Editor MNH: 7/12/03
“What’s in a name” Juliet asks on the balcony and continues on “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That is true enough, but who would pluck a rose and put it to his nose if it were called - stinkweed? A name change goes hand in hand with a change in perception. In his article to the Marshfield News-Herald (6/18/03) “New Freedom Riders seek rights for immigrant workers” O. Ricardo Pimentel calls the illegal immigrants “undocumented workers.” There is no hint of illegality in the word “undocumented” and who can have anything against a “worker.” By simply changing the name Pimentel made a rose out of a stinkweed. This would not matter if our politicians, the unions, the ACLU, and the beneficiaries of the work done by these illegal immigrants would not try to sell us the stench as pure rose scent. The presidential candidates are outdoing each other wooing the Hispanic vote, promising to give legality to the illegal crossing of the American border. The lawmakers have become accomplices to lawbreaking. If this continues our politicians will give back to the Hispanic language and culture what Mexico has lost by war. Fair or unfair? It depends where you are standing.
I have a niece in Germany who wanted to live with us for half a year in order to improve her English and learn more about banking by working for a bank as a volunteer. Every avenue I explored to give her the desired half a year stay dead ended. As far as our politicians are concerned they are playing favorites and the American-Germans are not among them.