(The author’s imaginary cabin on some lake full of trout)
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By popular demand, I am writing about this essay and thank all the people who have been giving me their ideas and input on these topics. There is more than one topic in this essay. I am taking a break from my fishing at the cabin on the private lake (I wish!!!) because these topics are growing and flowing and I am hoping these words below will encourage more discussion.
I will never forget the day I helped at a food pantry by translating for a group of about 50 Venezuelans who could not speak a word of English. One of them explained they had arrived in Chicago and gotten placed in a hotel. Boys and young men were dumped together and a few young families had their own rooms.
THEY WERE LEFT IN THE HOTEL FOR TWO DAYS WITH NO FOOD… AND NO IDEA HOW TO FIND ANY…
Somebody had gotten these migrants to the food pantry. I was asked to explain the procedure for obtaining food and other needed items like jackets and sweaters. I explained how they should sign up, get their number, and then wait for the number to be called in English—a language they cannot understand.
PEOPLE STOOD AND WERE SO HUNGRY THEY WERE EATING SLICES OF BREAD AS I EXPLAINED HOW THEY COULD SIGN UP TO GET THE FOOD.
With tears in my eyes,
I told them how to ask for certain items, other information important, or deny other items – “no pork” and “three children.
One migrant, concerned about my tears, asked if I was okay, and I responded I had a cold. He nodded… but he knew better.
There are several different comments I have heard regarding the 8,000 plus? new migrants (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/chicago-warns-of-humanitarian-crisis-as-city-struggles-to-house-migrants#:~:text=More%20than%208%2C000%20migrants%20have,a%20protest%20against%20immigration%20policies.) who are already here in Chicago. Some are staying in police stations; some are staying in a variety of placements ranging from shelters to hotels. The migrants being discussed—and participating—are mainly the Venezuelans who have been gifted to us from “leaders” in other states.
I myself have some opinions, btw. I think I know what a leader really is. True leaders have solutions, know how to find other people with ideas, know how to bring people together to work on solutions, and then are so well respected they have many people glad to implement those solutions.
Here are some of the opinions I have been hearing…
ONCE THE MIGRANTS BEGAN APPEARING IN CHICAGO, IT WAS CLEAR MAYOR LIGHTFOOT HAD NO PLAN WHATSOEVER HOW TO HELP THEM AND NO EMPLOYEES INTERESTED IN EITHER MAKING HER LOOK GOOD OR TAKE CARE OF THEIR HOMELESS STATUS. There is the view that the outgoing mayor should have gotten a taskforce together immediately to not only help the new arrivals—but also formulate a working plan across departments and organizations to provide solutions to ongoing and future arrivals’ needs.
As one of the most powerful people in the world, Mayor Lightfoot could have done something to help the new migrants but did pretty much nothing. I am going out on a limb here by assuming she had the power to do much more. Dumping new arrivals—as they are referred to in the media often even though they are actual human beings—into hotels and other holding pens without feeding them, counseling them, empowering or assisting them—will be part of her legacy. Sorry. The facts do not lie.
Lightfoot did declare an emergency… but it is unclear to most people how helpful that was… (
Lightfoot talked in terms of lack of resources. However, it is unclear why she did that (https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-migrants-title-42-texas-brandon-johnson/13215273/).
Millions of dollars…
These accounts of Lightfoot screaming for more funds to help the homeless need to be put to rest.
The outgoing mayor had so much money to spend on homeless issues SHE DID NOT HAVE TIME TO SPEND IT! (https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/2/2/23583499/chicago-homeless-federal-grant-housing-urban-development-hud-secretary-marcia-fudge-lightfoot)
NOTHING IS BEING DONE TO HELP THE 58,000 PLUS HOMELESS PEOPLE ALREADY IN CHICAGO—OTHER THAN PLACING AN EYE-DROPPER OF THE UNHOUSED POPULATION INTO APARTMENTS ON A VERY SLOW BASIS. It is interesting that even with MILLIONS of dollars available, there are still many people filling the shelters, sleeping on the sidewalk, living on the trains and buses, and pitching tents in the parks.
Many American homeless people have expressed the opinion they are NOT against the city helping the migrants but do wonder what will happen to the unhoused who have been waiting for years to get a place to live, assistance with a variety of needs, and the counseling, rehab, and other help they have been hoping for. Screaming for.
Chicago needs to wake up.
THE NEW MAYOR WILL FACE SOME HUGE CHALLENGES DEALING WITH THIS NEW GROUP OF “FOREIGN” PEOPLE WHO ARE HARD TO UNDERSTAND AND WE DON’T HAVE THE RESOURCES TO DEAL WITH THESE DEMANDS. HE HAS HIS WORK CUT OUT FOR HIM. Well, remember that the new mayor has a pretty big connection to the schools… and it may be teachers who he will come to rely on to use their education and leadership and experience to assist in serving and encouraging the new arrivals to succeed and then to contribute to the city.
THE CITY WILL BE FORCED TO PROVIDE FOR THESE MIGRANTS AND FIGURE OUT A WAY TO HELP THEM—USING RESOURCES MEANT FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Well, this somewhat alarmist view is silly because the city already has access to millions of dollars—and has hundreds of employees already in place—to help the homeless and others in need. There should be no “scramble” necessary to help house and feed and counsel the migrants.
We already have departments of the city…
specifically funded, staffed, and ready to do the day-to-day activities they are going to be directed to do to help the migrants.
THE NEW MAYOR HAS NO PLAN AND DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO FORMULATE ONE. Many people have been saying these kinds of things… but Brandon Johnson has already been out to the police stations and expressed his concern (https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/mayor-johnson-police-station-respite-center-migrant-crisis/). There are some possible plans to use the City Colleges as housing facilities, and that might be a very good sign. It could show that the mayor realizes this is a city-wide problem. One neighborhood or one zipcode is not the center of the solution.
Systems and planning will need to be employed.
THE MIGRANTS WILL TAKE RESOURCES AND APARTMENTS AWAY FROM HOMELESS PEOPLE IN CHICAGO WHO ARE ALREADY NOT BEING SERVED BY THE CITY. It is confusing why we have so many city employees going to work every day, using their emails, talking on their city telephones, going to department meetings, and sitting in City of Chicago offices all day while there are almost 60,000 unhoused people in this city (https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fss.html).
The fact that we have such a high percentage of our residents living outdoors, in shelters, and on the train is hard to explain to people of other cities, states, and countries. Why so many hungry, lost, maybe mentally ill, mostly just confused and tired, people all over the place?
Chicago streets at night resemble those Armageddon movies… with people wandering around, exhausted, bloody, sweaty, and eating anything they can find ().
And now there are more people out there.
What about the groups of people already here and struggling? Do people of different races get along well? Are there problems between Blacks and the migrants? Between Lithuanians and the migrants?
BLACKS FEEL THREATENED BY THE GROWING LATINO POPULATION REPREESENTED BY THE VENEZUELANS AND WILL NOT COOPERATE WITH ANY PLANS TO HELP THEM. There is a rather active attempt to further divide people—and peoples—by starting rumors about what “they” think about “them” and what “those others” think about “us.” Getting all these rumors out into the open—so they can be addressed—is probably a very important part of the discussion.
THE PLAN SEEMS TO BE TO LET MIGRANTS JUST WALK INTO OUR COUNTRY AND GROOM THEM TO VOTE AS DEMOCRATS—THE PEOPLE WHO ALLOWED THEM FREE ACCESS TO RESOURCES, APARTMENTS, AND FOOD HERE IN THE USA. THAT IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS ALWAYS DO: PROVIDE BRIBES FOR VOTES. There are many people indeed with this opinion—even within the city. Chicago is a city of democrats… but there are also people with other leanings and tendencies… some of them republicans… and some of them who vote and some of them with a lot of financial power.
WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT PRESIDENT BIDEN IS PART OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT THAT WILL ALLOW THE NEW MIGRANTS TO VOTE WITHOUT BECOMING CITIZENS AND WE WILL HAVE TO ACCEPT THE RESULTS OF THOSE ELECTIONS WITH NO RECOURSE WHATSOEVER. People in this extreme group also feel that the city will be changing.
Yes, the city will be changing. It is going to become more of a city of Spanish-speaking Latinos. You will a lot more Spanish and not know what people are saying. If people in Chicago do not speak the language, they will be lost. It is funny, but Chicago has gone through dozens of nationality shifts and language changes. The city already changes every single day… it will be even more vibrant than it was last week.
Historically (and you can google all these things if you have time) residents of Chicago have been great at learning Polish, Italian, and other languages very quickly to provide relevant and appropriate social services in a hurry. There are many stories indeed.
CHICAGO CANNOT AFFORD MORE BILINGUAL EDUCATION CLASSES AND MORE ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSES TO ACCOMMODATE THE MIGRANTS—AND THE SOCIAL WORKERS TRYING TO HELP THEM. This is simply not true. There are local resources and foundations, plus a variety of federal grant opportunities for these purposes. Millions of dollars out there. Millions.
At the turn of the century (the other one, not the recent one) there were many burgeoning programs in the city schools in bilingual education classes. Schools did a great job teaching children in two languages.
In English, and in German.
By the way, research has shown that Chicago does a fantastic job of teaching their “English language learners (https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/2019-12/English%20Learners%20in%20CPS-Dec2019-Consortium.pdf).
THE NEW MIGRANTS DO NOT WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH. This is one of the most ridiculous things I have heard. A mini-history lesson will tell you that they were discouraged from studying English in their schools and made a lot of other changes in the curriculum (https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/09/18/decade-under-chavez/political-intolerance-and-lost-opportunities-advancing-human).
THE VENEZUELANS AND OTHER NEW ARRIVALS ARE HERE TO GET EVERYTHING THEY CAN. Actually, most of the young migrants I have met are hungry, yes, but hungry to succeed. They insist they want to take care of their families, start households HERE and go to school, get professional jobs, and invest in this country.
THE NEW MIGRANTS ARE GOING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE RESOURCES HERE AND AFTER WE TAXPAYERS HAVE INVESTED TONS OF MONEY IN THEM THEY ARE JUST GOING TO GO BACK AND TAKE WEALTH WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY WILL GET HOMESICK. This is an interesting view indeed. Most every single migrant I have talked to promise they want nothing to do with their country of origin. They never want to go back.
This youngest “college age” group has lived through pretty terrible times of shortage, despair, corruption, and disaster in their country. This is true of younger people even up to today (https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-03-05/a-generation-of-venezuelan-children-know-only-struggles.html).
THEY HAVE NO MEMORIES OF THE GOOD OLD DAYS BACK HOME….
THERE WERE NO GOOD MEMORIES, MANY HAVE TOLD ME.
What do the migrants think of all the change and chaos and controversy? What do they intend to do in Chicago?
WE JUST WANT TO SURVIVE, AND THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE WE KNOW OF THAT WE CAN DO SO. There are truly very few places the migrants can go to “start over” and that is how many of them describe.
WE ARE LUCKY TO BE HERE AND HAPPY TO GET WHAT WE CAN AND WE APPREICATE THE HELP. Most of the migrants I have talked to—from this particular group—are very positive, hopeful about opportunities, and excited about moving forward. Venezuela is no longer their home, they insist. News of the chaos and changes in their country explains what has happened to the economy there (https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis).
THE CITY OF CHICAGO HAS TO PROVIDE FOR US. THEY HAVE NO CHOICE. Some migrants have told me, in not very polite terms, that they are here to stay and that the “Americans” as they call pretty much everyone who is not in their group must deal with them. However, this is a small group. There are assertive—and aggressive—people in every crowd.
“HERE WE ARE!” ...is the refrain of some of the migrants I have translated for, asked questions of, and asked whether I can interview sometime—on a casual basis, of course. They are here now, they say, and they are excited to get started on their next chapter.
Chicago. Lots of problems. People sleeping on the sidewalks. People hanging out in the police stations. Property taxes are high. There are no cheap apartments. The city is broken. Nobody cares. Lots of young people not even voting (https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2023/3/29/23662409/chicago-elections-low-turnout-young-voters-vallas-johnson-early-voting).
On a more upbeat notes, we could think of the current homeless people—and the new migrants—as a resource. Those are a lot of souls who can pray for good things.
They can become the workforce members we need. Some can become the professionals we are going to need in the future. From the currently unhoused (and maybe not contributing as much to the world of work as they could if they had a decent night’s sleep) and the new migrants (most of whom want to work and excel at it) we could be well-staffed indeed.
More firefighters, teachers, clerks, custodians, professors, cooks, bus drivers, and actors. Maybe there is an obvious answer to the workforce shortage in Chicago? (https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2023/1/26/23573500/chipotle-hiring-15000-continuing-restaurant-industry-labor-shortage)
Maybe some “leaders” in other states screwed up.