I thought it was a terrible display of journalism on your part to write an article saying that illegal immigration may be the best thing for Painesville [“The Superior Americans,” July 18]. Are you a professional? Did you major in journalism? Did you even go to college? I am dumbfounded that your article was even printed, let alone published by Scene.
You treated the ordinary citizens of Painesville as if they were the KKK. What part of “illegal” don’t you understand, Mr. Klaus? You quoted a man who said that he has no problem with the illegal Mexicans. He goes on to say: “They clean up their property. They clean up their house. They make it look decent.”
That is one man’s opinion. Obviously you didn’t do your reporting, because the majority of residents are fed up with the illegal Mexicans living like pigs, parking on lawns, drinking with open containers, etc. You talk about it not being “uncommon to see single-family homes crammed like motels — one family per bedroom” like it is a good thing. And why does Chief Gary Smith have to explain the laws to them? If they were legal citizens of the United States, they would know the laws of the land.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2007.
Right on, dude!
I cannot think of anything to add to Mr.Tranners statement . He covered it all.
Obviously the article by Mr. Klaus is totally one sided.
Mr.Klaus I would like for you to read about Dani Countryman, a 15 year old murdered by two illegal alien cousins, while being raped.Justify those actions.
You are a blemish on the ass of real journalist Mr. Klaus. You are biased, and you are Anti-American.You should go live in Mexico.
I have one to say to you moronic bigots: Waaaaaah.
Having much more experience living in an area inundated with illegals, than any native Ohion ever will, (I grew up in west Texas) I can tell you a few things about them. With a few exceptions, these are for the most part very hardworking and honest people, with no agenda other than to better the lives of themselves and their family members. Who can blame them? They may be under-educated in a lot of cases, but they are not stupid. They don’t want to live five families to a house, or work for less than minimum wage. Who would? If it were up to them, most of them would go about things 100% legally and live by the law like the rest of us. The problem is that this country makes that nearly impossible for them to do. One could easily die of starvation in this country waiting on Green Cards, work visas, etc. And God forbid someone from somewhere else actually wants to become a CITIZEN, it takes YEARS.
The problem with you people is you’ve all forgotten where you came from. This is a country built of immigrants, for immigrants, and by immigrants. You may not be from Mexico Mr. Tranner, but unless your name is Cochise or Geronimo, you are no more “American” than the Mexicans around you are aspiring to be. Where does your family come from Mr.Tranner? Did your ancestors truly crawl out of the primordial red-neck ooze right next to your current residence? Or did they perhaps travel… from another country far away, in order to seek a better life in the greatest country on earth? We should be reaching out to these people and helping them, not oppressing them, hating them, and forcing them to live like rats because they are too scared to come out and get the help they need to get things on the right, and legal track.
The problem with immigration control in this country is not the current roster of judges and police, it’s that immigration control is about five or six hundred years too late. If the first Americans had had the good sense to tell your ancestors “no room at the inn”, and to take their smallpox and plague infested asses back across the pond and stay there, none of this would be an issue now.
Treating these people this way shows beyond a shadow of a doubt sir that YOU are the one who is anti-American. You have obviously forgotten all of the immigrants who built this great nation, and made it what it is, including the ones who spawned your sorry ass.
Thank you so much–for the truth! I too am sick to death of being reckoned with white supremists and trailer trash simply because I have a high regard for the truth–and the law. One reason Mexico is so corrupt is because it is often an accident for justice to be served. Their rich and powerful are strangling their less fortunate people to the point where they have to live in an unlawful exile–with us. They are sapping our financial resources. Why don’t they wave their Mexican flags and protest in their own country and argue with the same sense of entitlement that they use in our country to get what they want. It would be far more appropriate. I’m sick of these exploiters being so proud of being Mexican. If they’re so proud why are they here? They ought to be grateful to the U.S. for not deporting them. Here’s a myth: America will stop without them–not true. Here’s another: this is a race issue–again–not true! This was and is a LEGAL ISSUE.
Ah, so Greg pulls out the hackneyed “we’re all immigrantsâ€. Perhaps not
west Texas (mercifully it sounds), but living right outside New York City must at least
give me the credibility you deny all Ohioans who, it seems, can’t possibly be speaking
out of anything but ignorance because of where they happen to live.
The fact of the matter is that the desire for something, even something as noble as an
education does not bestow anyone with the right to break the law (I think you can follow
that to its logical and frightening conclusion) and it certainly should not shelter them
from the consequences. Enough with the legality of the issue.
As for the social aspect, I often feel like immigrants are told by I don’t know who and then believe
wholeheartedly that the US is a cultural blank slate onto which they can transfer, in its entirety,
their own. The reality is that there are already dominant cultural norms which everyone expects
them to follow and if ever the norms clash, the immigrant must respectfully acknowledge the decision
that he or she has made to come live in another country and adapt and adopt.
Unlike every immigrant that has chosen to come here, I do not have a country to go home to.
This is it for me. Remember that next time the insults are rolling off your tongue.
Well said.
The only racists in this immigration debate are the Latinos represented by La Raza whose motto says it all ” Everything for our race, nothing for others”. I haven’t seen Americans spit on and call anyone racial names while they were marching. Yet the Latinos sure did it to the Americans, and added they would take over the Western USA, Aztlan, and kick the Americans out.
Our government is getting red to provide funds to this group, so let your representatives know that supporting a racist, sucessionist organisation is not acceptable.
Greg, Sure it is almost impossible to get into the USA and takes a long time. There are people all over the world in line, waiting their turn. There is no reason whatsoever for the Mexicians to cut in line before anyone else. They have no more right to a green card than an African or Asian or European. What they are doing is illegal and criminal. In Mexico, it is two years in jail is you are illegally in their country. The second time it is 10 years in jail. We should adopt that law.
My bad, apologies to all. I completely forgot that Mexicans are the only people on earth who “cut in line” to get into the US. It was silly of me to think that the shipping containers full of Asians and Africans that arrive every month were anything more than figments of my imagination. And all of the illegal Russians and folks from eastern Europe aren’t really here either, they are all at home, watching the tube, and waiting patiently for their paperwork to arrive.
Pull your heads out of the sand folks, Mexican illegals only outnumber the others because their country happens to border ours, and they can just walk in. What if we shared a border with China instead? Are you telling me that we’d still be overrun with Mexican illegals because they are the only ones breaking the rules? Get real.
I’m not saying they are perfect, the sense of entitlement displayed by more than a few of them is diturbing to say the least, I would never move to Mexico and expect the whole country to learn English, that would just be ridiculous. However, stepping on the folks for wanting to fly their flag and celebrate their culture, is something I find incredibly hypocritical in an area where we regularly celebrate the cultures of just about every other ethnicity in existence. On any given weekend here we have festivals celebrating Irish pride, Italian pride, German pride, Russian pride, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, Black, Gay, etc. You name it, and we’ve got a week devoted to it somewhere in the state. but let the Mexicans put a flag up and all hell breaks loose. If that isn’t racism I really don’t know what it could be.
I’m not saying anybody should get a free ride, but human rights have to be a consideration. One of you asserted that the US should adopt a law that would automatically imprison illegals. How nice of you to think so. Let’s take a person living in complete poverty, with no job, no future, hungry, and no way to make any of it better. Now let’s tell them if they go for the one thing that might help them to have a better chance in life, they’ll go to prison. Why not just strangle them at birth? Or line ’em all up and gas ’em? I won’t even delve into what it might do for our already overcrowded prison system, or what kind of tax burden it would put on you and me.
They deserve a shot at the dream. Everybody does. I will agree, quite a few of them could go about things a bit differently, but you can’t blame them for jumping the border. OUR forefathers were the ones who came up with “Give us your tired, your hungry, your poor”. Know why? Because they were immigrants. They understood. Hackneyed truth, is still the truth.
As for LaRaza, that just makes me sad. I have never been able to understand that kind of hate and intolerance. How does a person get that angry at people they don’t even know? Boggles the mind.
FYI to Greg. Our nation was built by Immigrants NOT by Illegal Immigrants. There is a HUGE difference. There was a time when we had open lands and there was a need for Immigrants. But countries, like everything else, do grow up. The United States has. We no longer have the need to “fill up wide-open spaces.” We have certainly NO need for Illegal Aliens. The fact that you have known some “hard-working” Illegal Aliens does not grant them the right to be here. They are taking the place of an American who would like the chance to be “hard-working”, but greedy employers will not hire him/her because they do not want to pay a decent salary nor benefits. Illegals, without benefits are overstraining our health facilities and our schools. I, for one, cannot afford to continue subsidizing them! If they are hard-working they can go back to their own countries and work hard there. As for educational opportunities, there are schools in all of their countries of origen and many of them even offer tuition free college educations. Illegals are the responsibility of their own governments and not our own.
Greg, you start with the racism without even knowing what race I am.FYI my wife is a Native American, my Asst.Director is married to a legal Columbian
Trying to combine the illegal aliens in with those that came legally is low trick.They are NOT the same.
I am against anyone of any race sneaking into this Country, while millions wait in line to come LEGALLY.
My American brothers and sisters are many colors and many cultures, but, we are foremost Americans.WE wave the American flag,We speak English,We pay our taxes, and we are punished if we break the law.We expect nothing less for those who break laws coming here.
Had our laws been enforced,three bright youngsters in New Jersey would still be looking to their futures, and one 15 year old girl would still be alive.
Can you in anyway justify that?