Having the Gentle Conversation: Dr. Ian Roberts
The response was predictable enough, after a colleague read the prior post on Dr. Ian Andre Roberts. The cell phone discussion was yesterday. Dr. Roberts was "assimilated"... contributed to his community. Blather.
This morning, the texts began.
"Assimilation does matter." Moralistic therapeutic responses do not impress me.
"The shame is the bigotry motivating the persecution." Above culture, is law.
Yes, cultural wars and conversations can present as a burn pit of trash in the public square. This is called Freedom of Speech. But governance is not a burn pit; it is a legal structure.
On both sides, we have created a Ziggurat of zealotry as the discussions burn on and on. But it must be remembered that a Ziggurat was always built with a core of mud brick which was then covered with baked brick. It also had no internal chamber. Each of you is capable of making the analogies. Under the current administration, we finally face down the narratives that our culture (and our government) have peddled.
Regarding assimilation - my family assimilated to the culture of Mexico. It did not afford us legal status as citizens. Do I love Mexico? Yes. Am I a citizen. No.
Regarding "bigotry" - when I returned to my place of employment after a three year hiatus I was required to submit a birth certificate and a social security card for eVerify. Did human resources have my prior file which showed that I was a citizen, graduated from UT Arlington, had an active nurse's license for the State of Texas, served as a Lieutenant Commander in the USNR? Yes. When on orders, my hospital knew that I was in Africa... Puerto Rico... Guam... Washington, D.C.
Brown hair. Blue eyes. I still had to eVerify. So this is not about bigotry. It is about process.
Dr. Ian Andre Roberts? If poaching of animals on private or protected land is illegal - the poaching of the jobs (on sovereign soil) which belong to Americans is also an illegal action. Dr. Roberts is a poacher. And he has been allowed to get away with it for decades.
The unwelcome truth is that we educate the world and that "world" never wants to leave. We educate, so these individuals can return to their own nations and be a blessing to their own people. The unwelcome truth is that selfishness prevails. Nobody wants to leave. And our student visa allowances can ultimately drain foreign governments of their greatly needed talent pool. They send them. We keep them. This is selfishness on our side too.
Guyana has a Ministry of Education. Dr. Ian Andre Roberts could have taken his talents home. It is quite likely that today, he would be the Minister of Education. Instead, he chose to poach the high-paying jobs in both Millcreek Township, Pennsylvania and Des Moines, Iowa which belonged to American citizens. As I stated before, the finalists for the positions need to consider legal remediation.
Dr. Roberts is representative of the pinnacle of a professional and corporate Ziggurat which fails to comply with eVerify in favor of the poachers. Perhaps it is time our corporations do a look back at "that wonderful employee who has been with us for twenty years" and confirm work authorization in the U.S.
Do it - because you are entering a time-sensitive window for liability. Our POTUS is focused on this issue. But most of all, do it for the Americans who have competed and lost their financial future to a moralistic therapeutic lie.
swoffordwrites@gmail.com
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