Tag Archives: Immigrant

Videos

Naturalized citizen from Trinidad running as Republican in Alabama

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Check out this campaign ad for Les Phillip. (H/T Lex Communis)

Here is the background information on Les.

Excerpt:

Les Phillip was born May 29, 1963, to Randolph and Elvina Phillip in the tiny Caribbean country of Trinidad – Tobago. The Family moved to St. Croix before immigrating to the United States.

After the plane ride from Trinidad to St. Croix, young Les was given a glimpse into his future. While traveling, he told his mother that he wanted to be a pilot. His mother accommodated her son’s aspiration by requesting that the pilot of their aircraft meet Les and explain to him what it would take to become a pilot someday. The pilot told Les to excel in math and science and fly in one of the branches of the U.S. military

In 1971, the Phillip family came to the United States and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Les graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a public school, in the spring of 1981. That summer, he would pursue his childhood dream and enter the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. There, he met his wife, the former Merle Ford of Montclair, New Jersey. At the age of 26, Les achieved his goal and earned his Naval Aviator wings.

Over the next eight years, Les became the proud father of three wonderful daughters. He left the service in 1993 and pursued a career in the private sector. He and his wife currently own a business located in Madison, Alabama.

Les Phillip became involved in politics in 1984, just six years after becoming a naturalized citizen. While in the Naval Academy, he began developing his political identity, studying a pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution that he received via an advertising campaign. He soon realized how far the government had moved away from the design laid out by the founding fathers of our country.

After becoming a parent and working in the private sector Les became concerned with the daily struggles of middle-class America. He came to the realization that life is not just about where you are going but what you leave behind to your children and grandchildren. The simple idea that his children might not enjoy the same America that he and his parents longed for in 1971 is what inspired Les to become a public servant.

This is the way it is supposed to happen – talent immigrants coming to America to become Americans. If only the public schools did not bash America so much at taxpayer expense, we would have a lot more like him. We should change the laws to allow more legal immigration, so we get all the good ones!

On a side note, I’m sure he must be a fan of the famous Windies international cricket team. They made 303 runs for 6 wickets today against South Africa in 50 overs. I like games with a set number of overs (like innings) more than the multi-day “test match” games. Although the Windies are struggling from the departure of Brian Lara, Chris Gale is coming on strong… but he is no Sachin Tendulkar yet! Yes, I am also a fan of cricket, on and off, but my Dad follows it more closely.

News

Why parenting is different now than when my parents were growing up

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I had a talk with my parents about what it was like for them growing up in a very very poor country before coming here, and I found out some interesting challenges that I wanted to share with you. My Dad grew up in a small village and he had to walk a mile to his farm which had lots of trees and plants that his family picked to sell the produce in the market. And they hunted for animals at night with a lantern. That’s how they grew up.

So, I wanted to ask them to tell me how things have changed for raising children from that environment compared to here in the affluent West. And below is the list of some of the challenges.

Education

  • My grandparents were not really focused on monitoring my parents education in school, they were more worried about passing on skills that would help them to tend the land so they could pass it on
  • The teachers in that country were mostly males and they were focused on academic achievement and competition, especially since intelligence and scholastic aptitude was a ticket out of poverty
  • There was NO emphasis on self-esteem, compassion, sex education, drug education, leftist politics or other secular leftist ideologies in the schools – and nobody wrote to politicians or attended marches for extra credit
  • The headmaster and the vice principal (both males) lived next door and they would come over to talk to my grandfather about my father, and to play cards while talking about politics in front of the children
  • Teachers were allowed to punish children in class with spankings
  • Teachers would inspect the students for dirty fingernails, messy hair, dirty uniform, or minimum decency clothing standards, etc. and you got rapped on the knuckles with a ruler if you were bad
  • My Dad attended a Presbyterian school and all the teachers attended church on Sundays
  • There was intense competition and last-man-standing contests for prizes, and all the sports were competitive with winners and losers – some people put a lot of effort into contests to get better so they could win
  • The teachers were not unionized and there was a free choice of which school to attend
  • none of the children had money for alcohol, drugs, contraceptives, etc.

Family and Community

  • My Dad grew up with a stay-at-home mother who monitored them, and they came home for lunch
  • There was no TV or video games, so family interaction was more common – like working together on things and doing chores to help make ends meet
  • my Dad’s chore was to fetch water in the morning from half-a mile away (several times)
  • No TV and no video games also means more sports and activities with the neighbor kids
  • Food was scarce, and there was no processed food or fast food – so kids were less obese
  • Neighbors came over more to play cards and discuss things so that children learned about adult stuff by listening and watching them debate and discuss ideas, instead of from watching mainstream news media, which is somewhere to the left of Satan, politically, on social, fiscal and foreign policy
  • My grandfather would make my father volunteer in a store in order for my grandfather to get credit at the store, and he was able to work because there were no regulations on children working to help to support the family as long as they also went to school
  • My father was earning money for the family at an early age – he saw his parents working hard and that was all the motivation he needed to want to contribute – not like today when it is difficult to make children do anything
  • My father used to volunteer to help other neighborhood children learn mathematics (I later did the same thing, but for money)
  • My father learned to hunt and fish so that he could help the family to survive
  • My father had 6 young siblings so he had experience raising children and learning to cook by watching my grandmother cook

If you’re wondering how I got into this long conversation with my parents, it’s because the woman I am performing acts of love on inquired repeatedly about my parents, and I got into a long discussion with them, touching on this topic and many other things related to parenting. The net effect of this on me was to make me a little more tolerant of my parents. They came from a simpler culture where they had more support from teachers and neighbors, while facing fewer challenges from the culture and secular leftist elites. My Dad worked 3 jobs when he got here. My Mom worked too. We were incredibly poor.

Videos

ACORN’s CEO Bertha Wilson explains why she favors amnesty

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A new video clip of Bertha Wilson, the CEO of ACORN. (H/T Verum Serum)

Here’s an excerpt from the transcript:

Immigration is the next big battle. Immigration, immigration, immigration. And the reason this is so important is, you know, here’s the secret [whispers]:

We’re getting ready to me a majority, minority country. Shhhh. [applause] We’ll be like South Africa. More black people than white people. [laughter] Don’t tell anybody.

[…]My challenge to black folks, and to people of color and civil rights folks, are as this: the face of immigration needs to be a lot blacker than it is. Because once they can frame the immigration debate as about Latinos, crossing some mythical border, when in fact we have second and third generation black folks in this country who come from immigrant families. But they’re not standing up and marching with their Latino brothers and sisters, and saying “I am an immigrant too”…

Morgen (from Verum Serum) writes:

As a country, we have a proud history of accepting immigrants from all over the world, and we are better off for it. But we do not have a “mythical border”. It is the responsibility of our government to maintain our territorial integrity, and as citizens – through our democratic institutions – we should proudly seek to defend the laws and traditions which have made this nation great. There is nothing inconsistent between this and a rational immigration policy, as evidenced by multiple generations of immigrants who have peacefully and successfully assimilated into our way of life. (While enjoying unparalleled freedom to continue to honor their cultural and religious traditions, however they desire.)

But we should have no tolerance for those who ignore our laws, and seek to undermine the values we hold most dear through subversive means. This is the socialist agenda for America, and this is the “progressive” agenda for America – and it must be defeated.

I find it interesting that Bertha Wilson seems to be so concerned with race. Why is race so important to people on the left? There’s a word for people who judge people by the color of their skin, like Bertha Wilson does. Come to think of it, lots of Obama’s friends (Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger, etc.) seem to have a fixation on skin color. What is it about the left that makes them judge people by their skin color? Maybe it has something to do with the need to gain power by pitting some groups against other groups, then offering government as a solution.

My thoughts

I am myself a very dark person of color, and a son of a first-generation immigrant family. My parents came to this country with virtually nothing, and we worked our way up. I am the first person in my family to attend graduate school (computer science). And at no point did my skin color ever hold me back from achieving success. What matters in the capitalist West is a person can produce, not what a person looks like. This is the best place for me to succeed.

Like almost all conservatives, I am in favor of increased legal immigration – provided that those immigrants work hard, play by the rules, and are ineligible for social programs for at least a decade. Any legal immigrant who can stick to these rules for a few years should be put on a path to citizenship. America should welcome those who have skills that benefit all of us. But we should not be rewarding illegal immigrants just because they have the “right” skin color.

ACORN and Obama

ACORN, you remember, is Barack Obama’s former employer. He trained them in community activism. He helped them to sue Citibank, so that the bank would be forced to make loans to people who could not afford homes. This was a major cause of our current recession. Bertha Wilson endorsed Barack Obama for president.

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