It’s a start…

Democratic politician via Barry West of Tennessee apologizes to Mexican-American community today and recognizes our contributions and our efforts.  Bottom line:  He admits what he said, he apologizes, he wishes he never said it, he wishes he never targeted groups, and he has learned his lesson.

Barry West, a Coffee County Tennessee commissioner returned my phone call today with regard to the Mexican remark he made to the the Tullahoma News.  He said he returned my call because I did not block my number and I did not leave a hateful message.  He told me he has been receiving hateful emails and threats.  He cancelled his facebook account and changed his email recently in light of the numerous non-delightful emails he has received.

In my voice mail to Mr. West … I communicated to him that I was a Gulf War I woman veteran who served my country honorably and I expressed my frustration with regard to the anti-Mexican rhetoric I perceived.

He called me back and said he was a veteran, too –  of the Vietnam war and confessed to serving and working with fellow Mexican-Americans who fought beside him in that American war.  I was glad West acknowledged Mexicans as “hardest working sons of guns.”  You see — I believe we are hard workers, too.

He said:

“I’m a God fearing people loving human being. I’m not a bigot, I’m not a racist. The Mexicans he served with in Vietnam War were just as diligent as anybody. We were Americans fighting an American war together.”

Speaking with Barry West … I have come to the absolute conclusion there is still a disturbing and wrong perception out there in southern parts of our Nation where many forget about the economic contributions Mexicans have given to the United States economy.  We have a lot of work yet to do with regard to educating and reminding people in those dark ignorant places when indeed Mexicans contribute billions and billions of dollars to our economy.  Immigrants do pay sales taxes, gasoline taxes, liquor taxes, tobacco taxes and so on.  In addition to that, immigrants offer a competitive labor wage rate KEEPING OUR FOOD PRICES AFFORDABLE.  If it were not for the Mexicans — agricultural farm industries would die.  But this economic fact is not getting out there enough with regard to the contributions given by those of Mexican descent.  Therefore I did a bit of research:

In Coffee County, there are approximately 93.1% white person, 3.9% black persons and 3.9% brown persons (of Latin descent):

Coffee County Population Statistics in Tennessee

Here is what the population looks like in Tennessee:

Tennessee population

The point in bringing to light the various ethnic groups and population living in Tennessee has much to do with the bad information that is out there regarding Mexicans.

Apparently there are people out there who believe Mexicans are taking advantage of welfare benefits when in all actuality  the majority of welfare recipients are Anglo.  In other words … Tennessee cannot blame Mexicans for being one of the top ten Welfare states in our Union when the majority of the people living in there are Anglo.  Approximately 80% living in the State of Tennessee are Anglo, about 17% are African-American and only 4.7% are of Latin descent.   The majority of the Mexicans who live in Tennessee work in the agricultural industry and  they are helping the United States American farmer keep their businesses afloat.

That said, it seems everyone is ignoring the large elephant in the room with regard to farm subsidies.

Did you know that Tennessee ranks 25 out 50 with regard to receiving farm subsidies?

Farmers are getting billions of dollars in ‘welfare’ a/k/a subsidies, too, and of those billions — only 10 percent of the farms are getting 87% of those subsidies. How does that happen?

Here’s a snapshot below:

Snapshot of Tennessee Farm Subsidies

As you can see….we have a lot of work to do with regard to writing about the economic contributions of the Mexicans. We will no longer stand for drafting Mexicans only to deport them later.  We are the most patriotic people you will ever meet and it is high time we start treating fellow man like human beings.

Bottom line: We are going to be the ones who save our elderly regardless of race, religion and whatever via sustaining social security benefits.

Immigrants will also help to become the new taxpayers that will sustain the aging white baby boom generation (currently usurping approximately 60% of the federal tax payer revenues due to Social Security, medicare and medicaid).

We ought to stop targeting ethnic groups and help one another moving forward.  The blame game gets us nowhere.  Thinking out of the box and finding solutions are helpful.

On a last note:  While I was in the military … I was taught not to view fellow comrades as white, black,  brown or yellow. We were taught that green was the only color we should see when serving with one another because green was the color of our Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) as we all continue to fight for freedom and the preservation of our Nation.

Here’s a little reminder on how the US and Mexico sought to work together during WWII via this propaganda poster. This poster was all over Houston, South Texas and California. (Photo shared by Russell Contreras)