Capricorn
I never thought I'd leave Honduras. Not until my husband started to beat me and my kids up. Mario and I had been married for 16 years. He was an alcoholic when I started dating him and I didn't know it. I knew he liked to drink, but I never imagined he had a real problem. I just believed he liked partying and drinking, like most of the young people, especially men, do. Unfortunately I was wrong.
The first two years of marriage weren't that bad. I got pregnant with twins and after they were born I was too busy taking care of my babies. Mario used to work as a painter but he started drinking all his earnings. Food was extremely scarce and soon our living conditions became unsustainable.
When the kids were about 5 years old I started working full-time as a maid and took on extra jobs, such as sewing and babysitting so that I could feed my family.
Mario began beating me shortly after he lost his job for the fifth time in less than two months. He would slap me and punch me and hit me with anything he could lay his hands on. He would also threaten to kill me with his cutlass and his revolver. I still have scars all over my body and permanent psychological damage because of his brutality.
I complained to the police on many occasions, but they would do nothing. Once, my children called the police in sheer desperation, but when the officer arrived at the door and overheard my screams, he told my children he could do nothing.
The reason? My husband's brother was a police officer. For a time he worked directly for the Commissioner of Police. One day I went to the Commissioner to complain.
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Oh give me a break! What
By Tim Murray, May 18, 2007 at 23:46Oh give me a break! What about the "human" cost to the low-income American worker who gets displaced by this illegal alien? African-Americans get victimized most. What about low-income hard working Americans who are paying too much taxes to support these illegals? According to the Heritage Foundation,each illegal immigrant household draws $23,000 more in government benefits than they pay in taxes PER YEAR. Think about the HUMAN cost to those Americans having to work TWO jobs and spend more time away from their kids to pay those friggin' taxes? What about the HUMAN cost of the clearly documented higher number of crimes committed by illegals? Why does the media focus on the sob stories of those who CHOSE to accept North American conditions rather than focus on the hardships of people who were born here but have no where to go? Open borders is not the agenda of humanitarianism. It is the agenda of Big Corporations and cheap labour employers. These are the same forces which through free trade have undercut the economy from which migrants have fled, and having impoverished them, is using them to impoverish the American worker. Scrap free trade, restore the Central American economy through massive restitution, restore living wage scales to service and menial American jobs and finance the whole project by heavy corporate taxes. That would be my recipe. And save some concern for "The Human Cost of Being a Working Class American."
Some Americans feel
By pcortesw, August 1, 2006 at 08:29Some Americans feel threatened with the idea of having immigrants in "their country". Unfortunately many people forget their own roots. It did worry me to see today on TV one American politician saying that one of his fears now, considering that Fidel Castro is sick, is to have a increase in the flow of Cubans to the US.
Unfortunately some terms such as solidarity and common well being are buried deed down the ground.
What i find really
By luyendao, August 14, 2006 at 13:21What i find really worrisome, is not so much that people worry about their own security. Remember when Japanese cars and imports were "dominating" the US economy, there was also a backlack, but certainly it seems that the attitude and degree of it seems more acute now, than it did before.
The language, the policies, the overall stance seems more aggressive, there is more willingness to act out on these things rather than to evaluate them.
It's the kneejerk reactions that i worry about the most.
While I was living in San
By pameriquelme, August 1, 2006 at 08:05While I was living in San Diego, California, I saw lot of illegals trying to survive, to get a better life, to have a chance in life. They were honest and decent people so its unbelievable the position of Mr. Bush in this topic. Building a big wall, like in Berlin during the past century, it´s not the way...