Nothing has changed in 10 years

(This article was taken from the pages of Ken’s Corner & the Real News in its February 2013 edition)

I ws in New York City recently.  It was my first time and I was as awed as you would imagine.  I spent a lot of time in taxi cabs (New York City has 22,000 of them.)  As you would expect, I engaged several of the drivers in conversation.

They had come from all over the world – – Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Honduras, Russia and every county in Central America.  And they had all come to America (never the United States) to seek their fortune.  They had left everything behind to realize their American Dream.

“You don’t know how good you have it”, they all said.  “This is a great country and you can accomplish anything if you work hard.”

One told me that he had come to New York City 33 years ago and started driving a cab.  His dream was to own his own restaurant.   “And, 30 years later you’re still driving a cab,”  I asked?

“I realized my American dream,” he said.  “I owned a restaurant.  I owned two of them.  It cost me $423,000.  Then I went bankrupt.  But, I’m starting all over again,” he said.  “That’s the American way.”

Most of the drivers had become American citizens, and with a few exceptions, most of them had voted for Barack Obama.

These were hard-working Americans who believed in helping themselves through hard work.  They should have voted for Republicans.  Why had they voted for Obama, I wondered?

“Republicans don’t care about us immigrants,” was the common refrain.

Now 10 years later, nothing seems to have changed.