We live in a gilded age, an age of transition, where borders are disappearing. Without benefit of technology, young men and women in Michoacan, Mexico, know just where to find work in San Francisco or far away in New York City. Young Americans, leaving the cities, have begun to usurp the role of immigrant field workers, picking blueberries in Maine, or beets in Minnesota, or harvesting cranberries in California. It's almost funny to see young, hip, white people in San Francisco's predominantly Latino Mission District, protesting the gentrification process they themselves began. In the battle to draw up battle lines, individual lives and names are lost in favor of large abstract political causes.
History teaches that good intentions have hurt as much as they've helped.
After all, the fascists of Italy and Germany were considered progressive for their day. Their ideology was built on making those same distinctions between the little man and the oppressive wealthy. But maybe I'm stretching it with that analogy. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reprint our stories without our permission.