Today is Thursday and my Spring Break has officially started. My husband, sister, friend, and I are on our way to Rogers, Arkansas. “What’s in Arkansas?” everybody would ask. “Nothing really. Just Devils Den State Park and the Embassy suite hotel room for only thirty-nine bucks a night!”

It’s a three hour drive from Kansas City to Rogers, AR, so needless to say my mind wonders a lot. This may be an automatic reaction of the mind to prevent it from constantly stressing out over the daily things that all too often will keep one up at night. I thought…wouldn’t it be cool to won a motorcycle in the city? The city market, farmers’ market and the riverside park all within walking distance. More like motorcycling distance. But what about saving gas and helping the environment? I know! I would get a hybrid motorcycle. No need to find a full parking spot. It could share with Sam (the car) or Sophie (the other car).
The music in the car turned instrumental…I miss playing music…I really enjoyed playing the violin and piano during my high school years. Next year I could pick up the instruments and join an orchestra or even start up on piano lessons again. It would be great to be able to play more than two songs.
Speaking of moving onto next year, it has been three weeks and two open houses later. There has been a steady stream of visitors, 17 in fact. On the second open house a Hispanic family came and expressed their interest in the home. According to the agent, they didn’t speak much English, but their agent informed him they were also interested in the furniture as well. Today they have scheduled for a second showing of the home. This will be my second “second” showing. However this time their agent expressed we should consider itemizing prices of my furniture. I should be expecting an offer sometime over the weekend. I, then, find my mind straying into “thank god for these people who are working hard for the American Dream”…and who things my home is it! This may sound selfish to say, but I can appreciate illegal immigrants. (The issue of illegal immigration came up on NPR yesterday, get it? “I heard it on NPR”) This is not to imply that the buyers were illegal immigrants but my mind happened to wonder in that direction, whilst I’m on my 3.35 hour drive. My mind was running out of things to think about. If it weren’t for them, I may not be able to sell my home (at this point I feel it would never happen), in effect, I would be able to move on. I began to realize all the negative that comes with the immigration there are also positives. Despite the infamous equation, low wages equals lower wages and quality of life for regular Americans; there is also another side of that equation. Low income jobs could also spark the country’s middle class economy. Legislations the government passed to supposedly allow people to pay less taxes, actually doesn’t have much of an effect on the middle class income. For example, congress passed a bill exempting dividend income as taxable income. People, like myself, doesn’t even have the money to purchase enough stocks to produce enough income to make any difference in their tax liabilities. Yes, you can guess what I’ll say next, these “tax breaks” often times benefits the wealthy. Extra people, in this scenario the immigrants, can help out the middle class. They will be the ones who will invest and work with the middle class. Take the sale of my house, for example, the well-to-do middle class would probably over look my home because they can stretch to purchase a newer structure and are willing to trade off for longer commutes. These immigrants will come in and fill in the gaps in the middle class (turned well-to-dos) and help boost the middle-class economy by participating in the supply and demand population. This, in effect, would help the middle-class, like myself, to move up in the economy and continue to build investments elsewhere.


This is a very conflicting issue for me, being that I am a product, result (or whatever you like to call it) of illegal immigration (a story I’ll have to tell some other time) and also am living through the aggravations and hassles of the “lawful” AND EXPENSIVE immigration processes and red tape. If I were put in a position to come up with legislation in attempt to resolve this situation, this is what I would propose: I don’t believe either illegal immigrants or their offspring (who couldn’t control their illegal status) should be rewarded for breaking the law. The government needs to send out the message that if you want to break the rules there will be serious repercussions, not only to the individuals who committed the crime but also to their future generations. I’m not implying that deportation would be an effective solution; but it would only be fair to make these people “earn” their right to be in this country. Due to the fact that they tried to shortcut their way here, they should be subjected to strict qualifications and additional financial consequences associated with staying in the country just as the LEGAL immigrants did when going through the “system”. Examples of financial consequences would include higher taxes, strict or non-qualification for credit, loans, and education scholarships and grants. If they cannot make it with the strict regulations, they would be discouraged to come or encouraged to return to their country where they may have a better chance for a better life or at least encourage them to better their country through their processes, just as the Americans of the past, had fought did in the United States. I fully acknowledge that my life would not be close to what it is today, if not impossible, if my parents decided to stay and raise their family in a communist country. Being that said, I also believe that we should take care of the problem at hand, today. The past is done and gone, and the future is still malleable by what we do today. I would be saddened for those who may not get the chance to achieve and live the “American Dream” as my siblings and I have (and yet they many all be equally deserving of a better life), but I truly understand that living in this country is a privilege and our opportunities and freedoms should not be taken for granted. The country is suffering the consequences of illegal immigrant overflow, socially and economically. We need to recognize the fact that the country needs to put their citizens as the priority before tackling foreign issues, because only when the country has established a firm and stable foundation (a foundation of satisfied citizens and strong financial economy) only then, the United States would be capable of reaching out to other countries and serve as a strong foundation for them.