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In the News The snarkier reply to Brian Beedenbender

By Pat Young April 29, 2008 4:39 PM

Brian Beedenbender has kindly written an explanation of his bill, the distortions of the media about it, and the bloodyminded wrongheadedness of immigrants and their advocates towards it for the readers of this blog. Lisa, eternallly gentle herself, has written a reasoned rejoinder. I thought I would, as is my wont, look at his missive through a different lens.

Rather than go through the trouble of constructing a carefully argued corrective, I've chosen the lazy man's route of extensively quoting from Leg. Beedenbender's blog and inserting commentary where appropriate.

"Though we may disagree on a lot, I think we can agree on one thing. The problem exists. There are companies that do not pay taxes on their workers and/or hire workers ineligible to work in the United States. The Long Island Association and this website have both made statements affirming their belief that this bill could have a dramatic economic impact. While I disagree with their assertions..."

Here, as elsewhere, he provides no data to back up his assertion that no serious economic impact will result. Either large numbers of undocumented immigrants are working for the covered contractors, or they're not. If they are there is bound to be economic dislocation and price instability particularly in the home improvement area as well as the destabilization of Latino neighborhoods and businesses that rely on Latinos for workers or customers.If there are not large numbers of undocumented employed by these employers, then why is Beedenbender wasting everyone's time?

"I think we can take those assertions as an agreement that the problem exists."

If by "problem", you mean a vibrant Suffolk economy, then OK we agree.

"What we are left with is a decision on what to do about it. We can call the supporters of this bill names and suggest that they have hate in their hearts, but that won’t make the problem go away."

Don't you mean "That won't make the Latinos go away"?

"We can give spicy quotes to the newspapers"

I'll have my quotes with extra habeneros, por favor.

"and the television cameras, but that won’t make the problem go away. We can make far-reaching claims of imminent disaster should this bill pass, but again, that won’t make the problem go away. We can allow the media to distort this bill in an attempt to incite controversy, but that won’t make the problem go away. We can even wrongly make the entire discussion of this bill about race, but that won’t make the problem go away either."

Actually, we have tried to make the debate primarily about the economy, as you yourself pointed out in the opening paragraph.

"Or, we can reject all those distractions,"

Ummm, DISTRACTION ALERT, DISTRACTION ALERT-Suffolk's facing a major deficit-Roll out the Latinos for the cameras Brian.

"and try and do something."

I'll let that bit of self-aggrandizement stand on its own.

"We can stand by what we believe in, defend our position vehemently in civilized debate, and we can remind ourselves that progress does not occur by condemning the actions of others, but by producing actions of our own."

Legislator, you may want to speak to your amigos in the Border Patriots about civilized debate.

"I believe that it is the responsibility of Suffolk County, and the Legislature, to ensure a fair economic playing field within its borders. I believe that some businesses are breaking the rules for their own financial gain, to the detriment of their competitors, and I believe it would be neglectful of Suffolk County to ignore this situation.

I have heard some suggest that this bill is somehow singling out one group of people. Again, I must strongly disagree. This bill requires license holders to pay taxes for all of their employees, without regard to race or creed. This bill requires that license holders follow all of the laws that are currently in place, or lose their license. So if this law is racist, than by extension, so must be all of the laws currently in place. Of course we know that not to be true."

One of the bill's principal supporters, Leg. Lou D'Amaro has said that the main purpose of the bill is to go after "illegal immigration" [His words, in yesterday's Newsday].

"During the long debate on this bill, I have spoken with many people who disagree with my position. Many of those same people have suggested to me that there is a human element involved in this situation, that many illegal workers are here only to provide a better life for their families. I am not indifferent to that fact. We all want a better life for our families and everyone would do anything in their power to provide for their children."

Let us recall that many of those children are U.S. citizens. What is your plan for caring for them when they need public assistance? Thoughtful, nonracist fellow that you are, carefully balencing the needs of all, you must have a plan. We just haven't heard it yet.

"However, if you accept that line of reasoning, you are also implicitly accepting the idea that a need of one group of individuals outweighs the need of another."

I wonder which group Brian will decide to bestow his largesse upon.

"In short, you have decided that the humanitarian need for one group of individuals to provide for their family trumps the right of other individuals to provide for theirs. The great thing about a nation of laws is that we don’t have to make that choice; we have laws that establish a system by which everyone can compete fairly. But those laws are not being followed, and that is what this bill is about."

I guessed right. How about you?

"In the long history of our country, we have made some terrible mistakes."

Anyone vote that he is getting ready to confess that his bill is the latest installment? Show of hands?

"The remnants of those mistakes have left us with a reflexive reaction to blame race for our problems."

Those immigrants, always blaming race for racism.

" When race gets involved, we cloud the issue"

He's right, its getting pretty murky out there.

"and create a very easy to understand binary equation"

Wait , weren't you the one involved in binary civics in the last paragraph? You know, the stuff about the two people with families to feed and we must choose one over the other.:

"If you believe one thing, you are compassionate and progressive. If you believe the other, you are a racist bigot. That sort of oversimplified dichotomy of thought is not worthy of this issue, it is not worthy of the Legislature, and it is not worthy of any more of our attention. We can, and must do better."

Yes we can.

"This bill is not about race, it is about greed. "

for votes

"It is about recognizing our laws, and the fact that not paying taxes on your employees or hiring illegal workers is a violation of those laws. It is about standing up for small businessmen and women who are getting taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous businesses who treat all workers as nothing more than a tool to inflate their wallets. It is about creating a level playing field, giving everyone a fair shot, and cracking down on greedy profiteering companies."

Now you know why they call him the "Che Guevara of Centereach".

But seriously folks, Leg. Beedenbender simply ignores the increased discrimination against legally present Latinos that has been documented to result from his sort of tough employer sanctions laws. He dismisses any economic impact on Suffolk generally. And he assumes that the families of those who lose their jobs due to this bill will simply disappear.Now that's the Suffolk way of legislation!

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