BY (Updated on April 29, 2010)
The following was broadcast on KUNM FM, Albuquerque as part of a series Youth Speak Out, a collaboration between Youth Radio, Youth Media Project in Santa Fe, KUNM’s Youth Radio in Albuquerque, and New Mexico's Youth Alliance, made possible by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. For more information about Youth Speak Out go to www.youthradio.org/new-mexico.
by Omar Torres
I have never been a very political person. When I was younger, the only thing I knew about politics was from my parents, and it was that they’re dirty. Because of that I grew up disinterested in anything political. Then something hit me: I realized that politics affect me more than I ever knew and that regular people can have an impact in the political world. So then, I thought, I might as well pay attention.
Lou Dobbs, to me, seemed like an ideal person to have in politics--a television news commentator fighting for the middle class, criticizing both political parties for only looking out for corporate America and companies for outsourcing jobs overseas. But he has one significant flaw: his misconception of illegal immigrants.
On his show, Dobbs claimed illegal immigrants endanger the American way of life. He blamed illegal immigrants for stealing jobs, hurting the economy, committing crime, and taking more resources than they give back. His whole depiction of reality is wrong. To begin with, no jobs are being stolen by the immigrant population; the jobs they acquire are the leftovers that no one else wants.
When my uncle first arrived to the US, he worked picking Chile at ten cents a crate. He said it was one of the hardest jobs he’s ever done. After work his hands would burn. And when my dad came here to start a new life, he was a below-minimum-wage dishwasher.
Dobbs insists immigrants drain our resources, but illegal immigrants tend to use fewer social services, pay taxes on what they buy and give back to the economy. For example, in 2005, the Public Accounts of Texas stated that “the state revenues collected from undocumented immigrants exceed what the state spent on services, with the difference being more than $400 million.”
Most absurd of all is the rumor he has spread that there is a Mexican plot to reclaim the Southwest. That would mean that I’m part of this plan, along with most of my friends, who are all just working hard in school in order to be better off in the future. Mr. Dobbs, with ideas like this, you become a joke to people who can see beyond their noses.
As I became more interested in politics, I saw the power people can hold when they come together. Dobbs was a very influential person, yet when a group of latinos from ordinary communities throughout the US, like presente.org boycotted him; it became one of the major factors in Dobbs recent resignation from CNN. I now see that in order for me to change the “dirty politics” that I grew up knowing, I need to get involved. So this is me getting involved.
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