In more Rubashkin news…
The New York Times has issued a searing (ha! pun not-so-much intended) editorial on the Postville affair, titled, “The Shame of Postville, Iowa”
In my opinion, skip the editorial and go straight to the source, an eye-witness essay of the handling of the workers. It is pretty disgusting and it’s too early in the morning to share any reactions, it’s really awful enough to stand on its own, no reflection necessary. read for yourself at your own risk of queasiness and rage.
inside the essay you’ll find joyful reports, such as:
Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10. They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some being relatives (various Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí…), some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously. It dawned on me that, aside from their Guatemalan or Mexican nationality, which was imposed on their people after Independence, they too were Native Americans, in shackles
Um . . . fascinating.
Hmm, let’s see. Millions of people who don’t speak the language don’t know the laws and who crossed the border illegally (hence illegal immigrant) are being abused? Wow, who didn’t see that one coming=
If you care so much about the suffering of individuals (mass migration to america doesn’t solve world poverty duhh) why don’t you spare a tear for your fellow American, who in these uncertain economic times needs to worry about his job as much as any illegal immigrant.
“Fascinating?” Is that it? But where is the indignation that is the lifeblood of the card-carrying Republican; the all-consuming outrage that makes him get out of bed in the morning and fills his lungs with oxygen? You know, the kind of fanaticism and abject stupidity that lead him to characterize a sewer of criminal thugs like the Rubashkins as a family of pious, humble tzaddikim, and accuse those who would expose their crimes as being part of a “lynch mob?” I mean, why give up now, just because of a mountain of empirical evidence and federal indictments documenting a pattern of greed and exploitation reminiscent of the most beloved characteristics of Fagin, Shylock, and the Jew of Malta.