Thank You America

[Blitz]

Thank you America

A Somalian arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States.

He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr. American for letting me in this country, and giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care and free education!" But the passer-by says "You are mistaken, I am Mexican."

The man goes on and encounters another passer-by. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America!" The person says "I no American, I Vietnamese."

The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand and says "Thank you for the wonderful America!" That person puts up his hand and says "I am from Middle East, I am not an American!"

He finally sees a nice lady and asks suspiciously, "Are you an American?"
She says, "No, I am from Russia!"
So he is puzzled, and asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"
The Russian lady looks at her watch, shrugs, and says... "Probably at work!"

 

[smurphy]

a gay post indeed. immigrants tend to work harder and have more jobs than anyone.

 

[Hokie Fan]

Really,
been to any big citys lately???
The funny part is that "joke" is no joke

 

[bryanz]

what's your point ?

 

[smurphy]

Really,
been to any big citys lately???
The funny part is that "joke" is no joke

are you kidding me?
lived in vegas for 6 years with mexicans building everythig and eastern europeans and again mexicans cleaning everything. all i observed around me were immigrants working their asses off.

gotta love the bullshlt attitudes in this country though. we want everything cheap and fast, but refuse to accept the reality of how things are done.

a general question to everyone who works in an office or type of place like that:

What color is the skin of the person who cleans the bathroom there?

BUT - yeah - immigrants just pour into this country, collect freebies, and do nothing while all us wonderful Americans (who are of course immigrants somewhere down the line anyway) are the ones working ALL the jobs.

I call TOTAL BULLSH*T on this attitude.

 

[kneifl]

are you kidding me?
lived in vegas for 6 years with mexicans building everythig and eastern europeans and again mexicans cleaning everything. all i observed around me were immigrants working their asses off.

gotta love the bullshlt attitudes in this country though. we want everything cheap and fast, but refuse to accept the reality of how things are done.

a general question to everyone who works in an office or type of place like that:

What color is the skin of the person who cleans the bathroom there?

BUT - yeah - immigrants just pour into this country, collect freebies, and do nothing while all us wonderful Americans (who are of course immigrants somewhere down the line anyway) are the ones working ALL the jobs.

I call TOTAL BULLSH*T on this attitude.

Good point,

On the flip side of this, ever observe the foreigners who manage to get themselves bachelors and masters degrees. It's not like they have low level office jobs. I see them near the top quite often.

kneifl

 

[Hokie Fan]

Look my point was this
There are plenty of foriegners who take advantage of the system (I live near RI which is one of the worst in the US)
BUT there are plenty of "Americans" who need to get off there lazy asses also.
I am sick of working all year, 6 months of which go to taxes, I pay into RI disability because I work there, and cannot even collect on it!!! I had to continue to work during a bad illness because good ole Rhody would not let me collect.
I have seen people buy beer, cigs and lottery tickets on there wic card and walk back to their Escalade (pimped out I might add)
while I can barely keep my car on the road.
Or maybe I am just pissed GW didnt cover today...
Either one...

 

[smurphy]

Yeah, plenty of EVERYONE takes advantage of the system. Immigrants who for the most part do all the lowest level thankless work should not be the scapegoats for bad policies, lazy individuals, and your own money issues.

If you are sick of working so hard for little in return, maybe you should stop betting on GW.

....or better yet, move back to SW Virginia. Apparently, Floyd is booming!

 

[kneifl]

Smurphy -

You agree with what I pointed out?

kneifl

 

[smurphy]

Smurphy -

You agree with what I pointed out?

kneifl

Yes, certainly - I wasn't saying anything contrary to that. That's one of the great things about this country. Hard work and skills tend to lead to better jobs. Unless they were wealthy or otherwise privelaged to begin with, I'd assume that the immigrants who rose to the executive ranks that you speak of got there because of hard work, intelligence, and a good work ethic. ....and I'm thankful that opportunity is there for EVERYONE.

 

[kneifl]

Right on-

I agree with what you said earlier too. I see a lot of people (foreigners) in the small towns and big cities as well that work those blue collar jobs and stock up on the overtime immensely
(I worked with some of them during summers off in college) just so they could help pay for their daughters/sons college so they could get college degrees and be successful. I have noticed their are a lot of people in the corporate world I have encountered that are foreign that have high paying jobs and great titles here in the east coast and both the midwest. My mother sells real estate for a living in a small town full of mexicans and although the crime rate is high, the town is very prosperous as well and a lot of the mexicans have cash stashed away and are homeowners. I give out loans and I am surprised by some of the net worth of my foreign clients which I won't get into; however, I wonder if they inherited it OR made it themself.

kneifl

 

[Hokie Fan]

kneilf,
Whoa guys
I have the upmost respect for alot of foriegners
I deal with alot of them from Lebanon, Syria, Asians
all hard working people
I am saying some are taking advantage..
Tell me you can see that..

 

[VaNurse]

While I see both sides of this argument, please let me give my perspective. I work in a public health clinic that only requires that you be a "resident" of the locality and that you earn below a certain income. I would safely guess that more than 50% of our clientele are non-US born and probably half of those are undocumented.

To verify residence, this government agency requires a lease or tax bill for the jurisdiction. If you don't have one of those, we will accept a utility bill addressed to the client at a jurisdiction address and if that's not available, a certified letter from the landlord or person with whom you reside, stating that you live in the juridiction. There is, at present, no requirement that you provide documentation of your immigration status. The State has been discussing changing this but it hasn't been done.

To verify income, again, a tax return or most recent month's pay stubs are required. If one isn't able to provide either of these, a letter from the employer or letter of support from a family member will suffice. Again, no requirement that you provide documentation of immigration status.

This clinic provides medical care and medications to these clients on a sliding scale fee basis but 90+% of our clients fall into the free care range. This medical care includes: maternity, children's clinic, family planning / birth control, immunization, STD, chronic illness and infectious diseases (including HIV and tuberculosis).

We currently provide service to approximately 200 HIV+ patients. Using the base percentages of ethnicity shown above, this would indicate that 1/4 of those are undocumented. The actual number is more than that. The medications used to treat HIV infection run $1K/month, not to mention the other medications that are needed to treat the side effects of the antiretrovirals and to treat the diseases they are more prone to acquire due to their reduced immunity. This medication cost is over $500,000 per year without being offset by any taxes (past, present or future)paid by these recipients! Remember, this is only one city in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area.

Our senior citizens in America go without medication due to the expense, in order to eat and keep a roof over their heads and the Medicare Part D program is BS! If an elder can maneuver their way through the system and select a plan, it's still an out-of -pocket expense that many can ill-afford! Sadly, one of the areas that gets cut first in the budget process is Medicare.

I believe everyone has the right to be here IF they come in by the proper channels. To me, it's not as important that these folks are willing to do the chit work as it is that they pay taxes like the rest of us in order to receive the benefits that our great country provides.

 

[smurphy]

kneilf,
Whoa guys
I have the upmost respect for alot of foriegners
I deal with alot of them from Lebanon, Syria, Asians
all hard working people
I am saying some are taking advantage..
Tell me you can see that..

Some wealthy 10th generation Americans take advantage, my neighbors cat takes advantage of everyone's generosity, you can always find someone taking advantage of something if you look.

But to agree with the premise of this lame ass joke at the top that's supposed to have some kind of political edge to it (which means it's in the wrong forum, by the way) is absolutely incorrect.

You said it yourself Hokie - all the many foreigners you deal with are hard working people. So why would you agree with a joke that implies all immigrants are lazy greedy sloths just looking for handouts?

 

[kneifl]

Line on this getting moved to the political forum.....





Yes -180

No +160

kneifl

 

[Another Steve]

Thank You, Come Again

 

[smurphy]

Shut up, Apu!

".....oh you got a head bag. That's chock full of headi-goodness"

I hope there are some Simpsons fans out there.

 

[dawgball]

smurphy -- your reaction leads me to believe that this joke was about a bomb-toting prophet. Oh wait a minute...

It's just a joke.

 

[VaNurse]

Damn..... and I'm usually so good at killing a thread!

 

[USCMD]

I hate to admit it, but the 'Americans' have lost much of what made the country great. There was a time when we had the attitude no job was toio tough, we were "can do" folks.

Now it seems we are too good for jobs we consider beneath us.

Theres a long list of great civilizations that crumbled from within. I pray to god, we aren't the next.

Check with Britain, Japan, Egypt, Mongolia, Aztecs, Ottoman empire, Roman empire, Ancient Greece, Incas, and on and on...

My question is can we, America collectively dodge the bullet thats ended the reign of every great civilization.