Law of One Society - Observations of the One

When the Least of My People are Blamed
by Brian Sanchez (05/08/2006)

If it is true that American citizens are willing to work the jobs and undergo the conditions only illegal immigrants are willing to subject themselves to, then why don't I see any of our millions of unemployed and/or homeless American citizens stand side-by-side with the illegal immigrant day laborers patiently waiting to get picked up in front of your local Home Depot stores? Why don't I see our millions of unemployed and/or homeless American citizens selling oranges or mangos on street corners rather than complaining that "those damn Mexicans" have taken their jobs and opportunities away from them? Why don't I see any of our millions of unemployed and/or homeless American citizens lining up to get jobs as plantation pickers, garment district sewers, or hotel maids? Don't our American brothers and sisters realize the potential job opportunities they can tap into? Look at all the produce for sale you see in your supermarkets. Look at all those houses, condos and office parks being built in and around your neighborhoods. Look at your neighbor's driveway being repaved and additional room being added. Look at all the latest technological devices you and your friends carry inside your pockets and purses. Look at the very clothes and shoes that you wear, and all the clothes that you and your family own in your walk-in closets. Look at all the junk you own, and all the junk you covet? These are the fruits of millions of jobs just waiting for you to take! Am I right? You deserve it. You have been a hardworking, tax-paying American citizen all your life, right? You are entitled to it and all that this bountiful country offers, correct? Of course!

Then why don't I see you standing next to your illegal brethren, waiting for an American citizen to pick you out among the eager crowd of immigrant day laborers in front of Home Depot, so you can help repave this American citizen's driveway or renovate his home? If you need a job so much, then why don't I see you lining up to get jobs as a cherry plantation picker or a Best Western hotel maid? Is it because you know you won't be offered a fair and adequate living wage? Is it because you are afraid that the working conditions won't be up to decent humane standards? Is it because you won't be able to unionize if and when you believe you are being treated unfairly by your employers? Is it because you are afraid to be treated as less than human, with little to no regard of you and your family's well-being? Of course. Even the poor and homeless believe they deserve to be treated with respect.

Then what really is to blame? That is for you to ask yourself. Most are content with swatting mosquitoes to no end. Some choose to drain the water hole from which they hatched from. Few question why there is a hole in the first place.

A mother dingo leaves the safety of her natural habitat due to the unconscious human encroachment that has decimated her family's food source and way of life. She ventures off into the unknown of the urban wilderness looking for only the meager scraps discarded by these gluttonous humans so that she may return home to feed her needy children with whatever food she can find. In her search to feed herself and her children, she is eventually discovered by a fearful human, and is shot dead. She risked her life for the sake of her children. You would have done the same.

To quote a man whom millions of righteous Americans worship, but few if any actually strive to truly exemplify: "Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me."

To the least of my people.