Monday, March 27, 2017

My Thoughts on 9/11, Immigration and Jobs

Sanjay Dalal thoughts on 9/11, immigration and jobs

9/11 happened a long time back. Our nation needs to heal and move forward. We must never forget the lives lost and and always remember the sacrifices made during that horrific tragedy. We must also continually watch out for the lone wolves or radicals who seek to destroy our peace. We must also work together on stopping new illegal immigrants coming to our country, but must do so in the right way, the human way, the peaceful way!

However, we can't terrorize our immigrants because they look different or believe they "took away our jobs." According to numerous studies, legal immigrants have not only created more jobs in our glorious republic, but also have been peaceful and at times, model community members. These immigrants work hard for a living, and moved here in the pursuit of giving a better life for themselves and their families. Immigrants also bring diversity to the workplace which results in greater creativity and opportunity. Some immigrants have made it, many are still making it, and many more are struggling to make it!

We can't ask these immigrants who have made America home for the past 10-plus years to go back to their countries. If that's the case, why don't we ask everyone to go back to where their ancestors came from. Who will be left then? Why does one race, because of the color of their skin, have a right to ask another race to go back? Who gave them that right to exclude? We can't stop the progress we have made over the last 240 years. We can't go back to hate, inequality and bigotry.

Our nation has lost meaningful manufacturing jobs over the last several decades. The responsibility of lost jobs weighs equally on the manufacturers who sought to reduce their manufacturing costs by moving their operations overseas, the technological advances in manufacturing resulting in automation of manual tasks and reduced labor, the economy that forced manufacturers to downsize and cut costs, the laws that did not provide incentives to manufacturers to "Make in USA", outsourcing and the fickle buyers who are forever looking to purchase goods at the lowest cost possible. To put the blame of lost jobs on immigrants is quite irresponsible and inaccurate.

Our nation is at dangerous crossroads. Our leadership needs to step up and stop all their dividing rhetoric. Our leadership must work on uniting our great republic. Even the slightest innuendo creates an uncontrollable crescendo. This we must not accept from our leaders. We must uphold our leaders to protecting the freedom and rights of all our people. Above all, we must welcome all immigrants and make them feel at home, right here in our great nation.

The United States of America has always been a welcoming nation of the immigrants, by the immigrants, and for the immigrants! I am sincerely hoping that we always remain a welcoming nation for all our people.

Sanjay B Dalal, An Immigrant from India
founder & CEO, oGoing, USA's Local Business Network