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COMMUNITIES UNDER SIEGE

Numerous American communities — from large cities like Los Angeles (now 47 percent Hispanic) to small towns like Owatonna, Minnesota — have faced such a rapid and enormous influx of immigrants that the local residents have difficulty in dealing with both the increased financial burden and the inevitable cultural clash.

In 1994, the Atlantic magazine published Roy Beck's landmark analysis of the social breakdown of a small Wisconsin city in "The Ordeal of Wausau," which documented how a few Hmong refugees rapidly grew into thousands, with accompanying problems of gang violence, teen pregnancy, overburdened schools and increased taxes.

Need it be mentioned that not everyone feels a need for increased diversity of an extreme sort? Many Americans actually like and want to preserve our homegrown values, like community involvement, women's equality, individual rights, environmental responsibility and respect for free speech, to name a few. Americans have not voiced a desire to live in a northern extension of Mexico or a western outpost of Somalia, yet the enforced dismantling of American culture continues by both the government and multiculturalism idealogues.

Furthermore, the elements of diversity that we are supposed to celebrate — differing ethnicity, religion, race and culture — are the cause of wars and conflict around the world. It has been so since the beginning of history, and we Americans ignore mankind's tribal psychology at our peril. The arrogant disregard of human nature is creating terrible problems for America now and in the future.

In fact, Americans place a high value on community — from democratic government to voluntary organizations from the PTA to soccer leagues and churches. The book Bowling Alone was a surprise best-seller in 2000. Author and Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam wrote about the decline of social capital in America and has been engaged ever since with the many Americans who want to learn more about how to retrieve what has been gradually lost through longer work weeks, lengthy commutes, etc. Unlike, for example, Somalis who organize themselves around clan structure or Indians whose caste system has been in place for thousand of years, Americans prefer a society of free-speaking individuals who come together voluntarily as part of a sense of civic duty.

 

Lewiston, Maine In 2002, Lewiston, Maine, became the most recent victim of multicultural social engineering and is unlikely to be the last since the government appears deaf to the complaints of American towns overwhelmed by alien cultures. Lewiston has been stunned by the influx of a couple thousand Somalis in a year. Somalis practice Islam and have one of the highest levels of FGM, which was made illegal by Congress in 1996. One of the world's least developed countries, Somalia has an overall literacy rate of 38 percent and the political organization is based on clan relationships and rivalries more than any rule of law. The FBI was investigating "donations" to terror-front Somali organizations even before Sept 11.

Mayor Laurier Raymond •   On October 1, 2002, Mayor Laurier Raymond of Lewiston, Maine, sent an open letter to the Somali elders who now lived in his town, requesting that they stop encouraging Somalis to come there. Mayor Raymond emphasized the financial difficulties created for Lewiston, which no longer has factories providing jobs and a healthy tax base, when it must provide expensive social services for Somalis, few of whom work. He was harshly criticized for his attempt at financial responsibility and was called a racist for his efforts.

Owatonna •   Owatonna, Minnesota, has also experienced an influx of Somalis. The pressure on the town of under 20,000 has been severe. Minnesota is home to the largest settlement of Somalis outside of Africa, and Owatonna has the state's fourth-largest Somali population, estimated to be somewhere between 500 and 1500 persons. Precise numbers are not known, since many Somalis refuse to fill out Census forms, and their large families with eight-plus children often break zoning laws. Minnesota Somalis have been investigated by the FBI for contributing millions of dollars to terrorist groups in their homeland, even before the 911 attacks. Local resident Mavis Gasner has alerted other Americans of the undesired transformation.

Harald Martin •   Southern California has borne the brunt of illegal immigration so huge that many call it an invasion. Harald Martin has had a front-line view of the rapid changes in Anaheim, California, in his position as a police officer. In addition, his work with students led him to become active on issues such as the educationally harmful bilingual education and to run for the school board. The explosion of illegal aliens committing violent crimes convinced him that an INS presence in the city's jails would help to get rid of the truly bad apples — a reform that was implemented in 1996.

Terry Anderson •   Another citizen activist in southern California is Terry Anderson, who has spoken out about how the black community there has been very severely affected. For example, Watts, a historically black area of Los Angeles, is now 60 percent Hispanic. In southern California, blacks are pushed out as neighborhoods become Mexican. (See this animation, whch shows the black population of the Los Angeles area expanding from 1960 to an apex in 1980, then shrinking back. The companion animation of Latino population growth is instructive.) Terry Anderson testified before a Congressional committee in 1999 about how massive illegal immigration has torn his community apart — reducing wages, increasing racism (from immigrants against American blacks) and transforming black working-class neighborhoods into Mexican slums.

Carol Joyal •   Carol Joyal is the Chair of Immigration Reform Network of Silicon Valley in California. A retired teacher and school librarian, she testified before the House Immigration Subcommittee in June 1999 about how immigration has affected her family. When her son (a black kid) was in high school, a gang of immigrants attacked him, pulling him out of the Joyals' own home and beating him severely. He had to go into hiding outside of the area for several months because of safety concerns.

Dan Morris •   Also speaking before the Congressional committee was Dan Morris, who recounted how the influx of Mexican workers for poultry processing jobs had adversely affected his community of Rogers, Arkansas. He had moved his family there in 1988, leaving Albuqueque "because of an increase in violent crime and home robberies invasion robberies perpetrated largely by illegal aliens." He described how the rapid influx of thousands, many of whom were illegal aliens, led to three major problems: more violent crime, increased illegal drugs and rapid deterioration of the public schools. In fact, the number of children requiring English as a Second Language instruction jumped from 63 in the school year beginning in 1991 to more than 1,600 by 1996 — a 2500 percent increase in four years.

•   Peggy in Altamonte Springs, Florida, observes with dismay the sort of "diversity" that has come to her community — from falling standards of healthcare and basic hygiene to animal cruelty and the difficulty in the simplest activities due to English not being spoken. As she remarks, "It is truly as though you were in a foreign country."
 

Is social breakdown hard to recognize at home? Perhaps it is more easily observed in someone else's country. In France, the rapidly increasing numbers of unassimilated Muslims, particularly slum-dwelling unemployed young men, have led to an upsurge of extreme in-your-face violence. This article notes that when professional robbers from these communities rob a bank or armoured car, they do so with bazookas and rocket launchers. Many of those French citizens who voted for Le Pen in April 2002 did so on account of "crime," a term often used broadly to indicate society spinning out of control. While much media coverage around that election verged on hysteria about jack-booted right-wingers, this BBC piece listened to several residents of Paris in a reflective mood. One Jewish woman said she considered voting for Le Pen because she feared the violence and disorder from the immigrant Muslims. And there is plenty to fear. During the "summer of violence" in 2001 the town of Trappes near Paris experienced cars being set on fire nearly every night and the police station was fire-bombed several times.

Herbert London •   In Looking for America in Chicago, writer Herbert London had an experience that more and more Americans are having — becoming lost in a foreign area where he was the outsider and unable to communicate. After taking a wrong turn and ending up in a Mexican barrio, London was unable to find an English speaker who could help direct him to where he needed to go. He remarked, "All through this experience I kept asking myself in what nation was I traveling. I am persuaded I was actually in Little Mexico, a colony of Big Mexico."
    Mexicago, perhaps?