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I find it interesting that an article on immigration, a serious topic that effects millions, in particular a vast population of underprivileged human beings striving for a better life, quickly veers into a frivolous discussion of the relative merits and disadvantages of San Antonio according to the apparently entitled desires of a particular class of educated elite. San Antonio is populated by Mexican Catholics, you say? Horrors! There are people there who actually voted for Dubya? Hide your children and lock your doors! People there work hard and earn low wages but enjoy a low cost of living? The fools!
Oye, people...I invite all the naysayers and critics, from Austin and beyond, to come down to my 'hood in SA's inner city and spend some time hanging out on our porches, in our streets, at our icehouses, in our taquerias and fruterias, at our backyard barbeques, at our art openings, at our conjunto parties, with your eyes, ears, hearts and minds wide open. You'll witness right wingers and left wingers, artists and lawyers, professors and clergy, hipsters and abuelitas, Mexican welders and musicians, politicos and drunks, all rubbing elbows and having one helluva time doing it. You'll be safe. You'll be well fed. You'll be among friendly, warm, vibrant, and eccentric people of different backgrounds and beliefs who somehow manage to live together and who care passionately about their home. Steve Murdock's numbers may be somewhat dry, but they don't lie. San Antonio is the future. What it, and the immigration issue can teach us if we're willing to learn is that if we're going to make it down the road we're on, we-the economic and the intellectual elite alike-are going to have to learn to live with the unwashed and unskilled and unenlightened and uncool...without considering it to be an affront to our lofty ambitions.
