November 12, 2007

Peter Applebome/NYT: the horrors of unmowed lawns in Brewster, New York

Peter Applebome of the New York Times offers a slab of pro-illegal immigration propaganda called "When an Election Becomes a Forum on Immigration". It's even more explicitly biased than their standard fare; that might be because articles in their "Our Towns" section are exempt from their oh-so-rigorous standards on news "reporting".

The tale is set in Brewster, New York, which is enclosed by the Town of Southeast and is just north of Westchester County. Michael Rights, John Degnan, and an unnamed third person were vying to be supervisor of the Town, with Rights opposing the presence of Central American day laborers in Webster. Because the election was close, the absentee ballots will be recounted. It was a "loud, angry race"; Rights conducted a "high-decibel, high-dollar campaign" and issued "dark mailings and urgent robo-calls". In 2006, someone named Greg Ball ran a "virulently anti-immigrant State Assembly campaign".

Applebome's "local guy on the side of the New York Times who says the things they want to hear" is the "village historian", Denis Castelli. One of the quotes they give him ends with this:

"No one who speaks English wants to mow my lawn."

Oh, the horror. Now, some might say, "mow your own [expletive deleted] lawn." But, taking the high road, I'll suggest that if those day laborers left town tomorrow, Castelli's lawn would be mowed one way or another, either by himself or by an English speaker who now realizes that, absent competition from desperate foreigners, one can make a living or at least pick up college money by mowing lawns. Plus, it's more than a bit irresponsible of the town's historian to support all the financial and non-financial costs of those day laborers so that he can have a manicured lawn. Oddly enough, while Applebome has a quote from Rights discussing the "vast multibillion-dollar underground untaxed black market in human labor", he doesn't question those who support that market.

Posted to Immigration2007b at November 12, 2007 11:21 AM