offer this for some thought-provoking enjoyment!