by James Glaser
June 21, 2004

Or maybe I should be saying, looking at it from a different point of view. "It," is Washington and the war in Iraq. This weekend I spent time with some young adults. Young Americans who are just starting out in life. Some of them are planning their weddings, while others are starting out in the work force.

I was down in Minneapolis for my daughters graduation and what I found so interesting, is that all of the young people I met, were very well informed about out government and America's foreign policy.

I wouldn't say these people are scared, but I would say that they are worried and every one of them that I met is going to vote.

If I was going to list their concerns by priority, the economy and the thought of a decades long War on Terrorism are right up at the top, followed by worries of a draft, and the unease that everyone I talked to had about the tens of thousands of legal and illegal immigrants that are coming here to compete in the job market.

Some young people are looking to keep going on with their education and they have found that there are thousands of illegal aliens looking for any part time work that is around. College kids need flexible hours to work, some place that will let them work around their school schedule.

Employers might want to help these kids out, but it is so easy for them to hire illegal workers. They will work when ever they want them to and they don't have to think about accommodating anyone with these foreigners working for them.

Every place I went to had foreign people working. The man taking the money at the parking garage, the waiter at the restaurant, and the gas station attendant were all hard to understand, because English was not these peoples first language, in fact it might have not have been a language that they could use at all. There is nothing wrong with these people working if they are here legally. But if they aren't, then they are holding wages down and they are keeping the American teenager and college student from finding that summer job that we all had when we were going to school.

Yes, I do feel bad for these people and sure it is hard in their countries, but according to the young Americans that I talked to, these foreign born illegal workers are hurting our young students.

Not everybody has parents that can foot the bill for college and there are hundreds of thousands of Americans trying to work their way through school. We tell them that they should obey the laws of our country and that it is wrong to cheat in school.

Mean while we have millions and millions of foreign workers that are breaking the law and cheating just by being here. Washington looks the other way because major corporations want this cheap labor.

Well there is no free ride and by looking the other way when it comes to these illegal workers, Washington and American Corporations are hurting our youth, the very people we want to make it here in America. They are our future and we should be looking out for them.

The young people, who I spoke with, are mad about this. They don't like thinking about an "everlasting war" and they haven't seen an upswing in the economy. Many of them have their degree, but there are no jobs in their field.

Sure it would be nice if everyone that wanted to could come here and live the American dream, but it isn't going to happen. We have already reached the saturation point. With millions and millions of illegal workers, the natural need to raise wages to attract workers is a thing of the past, now there is a glut of workers and companies can think about lowering wages, because there are so many people willing to take any job.

Is that what we want? That isn't what our parents left for us, no, we were given a country where wages were always increasing. That isn't happening any more and the young Americans know this and they don't like what our country's future looks like.