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The OP's posts, quite frankly, are repulsive. They are, however, par for the course on a board where gays, blacks, and those who are not white, heterosexual Christians are routinely mocked.
strumpeace, I have always given you credit for being an objective person, but..I've got to ask you to cite on this one.
Maybe it's like the gay-bashing, pro-klan, redneck christians in little Rock, I just haven't been in the right place at the right time. I have asked, as you know, where to find those people so I may join the entertainment, but alas, nobody is letting me in on the secret.
I go through just about every thread on this board, and the routine mocking on this board of any one gay, not pro-klan, not a redneck christian, has eluded me.
The OP's posts, quite frankly, are repulsive. They are, however, par for the course on a board where gays, blacks, and those who are not white, heterosexual Christians are routinely mocked.
Sad, sad world we're living in right now.
I have read this thread and just do not see that. The OP made clear his issue is with "illegals".
It is a sad world where people make false accusations of racism in an effort to silence the criticism of illegal activities of others. Secondly the only person here that is singling out other races in a repugnant manner is you. I think you need to take a long hard look at yourself and decide whether you are truly free of not judging others based on race or religion.
I grew up in LA and the OP is right. For the record, not every illegal who comes over is looking to work and send money back to their families. Those people aren't the problem. The problem illegals are the ones who are in gangs. The problems ones are the ones who come here pop out a kid and then sit on their butts and collect welfare checks.
It's so bad now that if you don't speak Spanish you can't get a social service job. Because they refuse to learn English, they send their children to school unable to speak English. As a result, the class is slowed down and none of the children get a decent quality of education. I had to move from a very beautiful area of California because when I got sick and my husband's health insurance hadn't kicked in yet, I had to go to the local county clinic they almost wouldn't take me because they were so overrun with the migrant workers. I had to beg for service. It turned out I had strep throat. I moved back to LA because I thought at least I can go to County Hospital if I get sick again. Unfortunately, because of the number of people there (mostly illegals) there is a 4 - 6 hour wait for service.
My sister (who was blind in one eye, a below the knee amputee and on dialysis) had to pay a co-pay for her Medi-Cal because the system was so overflowing with patients.
Don't get me wrong, if someone wants a better quality of life and is willing to work for it, I'm all for them having it. However, is it fair to the thousands of people who are waiting and going through the system legally trying to come here to legalize the million who said to heck with the rules? It takes longer for a person to come here legally now because of those coming here illegally.
But the illegal immigration is NOT the only problem or reason California, LA in particular is in such bad shape. Corporate greed is just as major a player. Prices have been jacked up so high and wages dropped so low, that few people can afford to live here. A one bedroom apartment costs an average of $900 per month and wages average $2,000 per month. People flock here thinking they'll have a better life from all over the country and contribute greatly to the overcrowding. And the law saying that a 12yo can get an abortion without her parents knowing anything about it is the icing on my cake.
To Kraken, you really got to know California in the 4 years that you were there. Mostly everything that you say I can validate, since I grew up there. I lived there for 25 years, since age 13, I also lived in Arizona for a couple of years. I have recently relocated to Cabot, AR and I can tell everyone, that this is absolutely the best place that I have ever lived in all of my days. The people who live in Arkansas, that have never lived or even visited other states don't have a reference point to compare where they live to somewhere else, so they usually say that Arkansas "s**ks". I have heard many critical comments about the state, someone mentioned that there are a lot of pot holes around Jacksonville, AR. Potholes!, I'll show you potholes!, there are miles and miles and miles of unkept freeways in Southern California, especially the L.A. area. These pothole filled streets and freeways really reek havoc on your vehicle, probably causes misalignments and who knows what else. I really appreciate the smooth freeways down here....the 440 fwy is lovely and the 40 fwy coming from Fort Smith to Little Rock is like a dream come true, so new, smooth and well kept and the 30 fwy from Little Rock to Texarkana is wonderful, need I say more about the roads? THANK YOU ARKANSAS HWY AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION DEPT., Now back to your comments Kraken, I have did security work in California for many years and my pay would be around $8.45-$9.00 an hour, that was the going rate, and I'm talking about just within the last 5 years. I have found a security job down here in Arkansas, and I actually get paid $10.50 an hour, can you believe that? I struggled to keep my 600.00 a month rent paid in a suburb of L.A., which was for a place that was about 650 square feet. Now I live in a nice place that is 990 square feet and the rent is only 545.00 a month and I have a job paying almost $2.00 more an hour, I am truly thankful. I made it out of California just before the bottom fell out in the economy and right before gas prices hit almost $5.00 a gallon out there. O.K. Kraken, you sound very intuitive and it obviously doesn't take you long to figure something out, however, dude please lighten up on the hard slant that you appear to have towards "illegal immigrants" or "hispanic people", have a heart, woudn't you try to escape a very economically bad situation and try to make a better way for yourself and your family even if you had to cross the border into another country illegally, hey no one wants to starve or see their kids go without, we "legal U.S. citizens" and the so called "illegal" are all just trying to make it. If there is room for me over here then there is room for others, my life is no more valuable or important just because I happened to have been born in this GREAT NATION.
I have ZERO problem with anyone who wants to legally enter this country to make a better life for their family. Legally entering this country would require proper criminal background checks and they would have to pay taxes to help support they systems that they use.
Instead, illegal aliens burden our economic and social systems because they DO NOT PAY TAXES and are undocumented so the crime element is HUGE in areas with lots of illegals.
So I guess Kracken will not be moving to Springdale, parts of which look like the barrio already. Arkansas has the potential to become like California unless they stamp down on measures to offer free emergency health care for illegals (which was on a ballot recently) and offer illegals the same rate for University tuition as Arkansas residents. I could not figure that one out: Why would an illegal from Mexico be entitled to pay less for a college education in Arkansas than someone from Oklahoma?
There is a liberal element in Arkansas who wish to make us more 'diverse' by trying to get these types of measures passed by the legislature. From my own experiences, the problems that are associated with illegal immigration are immense and irreversible. The only way to stop this from happening in Arkansas is to hold local politicians accountable.
No Hannu, I will NOT be moving to Springdale, Arkansas and understand from friends who live there that Springdale is already feeling the strain of illegals who are sucking the system dry of its resources.
As far as college tuition, it is ridiculous to think that anyone who is in this country illegally should be given a special discount on their tuition over and above someone from, say, Texas who lives out of state but is in this country legally. All that does is reinforce the idea to illegals that they can skip the proper channels for immigration and basically "cut in line" ahead of other people who are legal.
The OP's posts, quite frankly, are repulsive. They are, however, par for the course on a board where gays, blacks, and those who are not white, heterosexual Christians are routinely mocked.
Sad, sad world we're living in right now.
Newsflash: I am a GAY PERSON who lives in this country LEGALLY and PAYS MY TAXES and does NOT receive the same level of rights as ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
Where are my rights in this long line?
Hence the sarcasm of my reply. OP lays alot of blame for problems. But I saw no solutions in his posts.
Here are some solutions:
* For the illegals who are already here: Make them pay back-taxes on any income made under the table, make them pay back any public assistance they have received while here illegally, stop giving them extra "free" assistance over and above people who are here legally, and make them undergo birth control education. Then do criminal background checks on all of them and for the ones who do not have a criminal history, legalize them.
* For the people who have green cards, keep them coming. If they have gone through the correct legal channels then they have a right to be here.
* Close the border. Stop allowing companies like Tyson to hire illegal immigrants for cheap labor when there are legal American citizens here who need jobs.
I grew up in LA and the OP is right. For the record, not every illegal who comes over is looking to work and send money back to their families. Those people aren't the problem. The problem illegals are the ones who are in gangs. The problems ones are the ones who come here pop out a kid and then sit on their butts and collect welfare checks.
It's so bad now that if you don't speak Spanish you can't get a social service job. Because they refuse to learn English, they send their children to school unable to speak English. As a result, the class is slowed down and none of the children get a decent quality of education. I had to move from a very beautiful area of California because when I got sick and my husband's health insurance hadn't kicked in yet, I had to go to the local county clinic they almost wouldn't take me because they were so overrun with the migrant workers. I had to beg for service. It turned out I had strep throat. I moved back to LA because I thought at least I can go to County Hospital if I get sick again. Unfortunately, because of the number of people there (mostly illegals) there is a 4 - 6 hour wait for service.
My sister (who was blind in one eye, a below the knee amputee and on dialysis) had to pay a co-pay for her Medi-Cal because the system was so overflowing with patients.
Don't get me wrong, if someone wants a better quality of life and is willing to work for it, I'm all for them having it. However, is it fair to the thousands of people who are waiting and going through the system legally trying to come here to legalize the million who said to heck with the rules? It takes longer for a person to come here legally now because of those coming here illegally.
But the illegal immigration is NOT the only problem or reason California, LA in particular is in such bad shape. Corporate greed is just as major a player. Prices have been jacked up so high and wages dropped so low, that few people can afford to live here. A one bedroom apartment costs an average of $900 per month and wages average $2,000 per month. People flock here thinking they'll have a better life from all over the country and contribute greatly to the overcrowding. And the law saying that a 12yo can get an abortion without her parents knowing anything about it is the icing on my cake.
Arkansas here I come!
I can't wait to move to Arkansas
CESpeed, you just nailed something that most people who have never lived in California don't really understand.
Most people in Arkansas who are thinking that those "poor illegals just want to make a better life for their children" don't understand that the illegals who come in and leech the system know full-well what kind of free services they can get before they ever arrive and that MANY of them are tied to huge drug cartels or have a history of violent crimes or theft.
There are huge articles in Mexican newspapers and being distributed through La Raza that TELL illegal aliens how to get the free services and what the best areas are for free services.
These are NOT people who are interested in going through the proper LEGAL channels. These are people who think that making a better life for themselves must come at the expense of tax-paying Americans.
Unfortunately, the Liberals (and I am a Liberal so this isnt a political thing for me) who want illegal immigrants to be given a fast track "free cut in line" are not aware of how illegal immigration has BANKRUPTED and DEVASTATED states like California (which now has a $21 BILLION deficit due mostly to illegal immigrants and the leeching of the public systems)
Newsflash: I am a GAY PERSON who lives in this country LEGALLY and PAYS MY TAXES and does NOT receive the same level of rights as ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
Where are my rights in this long line?
Kraken, you are a brave soul to step in here like that, and I admire that, but don't expect to recieve the respect that some demand.
If one posts, and complains about their treatment as an atheist, a gay person, a person of color, whatever they percieve as the reason they didn't win the lottery and the mailman was late, there is agreement.
However, if a person *dare* post and say, "I accepted the Lord as my savior, and therefore do not condone <whatever>".
OH, bud......as Shakespeare put it, "Cry havoc and loose the dogs of war".
What you portray as a problem in California is valid. It is not limited to California. Many states have the problem, and eventually, sure as God made green apples it will be here.
I know that what you point out is not meant to be the only thing wrong with the state, and we're all aware of a plethora of issues in CA that make some people want to leave the state. Some people like it.
However, realize Kraken, that the attitude of taking care of those who did not work for it, who do not qualify for it, over the people who evry day work so that they may contribute a portion of that to the state & feds, is not limted to CA and very much exists here, also.
Someone posted a while back, "If you do not share my opinions, I don't think you're a very nice person".
Heh...you can't roll a rock up a hill that steep.
Anyway, most certainly welcome to the forum. Understand that just because you have, "been there, done that, got the t-shirt", certainly doesn't mean you're not going to get clobbered by someone who can use mom's laptop while she's at work.
* For the illegals who are already here: Make them pay back-taxes on any income made under the table, make them pay back any public assistance they have received while here illegally, stop giving them extra "free" assistance over and above people who are here legally, and make them undergo birth control education. Then do criminal background checks on all of them and for the ones who do not have a criminal history, legalize them.
* For the people who have green cards, keep them coming. If they have gone through the correct legal channels then they have a right to be here.
* Close the border. Stop allowing companies like Tyson to hire illegal immigrants for cheap labor when there are legal American citizens here who need jobs.
There are your solutions.
Thank You!
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