A ship crashed into a Baltimore bridge and demolished the lies about immigration

[babylonsister]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/baltimore-bridge-collapse-immigrant-deaths-20240328.html


A ship crashed into a Baltimore bridge and demolished the lies about immigration
by Will Bunch | Columnist
Published Mar. 28, 2024, 12:52 p.m. ET

snip//

These new arrivals are willing to take some of the most dangerous jobs in America, with construction ranked “a high-hazard industry” by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration because of risks like falling or getting crushed under heavy equipment. It’s revealing that while Latinos comprise about a third of the U.S. workforce in construction, they accounted for more than half of those who died in falls in 2022, 286 out of 423. The way Suazo and his five coworkers died was both shocking and yet numbingly routine.

Casa’s Torres, who knew Suazo and one of the other missing men, El Salvadoran native Miguel Luna, now mourns not only the loss of his friends but also the toxic climate in which they died. “Our families and these workers feel under attack all the time by media and people angry about immigration,” he said, “and the reality you see is the contributions from our families and community — not only in construction but in health or education and other areas.”

When the Dali cargo ship demolished that bridge support on Tuesday, it also obliterated all the ridiculous lies and myths our demagogues have been spreading around immigration. There were no sex traffickers aboard the Key Bridge that night. Nobody was dealing fentanyl. They were not “animals,” but fathers and husbands like Suazo and Luna, whose wife occasionally showed up in her food truck to bring the men tacos and pupusas. They were filling potholes so their children could have an even better life.

These six workers who perished were not “poisoning the blood of our country,” they were replenishing it. This is a moment of clarity when we need to reject the national disease of xenophobia and restore our faith in the United States as a beacon for the best people like Suazo. They may have been born all over the continent, but when these men plunged into our waters on Tuesday, they died as Americans.

[marble falls]

1. Carve it in stone. Great piece.

[underpants]

4. Very well written too

I’m finding Will Bunch on Twitter and complimenting and thanking him.

[marble falls]

5. I don't tweet, but I agree with you.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. THIS!!

[malaise]

3. Must Read

Rec

[teach1st]

6. Giving it a kick

Thanks for posting, babylonsister!

[patphil]

7. These six workers who perished were not "poisoning the blood of our country," they were replenishing it.

Yes!
Immigrants have always taken the low end jobs that American workers don't want; the dirty, thankless unskilled labor that supports the foundation of our economy.
The most frustrating thing about this whole "evil immigrant" smear campaign the Republicans are engaged in is that their ancestors were those very same people who they now demean.

We need this continual infusion of new, high vitality, blood that helps expand our understanding of humanity as an incredibly diverse and wonderful species.
What we need to learn from all this, and probably the most important reason we actually have taken on 3D physical bodies, is the lesson of love.
We need to learn how to love the "not us" people who are just as human, but different in many ways that don't matter when you get right down to it.

What matters is what brings us together, not the false beliefs that push us apart.
Our strength, our vitality is in our diversity.