High Hopes and Empty Streets
Elections, Immigration and Globalization
Story By "M."

We all have high hopes that someone will come and change the country. But I feel this sense of apathy when I turn on the television and hear the candidates speak about how they're going to change this and that, the truth is that for some people it will all be the same. I remember when a trail of people dressed in white took to the streets like an avalanch and shocked the nation. They were an immigrant rights movement unlike any other in American history. The news spoke of them with excitement. Those trailing immigrants with their American flags held high in the air yelling out “ si se puede!” at the top of their lungs filled me with so much hope that the world was changing and I was part of it. But the months passed and the commotion settled, and with that ease that came INS's ICE agents started to raid factories and those marches that were so promising have now left the streets empty. That hope that filled us, these elections can never match that.

None of these candidates seem to be speaking about these alienated people. People say “they” should go back to their countries and become farmers and help their country grow and become a first world super power. Only that now if they do get there and try to sell their crops they will find that American crops are much more cheaper. That the export of American goods will out do their work. There is no escape from the invisible hand of globalization, someone in the capitalist market must end up with the short end of the stick. If it is illegal to work in the United States, if it is illegal to gain more money than you would in your native country, then so be it.

The problem the world faces now is not necessarily terrorism or immigration the problem that must first be addressed by the government is government regulation on corporations in foreign countries. If this is answered, the decline that our economy is diving into will change. Immigration will change and the living standards in our world will change. Everything has a cause and an effect, if politicians can not see that it is because they have their own interests to look out for. I have come to the realization that no matter what, the country will not accept these people. But for most immigrants, alienation means nothing because they will still go to work everyday. They will try to feed their families with the work that they get, and watch the elections go by like a parade that also leaves silence and empty streets for them.