Thread: Waukegan crackdown (287g) won't roll back clock [arrogant]

How can you judge a town by driving through one afternoon and/or working there 25 years ago?! Does she listen to the scanner? Hear the continuous noise complaints? See what's going on in the schools, hospitals? The arrogance is overwhelming...

http://www.waukegan.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7682


Waukegan crackdown won't roll back clock

July 23, 2007
BY SUE ONTIVEROS sontiveros@suntimes.com

Oh, c'mon, you don't really believe Waukegan's decision to join up with the feds to root out and deport violent undocumented offenders is an innocent stab at law and order?
Not by a long shot. The supporters of this effort are on an elusive quest for something they're never going to regain. I might even have a little sympathy for them if they weren't so damned mean-spirited.

In the early 1980s, I was a reporter in Waukegan for the News-Sun, so for a time I knew the town pretty well. But from the very beginning there, when I spent many lunch hours just driving up and down the city's streets, I understood what made it tick. The roots of the town were much like my own.

At one time, Waukegan was a thriving blue-collar town. Its eastern border sits on Lake Michigan, but it sacrificed lakefront beauty for something more practical: jobs. These heavy-industry jobs were good-paying ones, often with union benefits, the kind of hard, dirty and sometimes dangerous work that allowed folks to buy modest homes that they kept neat, with carefully mowed -- by the owners, not a service -- lawns. They had no need to shop in downtown Chicago or anywhere else, really; their busy downtown was the one others flocked to.

But by the time I got there in the early 1980s, Waukegan was past its glory days. The industry was all but gone, as were most of the downtown businesses, leaving the place reeling. Waukegan resembled a past-her-prime starlet, befuddled and left to wonder what happened to the good life. Boy, if that town didn't remind me of the Southeast Side of Chicago, the once-thriving Steel Belt of my youth.

So after seeing the throng that descended on the town last week, I decided to drive the streets of Waukegan once again to figure out why emotions are running so high there concerning Latino immigrants.

It's still a tidy town. And quiet on a weeknight. The only place I found with an almost-full parking lot was the off-track betting parlor on the edge of town. Downtown has added businesses, although not much weekday nightlife. The lakefront is fixed up, somewhat.

I finally saw what I know is the real craw in Waukegan's throat concerning its influx of Latino immigrants. Along every commercial strip, particularly on Washington Street, was what wasn't there before in large numbers: Latin businesses. Grocery stories, bakeries, insurance offices, hair salons, furniture and clothing stores, restaurants. And the signs were mostly in Spanish, something that riles the anti-immigrant movement to no end.

In the last 25 years, Waukegan's Latin community has grown a solid economic base. And economic success means one thing, eventually: a shift in political power. So Waukegan, like its tired cousin, Carpentersville, and similar towns across the United States, is going to take every step it can to try to stop that shift to Latino power. You don't see any of these punitive measures happening where there are concentrations of Asian, Polish or African new immigrants, do you? That's because they haven't been declared the fastest-growing minority in the United States.

Make no mistake, when Waukegan gets its officers trained, Latinos are going to be stopped left and right in an effort to weed out anyone not documented. And Waukegan thinks this is going to stop the change.

The tide already has turned. This measure is going to make life miserable for a lot of Latinos up there. But it's not going to stop the inevitable.

Waukegan crackdown won't roll back clock.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/ontiveros/ ... 23.article

The tide already has turned. This measure is going to make life miserable for a lot of Latinos up there. But it's not going to stop the inevitable.

Hmmm........what do we have here? Is this woman a prophet, mystic, or an ordinary run of the mill psychic? Oh that's right, she's just another illegal immigrant advocate!

Originally Posted by MW

The tide already has turned. This measure is going to make life miserable for a lot of Latinos up there. But it's not going to stop the inevitable.

Hmmm........what do we have here? Is this a woman a prophet, mystic, or an ordinary run of the mill psychic? Oh that's right, she's just another illegal immigrant advocate!

Now we know why it's called the "drive by media."

Fedup I hope you are not effected by this piece of trash journalism which reads like a poorly written bad novel.Just another case of a temper tantrum by a possible illegal or at least an illegal advocate.

I finally saw what I know is the real craw in Waukegan's throat concerning its influx of Latino immigrants. Along every commercial strip, particularly on Washington Street, was what wasn't there before in large numbers: Latin businesses. Grocery stories, bakeries, insurance offices, hair salons, furniture and clothing stores, restaurants. And the signs were mostly in Spanish, something that riles the anti-immigrant movement to no end.

Well...pardon moi....but isn't that enough to stick in the craw of people who are citizens of this country and of the people who built this town in ENGLISH, in an ENGLISH the main language state....in a country where English is required for citizenship to see their towns businesses converted to Spanish only just because they were invaded by a particular group at this particular time? Hey....it's a suburb of Chicago.....At various times they were Polish dominated and German dominated and Irish dominated......but the signs were in ENGLISH. They didn't change the entire towns language with each new wave of immigrants to where long time citizens couldn't shop in their own towns stores anymore. Ya...it sticks in my craw. My husband wouldn't go with me to Waukegan because he didn't want to risk getting lost up there and not find anyone speaking English. Not to mention feeling like we'd be targets. We've gone through that fiasco already. There's also a Peter Frampton concert comming there. He wants to see him and decided against it for the same reason. I'm not traveling the world here. I expect to feel lost and out of place and not understood in a FOREIGN country. Not in my own country, in my own state, not too far from where I live. There are definately places American citizens KNOW NOT to go. Unfortunatly....Waukegan is becomming one of those places. There's certain parts of this town and many others where you know not to go. For far more than just whether it's a crime laden area......but because no-one speaks English. You can't even run to a business for help and count on someone there understanding or even caring that you need help. Ya.....that sticks in my craw.

So after seeing the throng that descended on the town last week, I decided to drive the streets of Waukegan once again to figure out why emotions are running so high there concerning Latino immigrants.

Another crap story written by a two-bit writer who does no research and can't get their facts straight.
I especially love how she immediately resorts to the "latino" population.

Let's face facts here, over 50% of illegals ARE of hispanic origins. GET OVER IT SENORA.
The folks in Waukegan are not targeting latinos, they are targeting illegals. BIG DIFFERENCE.

Obviously this writer was asleep or absent when they taught about being impartial and un-bias in writing.
To me, all this is a rant and rave paper with a one-sided arguement.

Have there been in changes in Waukegan?

What is the mood there now?

Keep us posted.

I've have responded to numerous articles written by Sue Ontiveros. Her replies were often sarcastic at best and she and I actually exchanged unpleasantries on the subject of her illegal raza, namely Elvira Arellano.

She is an illegal alien supporter and frankly its a waste of time reading her Larazesque columns, don't even bother responding unless you are up for a verbal brawl.

Originally Posted by MW

The tide already has turned. This measure is going to make life miserable for a lot of Latinos up there. But it's not going to stop the inevitable.

Hmmm........what do we have here? Is this woman a prophet, mystic, or an ordinary run of the mill psychic? Oh that's right, she's just another illegal immigrant advocate!

You just described an OLB Socialist.

Dixie

What does this writer mean by the political shift to "latino power"?What could they do differently,they have to look out for the entire community?Just the same as anyone else in the same elected office.
PS - when did the saying change?I always thought that something could stick in someones craw but I've never heard of a craw getting stuck in ones throat.