Politics Corner October 25

 

photo mine  (beware of  Harlan)

I'll be at a Halloween party at the house of someone who doesn't like costumes. We're the only other likely hosts and we're leaving for Mexico soon. Then the Dominican Republic in case anyone has recommendations. No I am not a baseball scout. I'll be back for a day and a half before I'm off to visit my side of the family in Arizona for Thanksgiving. So I'm not about to throw a party and then disappear for a month. We just had the carpet cleaned!

I have a doozy of a story for you just below the fold. It takes place 10-15 minutes from where I grew up. Most of my mom's side of the family lived halfway between us and there. But first, I simply cannot do Halloween without some sort of dress up. Here's the first option and the one that I will walk in with.

photo mine 

That luchador mask is heavy and hot. Eventually I will have to replace it with a ligher shiny one.

photo mine

But I promised you a story. When my parents were kids they moved to my hometown. He from Chicago to the lake. She from Long Beach to a farm (with a one-room schoolhouse! It was the 1950s!) A big chunk of the kids that I grew up with were from Mexican immigrant families. It made zero difference to me because their families had been there a couple generations before mine. I don't know how the adults got along but I  got a yardstick from my partner that's pretty revealing. How many friends do you have in your social circle who are considered a different color? That was Delavan which has added a few colors since I left. Delavan ran on factories (Andes Candies are from there) and farming - dairy, corn, soy, herbs, etc. and tourism.

Nearby Whitewater had most of the same but the more significant immigrant population was students at the university. Lately there has been a wave of Nicaraguan immigration. There some of the same fears as elsewhere but it's mostly small annoyances like ten minute traffic stops that last for hours. Whitewater is not a big city and if you want to work (they wouldn't be here if they didn't want to work) then you have to drive. They aren't allowed driver licenses or other ID and the language barrier can be insurmountable. This not about crime. This is about treating people like people. [ProPublica]

via ProPublica

I used to drive past here all the time to get to UW-Whitewater

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