I usually do a roundup at this time of year of previous Thanksgiving columns.
In the past we've provided you with recipes:
Let's see, anything about turkey? Oops, wrong Turkey. Never mind. (But check out the blog.)
Also history:
And we've done stories on how the War Against Christmas, which is part of the War on America, has moved back a month, and starts at Thanksgiving.
This year I'd like to look at the MSM's new tradition:
Joe Guzzardi pointed this out in 2004, with a link to an NYT story headlined Turkey Is Basic, but Immigrants Add Their Homeland Touches.
A story about how Latin American and Asian immigrants prefer their turkeys fresh-killed and describes them actually watching the staff kill the birds.
Fine with me, I suppose. But if Republicans did it, rather than immigrants, then you'd see the feathers fly.
"Wearing elegant high heels, Barrientos walked into the unbearable stench Tuesday, past cages stacked six high with chickens and rabbits, to the back of the business where a chain-link pen held nearly 200 turkeys.
"'Get me a small one,' she said in Spanish.
"An employee wearing a rubber apron grabbed a spry-looking turkey by the ankles and passed it to a co-worker, who then electrocuted the clucking bird, slit its throat and dumped it into scalding water before it was machine-plucked and cleaned. Five minutes later, Barrientos had a lukewarm, 12-pound turkey for $18.
(Fresh Take on Fowl Tradition |The slaughterhouse owned by Samy Morsy draws many Latin American immigrants who prefer buying turkeys out of the pen. By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2005)
Here's another happy story about immigrants learning about Thanksgiving…at taxpayer expense.
"The immigrant families attending an international Thanksgiving potluck last week had only the fuzziest ideas about the November holiday.
"Many knew it involved a large bird, but few knew it had originated in the struggle of early Americans to survive in their chosen land or that those newcomers sat down with native people in the country's first and most famous multicultural feast." (Natives, newcomers at table again By Lynn Thompson, Seattle Times November 23, 2005]
In Astoria, Oregon, someone is drawing the wrong lesson from the riots in France. Do they have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal?
"In a world that is consumed by the threat of terrorism, we are fortunate to live in an immigrant nation. One lesson which analysts draw from the civil unrest in France is the inability or unwillingness of European nations to assimilate immigrants.
"Astoria likes to think of itself as a fairly stable population base with ethnic longevity. But there was a time when the Scandinavians were the new Americans, the new immigrants. Our new immigrant today is the Hispanic, who is finding his way into our economy." (Count your blessings, (editorial) Daily Astorian, Oregon. November 22, 2005)
From Minnesota, a formerly American town, now totally transformed due to the turkey industry's use of immigrant labor:
"The plant was also the site of a failed organizing effort in 2003 and 2004 by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Jennifer Christensen of UFCW Local 789 in South St. Paul said the union has not given up and plans another try soon.
"Many Willmar residents said the town has come a long way in adjusting to its new residents, and vice versa.
"But there were rough years. In the 1990s, many of the local Hispanics were concentrated in overcrowded mobile home parks where violent crime flourished. The closing of the Elm Lane park in 1995 ended up dispersing the residents to other parts of town, some with the help of housing subsidies.
"'I think Elm Lane was a wonderful learning experience for Willmar," said Police Chief Jim Kulset. "If you allow the environment to degrade into what Elm Lane was, that was a cauldron for creating crime.' " [Willmar: Turkey Town Rural Minnesota community has been transformed by the rise of processing industry, by Emily Gurnon, Pioneer Press, Nov. 23, 2005]
But it's not all happy. I found one person who is not happy. And do you know who she isn't happy with?
Americans!
Leslie Milk after writing the usual malarkey about immigrant ancestors, how lucky the Pilgrims were that the Indians didn't have a border patrol, and the obligatory Emma Lazarus reference, goes on to this:
"We seem to forget our own history when dealing with immigrants now. In Herndon and in Silver Spring, communities cringe at sight of men - mostly Latino immigrants - gathering where contractors come to hire day laborers.
"What are these men doing that is so offensive? They aren't asking for handouts. They want to work to support their families and themselves.
"And we have no problem with these same day laborers when they are mowing our lawns, digging our swimming pools or repairing our roofs. Or when their wives are cleaning our houses and caring for our children.
"There are politicians who want to limit newcomers' children's access to schools, even though it is in our own self-interest to help kids get the education and skills they need to become good taxpaying citizens.
"Tomorrow I will give thanks for the opportunities this country offered my family and so many others like them. They came here because they believed in the American dream.
"I never realized that it had an expiration date." (A nation of immigrants, immigrant bashers, by Leslie Milk, DC Examiner, November 22, 2005)
Well, of course, it's now a nation of immigrants, immigrant bashers, and now immigrant-basher bashers, if I understand what she's saying. If we had more Bashi-Bazouk immigrants, we'd be called Bashi-Bazouk bashers. But we're just arguing for a return to sanity in immigration policy.
And there are several answers to her questions. The Indians did have a border patrol, for example. What do you think all those Indian wars were about? But they failed.
And what those day laborers are doing includes sexual harassment and crimes of violence, aside from the economic harm they do.
If Ms. Milk (send her mail) gets her way, it won't be the American Dream that has an expiration date.
It will be America itself.
