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Fox is one sorry Mexican

By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, May 20, 2005

Mexican President Vicente Fox has not even begun to apologize.

Mr. Fox probably hopes his halfhearted nonapology to two race hustlers on Monday night will make amends for his racist comment a week ago.

It won't.

He owes black Americans a real apology. Double dittos for every other American.

Fox was whining to visiting American businessmen about the lack of unrestricted access to the United States for every Mexican wanting to flee his country.

"There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," Fox said in Spanish.

The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton never look a gift jackass in the mouth.

They and others rightly challenged Fox about his misguided remark. After refusing to offer an apology through most of Monday, Fox spoke separately by phone with Jackson and Sharpton.

Fox said he "regretted if he offended the African-American community," adding he has "great respect" for it, according to the Mexican Foreign Ministry. Nothing was lost in translation.

In other words, Fox did not apologize, even when he met with Jackson at the presidential residence on Wednesday. He stands by his misstatement.

A rainbow coalition of Americans is not willing to do many of the jobs taken by illegal aliens because employers know they can hire these foreigners for a fraction of what the job otherwise would pay. Sixty dollars a day looks like the Powerball jackpot to an illiterate who had made maybe $5 a day, when there was work to be found.

Americans -- who also are filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work -- need to be paid with more than a few Lincolns and Hamiltons slipped under the table. Most Americans do not live 50 to a house or in a cardboard box in a California canyon. Or camp out in hospital emergency rooms for "free" health care.

After Fox apologizes to blacks, he should beg your forgiveness regarding Luis Ernesto Derbez.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Derbez was reportedly sending a diplomatic letter to the United States on Monday protesting -- protesting, mind you -- the Real ID Act of 2005 that just sailed through the Congress and was signed into law by President George W. Bush. Driver's license applicants soon must prove they are in America legally. Derbez also supposedly has righteous indignation about the construction of a border barrier wall.

He also took time to criticize U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza for having the unmitigated gall to warn American tourists about ongoing violence in Mexico.

When will your republic get an apology from Fox for that?

Or for the Mexican government aiding and abetting in the daily invasion of illegals across your border? Or for the overstuffing of your prisons with violent criminals who sneaked in from Mexico? Or for overburdening your public schools, hospitals and social service programs?

Or for keeping the poor poor? Even American citizens at the bottom of the food chain cannot compete legally in a perverse bidding contest with illegals to determine how little unscrupulous employers will pay.

And will Fox apologize if, among the millions of illegals who use Mexico as the gateway into America, there were bin Laden clones passing for Mexicans who committed acts of terror against the supposed Great Satan? If Fox should, it probably would be one sorry apology.