Geraldo Rivera recently spoke on the Michael Smerconish show about his new book titled “His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. “. The show on Philadelphia’s Big Talker 1210 WPHT is generally considered a right wing conservative talk radio show but has hints of independent thinking. The lawyer turned political radio host shifts slightly from hard conservatism on some issues but is still generally considered conservative. When I heard that Geraldo Rivera would be coming on the show to discuss his new book I started to lose interest. I mean honestly, who cares what the long time TV talk show host turned journalist with an agenda says? Then I heard the title of the book, “His Panic: Why Americans fear Hispanics in the U.S.”. As a white American I knew that I HAD to listen to this. What I heard was absolutely ridiculous. Geraldo is actually asserting in this book that non-Hispanic Americans fear ALL Hispanics because we believe they will shift the culture of the country towards the Hispanic culture. He asserts that Americans don’t want to move just the 12 million illegal immigrants out of our country, but that we want all Hispanic Americans displaced. The underlying current of his book from the way he spoke about it was racism against all Hispanics regardless of immigration status by white America and to a slightly lesser extent black America. Geraldo appears to seek to ignite racial tensions in the United States with regards to Hispanic Americans. As the average white American male in the eastern United States I take exception to the notion that Hispanics are hated by the rest of the country simply for being brown. I’ve got something to say to YOU mister Geraldo Rivera, and listen up. I don’t hate Hispanics. I don’t fear Hispanics. I don’t discriminate against anyone, black, white, brown or blue simply because of the color of their skin. I don’t discriminate against Africans, Muslims, Hispanics or Asians because of their national origin. A very smart man once said "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Mister Rivera, I think, by and large the nation has become this. Racism is not a myth not for African Americans, not for Hispanics, not for Asians. There are people in this great country that are racist. There are groups that get together and commit racist acts like burning black churches. There are also groups that merge together and run drugs, commit murder and kill innocent people. I think Mister Geraldo Rivera that you are missing the TRUE fears of America. The real fears of America are the burdens to the education and healthcare systems that are posed by ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, white, black, Hispanic, Asian or European. The real fears of America include the security of our nation when we cannot stop people from illegally entering the United States. Who knows what intentions these people who are breaking the law have? If they’re willing to break the law to get here, they’re willing to break the law to stay. Let’s look at gangs. In 2005 CAL/GANG, a statewide database maintained by the California Department of Justice, said the city of Los Angeles was home to 463 gangs with 39,032 members. Hispanic gangs made up the majority of all gang members with over 22k members. In 2007 the Charlotte Conservative reported that studies show that more than half of all Gang members in LA are illegal immigrants from Latin countries as well 29% of all inmates in all state and federal prisons are illegal aliens. Those statistics Mister Geraldo provide reason for concerns about illegal immigration. That brings me to jobs. Mister Geraldo wants us to believe that illegal immigrants are doing America a favor by taking jobs in factories or on farms that legal Americans feel are beneath them. I’ve got news for you Mister Geraldo, you may find it hard pressed to locate a teen or young person in NYC to work on a farm, in a factory or do landscaping, but I can tell you that if you were step outside of your comfort zone and head into a slightly more rural area you would find legal Americans, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic that are jobless because illegal immigrants, working for cash under the table and for much less wage than legal hires would be required to be paid, have stolen these jobs that would help them. You’d find Americans eager for any job, including those you say are considered beneath legal Americans. Geraldo says that illegal immigrants revitalize towns and bring back an economy. Mister Geraldo, please ask the long time residents of the Kennett Square, PA area if the influx of illegal immigrants has revitalized their town. The answer you are most likely to receive is that the town has lost property values, a huge surge in school populations and a loss of blue collar jobs to illegals. The fact is Mister Geraldo, that there is nothing good about illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is the practice of breaking the rule of law and obtaining unlawful access to a sovereign nation. These people have already broken the law to get here, what’s to stop them from breaking the law again while in the country? Statistics show that many of them do break the law again. I have a proposition for you Mister Geraldo Rivera, which you can choose to ignore if you like. I, an average citizen of the United States of America, challenge you, the great Geraldo Rivera to a debate on illegal immigration on the stage of your choosing. We can debate it on a radio show, we can debate it on TV, and we can debate it in front of a live auditorium. I’ve never spoken in front of a large group of people, on TV or on the radio, but I am so offended by your obviously ridiculous statements that I will step out of my comfort zone to confront your lies and mistruths. What do you say Mister Rivera, are you too good to debate an average American, or are you just afraid of being wrong? Reference Material: www.LACP.org Author: Michael Kraft Published: May 21, 2007 www.charlotteconservative.com