by José de la Isla
HOUSTON– Jeff Dunham is a ventriloquist who frequently appears on cable TV’s Comedy Central with Walter, one of his dummy characters. Walter is ornery, crabby and mean-spirited. But entertaining and funny. The act is probably the best since Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, or Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Dunham, through Walter, captures a certain character type who has been angry ever since the 1960s. Advances made by social change are to his dislike. They are mostly viewed as coming at a cost (too much) and therefore worth discrediting.
Walter has probably been angry since Richard Nixon’s “silent majority” and has complained ever since about integration, hippies, George McGovern, anti-Vietnam marches, taxes, and most recently, unauthorized immigration.
In a recent interview, Dunham talked about meeting Bob Hope but had no particular punch line, to which Walter commented, “I can die happy knowing that crap.”
Walter’s exaggerated attitude makes us conscious about the unenlightened side of our opinions.
Flash back now to September 11, 2001. Somewhere in the inventory of 2,974 people killed during the attacks, the 24 missing and presumed dead, the 90 foreign nationals, there was a segment among those killed who lacked immigration papers. Their exact number was unknown.
They were referred to as the “invisible dead,” shadow people who office dwellers don’t see, unnoticed because of status differences—the maintenance workers, delivery personnel, kitchen help. They were anonymous but several were believed to have come from Latin American countries.
Who were they? How could body parts get identified if any were found—when their names did not exist on documents? Families of those who were known to have been there had trouble getting death certificates in the chaos that followed. Some uncooperative employers wanted to mitigate compounding complications following the disaster.
This month immediate family members of 15 of those once-invisible dead — spouses, parents, children who also lacked papers — were granted temporary legal status by Homeland Security. Since 9/11 they have lived in fear of deportation, largely invisible themselves during the past seven years.
Life even got complicated after the Victim Compensation Fund made payments between $875,000 to $4.1 million to surviving families of all those who died.. Without Social Security numbers and other offi cial identifi cation, bank deposits, investments, and other prudent safeguards are diffi cult, if not impossible.
Two U.S. Congress members from New York introduced a bill last year to grant permanent resident visas to immediate relatives of the undocumented workers who were killed. Several “Walters” in the U.S. House of Representative opposed the measure, wanting “assurance” the immigrants weren’t themselves terrorists or criminals.
The temporary legal status for the 15 could fabclear the way for receiving permanent legal status.
The New York Times posted 26 comments with its news item on DHS’s Aug. 15 announcement. With some exceptions, readers’ reactions were sympathetic. Note2self wrote in: “Great move! The undocumented were the anonymous victims of this tragedy.”
Some thoughtful people like MdeG said, “Their families are just as bereaved as the families of citizens. Their spouses and children still have to eat. Have a heart, would you?”
This in reaction to one particularly obnoxious poster, who wrote, “Do you know how much $875,000 and/or $4.1 million dollars could benefit our schools, our police force, OUR FRIGGING BORDER PATROL!?!?!?!”
To wit, Ed replied, “A millionaire is not going to 6be a burden on our social programs. This is obviously the right thing to do.”
Mail OrderBride simply called it for what it was: “Are you implying that illegal alien status negates any tragedy suffered as a result of 9/11?”
But Alpal, like a Walter, responded, “I don’t understand.
Either you are legally here or illegally here. If you are illegally here, whether you freaking die on 9/11 does not mean you get (a) green card.”
That logic could pass from Walter’s mouth as more of his cynical humor because he is not human. But it isn’t funny coming from the mouth of a human turned into a dummy.
(José de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power” (Archer Books, 2003) writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail joseisla3@yahoo.com). ©2008 ricantes
