Right Thinking From The Left Coast
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The Best of Lee: Juror #6
by Hal_10000

I was just having a discussion with some immigrant friends of mine and remembered this wonderful post from our late resident genius.  Enjoy his revelation on a stint of jury duty.

I’ll tell you one thing, though.  As part of voir dire everyone had to give a basic personal history, including your name, where you live, your marital status, the occupation of you and your spouse, your children, and any occupation your children may have.  In the room were a number of immigrants—like any major city, LA is full of foreigners—and a number of minorities (blacks and Hispanics) who were probably not that well to do.  Most of these immigrants were from third world nations, Africa and Asia and the Middle East, but they were all citizens.

When they listed their jobs the immigrants listed the usual litany of immigrant-level work.  They were security guards or worked in catering at a hotel or did janitorial work, mostly unskilled labor, or had started as unskilled labor and moved into supervisory positions as they got experience.  Most of them were older than me, with grown children.  Almost without exception their kids were substantially better off than their parents, listing jobs like doctors or lawyers or nurses or graphic artists or software engineers, all highly-paid, educated, skilled labor.  A couple of them mentioned that their kids were enrolled in PhD programs.  And I thought, ‘What a great country America is.”

This is the American dream.  You’re not going to come to this country with no skills or education and make a million dollars (though that does occasionally happen).  The American dream is that you can come to this country with nothing and within one generation your kids can be solidly in the middle class.  There are very few societies where this is likely, or even possible.  In much of Europe this isn’t the case, immigrants end up ghettoized and isolated from mainstream society.  But not in America.

What a fantastic statement on what this country has to offer the world.

This will remain true, no matter what our politicians do.  It’s ingrained into our society to a depth that no political scrub brush can reach.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 02/21/10 at 03:58 PM (Discuss this in the forums)

Comments


Posted by on 02/21/10 at 07:28 PM from United States

Most of these immigrants were from third world nations, Africa and Asia and the Middle East, but they were all citizens.

n’uff said.

Posted by on 02/21/10 at 08:59 PM from United States

This is the American dream.  You’re not going to come to this country with no skills or education and make a million dollars (though that does occasionally happen).  The American dream is that you can come to this country with nothing and within one generation your kids can be solidly in the middle class.

This quote tells the story of my grandparents on my mother’s side of the family.  The short version: after being smuggled out of East Germany just before they closed the Brandenburg gate, my Mom’s parents and my Mom (their only child) boarded a ship to Canada with nothing but the clothes on their back.  They ended up all over the North Eastern US but eventually made their way to Colorado (following my grandfather’s jobs). 

My Mom was the first member of her family to go to college, graduate college and start her career in education.  As Lee said, one generation later…

Posted by Hal_10000 on 02/21/10 at 10:14 PM from United States

My grandfather came over there at 17, learned English on the boat, took grueling jobs in construction and farming.  His two kids became a doctor and a nurse.

Posted by on 02/21/10 at 10:32 PM from United States

n’uff said.

Well, you aren’t going to find many illegal immigrants on a jury.

Posted by AlexinCT on 02/22/10 at 10:59 AM from United States

The lesson here: hard work and good ethics, a desire to be educated, not just go to school, and determination are the secrets to achieving middle class status.

Speaking of the minority angle mentioned above and something that I felt remained unsaid, I want to point out how black immigrants are looked down upon and treated like crap by American blacks, especially the ones that come and work for the dream, which then turn right around and say America provides no opportunity for minorities, and have wondered if insanity ruled the day.

The fact is that people that are coddled and are told they are “owed” by the very virtue that they got lucky at birth are prone to lose the edge that drives. One could make the argument that we have become too prosperous for our own good, but I think that the real problem is the cult that literally saps people of the will or need to work and succeed. We will soon learn as a society that coddling people and all worrying about self esteem instead of fostering competition and demanding excellence, has consequences. And they are not good ones despite what the proponents of stupid tell us.

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