Illegal Aliens, The American Dream, and Lazy Kids

As a child I could not get over how the mothers and fathers of other kids gave such good allowances for nothing.  My parents never gave me an allowance that I can remember.  To be frank, we never went anywhere that I could spend the allowance if I had it.  My parents didn't buy me whatever I asked for, either. Even the generosity of the tooth fairy was at most 25 cents, but most of the time only a dime and sometimes nothing at all. If I wanted money, I had to find ways to earn it - and boy, I was eager to do so.   However, the regular chores did not earn you money.  It had to well above and beyond the call of regular chores.

I worked hard as a kid, doing anything I could that might earn money - from pulling weeds for neighbors, feeding cows, or hoeing cotton for others. When I was about 14 years old,(1965) my parents allowed me to drive a tractor for a neighbor.  Mind you it wasn’t anything that required great driving skills, and the tractor by default was a 70 model John Deere with an awning.  Not the best of conditions.  A little dusty but a tandem disc and at least 80 acres with no obstructions was my best job.  But I was so thrilled to have this type of job that I would get there early and stay late and as I went round and round with that tandem.  I would calculate over and over again how much money I had made so far.  Let’s see $2.00 per hour and I have been here 4 hours and 15 minutes.  Wow!  At this rate I am really going to make some money this week. 

Overall, I was totally delighted to have a job and earn money.  Even if it was not of the best conditions and the best equipment, I was thrilled to have the job.  This was the mindset of most of the kids of that era.  This thinking doesn’t seem to exist today.  When the thought of a job arises, a young person today will ask abruptly, how much do I get paid and something about how hard is the work. 

Apparently, this is the attitude of the  kids near farms today.  Too few of the lame, lazy kids that do live near farmers want work as badly as I did. Otherwise...otherwise we wouldn't be arguing about what to do with illegal migrant workers. We wouldn’t need them and we wouldn't be hiring them at the rate we do, and they wouldn't have the same lure to sneak illegally into America.

But, that as it may be, illegal immigrants do provide the agricultural industry in America with a ready labor force, a labor force farmers might not be able to find elsewhere. And so, we have Congress arguing about just how to deal with illegals - hard working or not.

And that again is always my question.  If they are illegal, we need to find ways to make them legal or send them back to their home country.

Just a few thoughts on Illegal Aliens