On "Emerging Markets"

An article in the Courier Tribune last week really bugged me. But my adventures with old and new vehicles preoccupied my down time last week, and I did not have time to comment on the story when it came out. Then the Sunday paper came out with an insert entitled “The Economics of the Hispanic Presence in N.C.”. I drafted a post that responded to both articles yesterday. But then I lost it to a Blogspot glitch, and I just don’t have the energy to do it all again. This post is an abbreviated version of the first, and it’s probably for the best. I related a personally traumatic experience from my RMA days (when the language-barrier was used by another physician as a weapon & grandstanding tool). It’s a dark memory. I’ll save it for a rainy day.

The Courier Tribune is nothing if not a mouthpiece for the Asheboro Chamber of Commerce. The newspaper has a tendency to try and educate us all as to how we should think, rather than serve as a genuine forum for how people really think. They did it on the union issue (at GoodYear) . . . and the union came. I believe it demonstrates just how out-of-touch the paper is with its readership.

Where the Kathi Keys article was concerned, in keeping with the PowersThatBe notion that everything in Asheboro comes down to how much money can be made (for ThePeopleWhoAreAlreadyLoaded) off anything and anybody, Hispanics are identified as an “emerging market”. The article doesn’t miss a beat as it goes on to explain how this “emerging market” can be exploited for the extra car and grocery money these people have to spare . . . never mind that 76 percent of them (migrating to North Carolina from abroad between 1995 and 2004) did not have “authorization” to come to the United States. There’s a number you can call if your business wants to know more. And the Chamber is sponsoring a “Lunch & Learn” for businesses in June.

I’ve got news for the “expert”. Read the business signs on North Fayetteville Street. The “emerging market” is already here.

The UNC-G “expert” cited in Kathi Keys’ article did not address AT ALL many of the issues that concerned citizens brought up at the much-ballyhooed “Asheboro 20/20” meetings just a few months ago. “Buying power” is nice. But what about the tremendous burdens that catering to this “emerging market” has place upon our social safety nets . . . our systems of education and medicine and law enforcement? What about the cost to the taxpayer? Illegal immigration has been a problem for YEARS. But it was ignored by ThePowersThatBe for the sake of easy profits and votes (I’ve blogged before on the experience of standing beside a man while voting, and the only English words he could say were “George Bush”). Now, the businessmen and politicians who, for so long, ignored the problem (and its consequences - the ones that aren't so easy to sell as an "economic plus") are suffering a back-lash from law-abiding, disgusted middle-America . . . the people who just coped with whatever was dumped in their laps, and paid the bills that kill.

The Courier/Chamber is not going to be able to stem the tide of that backlash here by sponsoring a few “greed is good” lunches.

The fact that people are disgusted enough with the status quo to start asking these questions, and challenging the irresponsible "don't ask, don't tell" policies of the last ten years (policies that obviously are not working), does NOT mean we lack compassion - or that we're "racist" or "prejudiced". It doesn't mean we don't care, or that we don't want everyone to have a fair chance at the opportunities America has to offer. The key word is "fair".

OBTW, I haven’t gotten any follow-up on the “Asheboro 20/20” project at all . . . since the “task force” leaders (headed by Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison) retreated back into their boardrooms. No one in City government (which sponsored the exercise) ever responded to my letter. I predicted that they would put on a big show (to be able to claim they got community input), and then do whatever they wanted. And the newspaper is certainly playing that prediction out now.

The thing that bothered me most about the Kathi Keys article was the “expert’s” entreaty for local businesses to cater to the “emerging market” by communicating in Spanish. Excuse me, NO. Bad idea. Here’s why: One of my three majors in college (the “fun” one – in large part due to a professor named JD Minyard, who possessed a wonderfully wicked sense of humor) was Latin/Classical Civilization (if you want to really feel the power of language, study Latin). One of the (many & varied) theories I heard pertaining to the fall of Rome was that when the Empire got so huge, and had assimilated so much in the way of diverse cultures and languages/dialects, it began to corrode from within . . . because there was no sense of unity and commonality. It’s a theory that is playing out in the here and now. The United States government MUST wake up, and do something to control our borders . . . to insist upon standards of behavior appropriate to the rights & privileges of citizenship . . . and to enforce immigration laws.

A few weeks ago, I drove by a community college on the way home that was offering trade courses taught in Spanish . . . a prime example of our tax dollars pandering rather than holding and expecting a standard. To quote a great movie line (from “The American President”), “America is hard. It’s advanced citizenship. You’ve got to want it bad.” I would add that America is NOT all about instant gratification and entitlement. After years of seeing the burdens that the un-addressed problems of illegal immigration have placed on medicine (while those in business & commerce exploited the “emerging market”, ignored what was going on, and happily collected their profits), I feel very strongly about this: Where the language is concerned, it is time this country stopped making it easy for people who are here illegally. People “immigrating” to the United States need to understand and accept that the language of commerce and education and medicine and law (not to mention street signs) is English. The immigrants of the early 20th Century knew it. All of my foreign-born friends in medicine who have jumped through all the hoops, and endured glorified indentured servitude, and stood in line for years in order to get their green cards have understood it. So what gives now?

I had/have more to say & share on this subject. I feel strongly that NO ONE IN MEDICINE IS TALKING HONESTLY ABOUT THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION (OR ITS TRUE COSTS TO SOCIETY). But right now, I will take the Blogspot glitch as a sign from The Almighty and save it for another time. He’s probably tweaking me for going to see The DaVinci Code last night.

It’s Memorial Day. And I need to stop and smell some flowers.