No, It Wouldn’t Have Been Awesome

ISU Student Senator Tara Rowe embraced the illegal protests by staying home to complete her research papers. She took a break to watch the Rockies and Braves when she had this thought:

Anyway, a few minutes ago I took a break from a research paper and turned on the television to the Braves/Rockies game and had a thought: Wouldn’t it have been awesome if all of the MLB players who are from countries south of us would have refused to play their regularly scheduled games today?

I don’t know how many current players in the Major League Baseball association are from Mexico, I only know my personal favorite Vinny Castilla and Wikipedia says 97 players from Mexico have played in the league since 1933, but I know a good chunk of most team rosters is filled by Central American stars.

No, it wouldn’t have been awesome. Players didn’t do it because it would cost them a ton of change, plus they’d get fined by the league and the commissioner.

In addition, unlike those who did march in the streets, they understood the idea of backlash. A lot of these guys live out of the country in the offseason. They enjoy the benefits of living in the US in beautiful homes. They’re loved by fans.

The last thing they want to do is engender hostility or the fabled backlash. So, they used their brains and it never even occurred to them to walk away from this money to make a political statement.

Then again, maybe a lot of us should be walking away. One poster on the blog said he would have taken part except he wasn’t Hispanic and had some other issues. Tara wrote:

I was protesting in effort to show what impact immigrants have on the economy…with the exception of Native Americans, we are all immigrats in some way or another.

So, really all of this stuff on May 1st was an attempt to show the Native Americans how empty the country would be if everyone else didn’t show up to work? Thanks for that clarification, Tara.

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