"Dave Bugg" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Dave Bugg" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Dave Bugg" wrote in message
news Dan S. wrote:
shiite explained on 12/9/2007 :
Dear Captain Billy Non Sequitor,
1. Your assumptions about my attitude toward illegals, Mexican or
otherwise, are dead wrong. I have compassion for anyone from
anywhere doing what he can to survive.
My contempt is reserved for the politicians and employers who
enable.

Not to dumb down the argument too much, but aren't employers doing
what they can to survive and don't you believe a number of them
would fold without their immigrant help? Why don't they deserve
compassion rather than contempt?

That argument might apply to anything that a business chooses to do
illegally.


Is there any way you can find yourself among a small group of 16-18
year old kids, and ask them if they'd be interested in working in 90
degree heat, harvesting broccoli, swinging a sharp knife around near
their ankles? Try it. I did. It was enlightening.

My dad owned an apple and cherry orchard in central washington
state. Hot, dry climate. I worked cherry, apricot, pear and apple
harvests in junior high and high school, and while attending
college. I dare say I'm far more enlightened regarding agricultural
labor and business than you are.

The fact that you did that kind of work is not logically connected in
any known way to what other teenagers are willing to do.

And why would this be the exclusive province of teens? The fact is that a
lot of teens DO earn money in the fields and orchards. My own two boys
join hundreds of others, just in our small area, to work in agriculture
during the spring and summer and fall.

I once asked
several of my son's friends this question and received less than
enthusiastic responses. These weren't especially priveleged kids,
either. They just didn't see farm work as something they would do.
That's not to say that a trend couldn't be created, but as of a year
ago, the response was "Nah...".

The fact that you did a selective poll is not logically connected in any
known way with what other teens may or may not do.



In some places, the poll is a pretty good indicator of the lack of a labor
pool available to farmers. Where I live, we're 10-30 minutes from lots of
farmland. Kids drive that far to work at malls, golf courses & restaurants,
so distance isn't an issue. They just see farm work as alien to them. Small
apple orchards here tend to use local help, but the biggest ones still use
imported labor, some of it illegal.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=16981143