For the umpteenth time, I am reading John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley. It is my favorite book from my favorite author and I have yet to read the book without learning something new. For those who haven’t had the opportunity, it his account of a 3-month, 10,000 mile, 34 state trip around the country in a pickup truck (Rocinante) with his dog, Charley.

At one point in the trip, he is visiting Aroostook, Maine, which was one of the three great potato-raising areas in America (along with Idaho and Long Island) and discussing the immigrants (in this case French Canadian) who cross borders to harvest our food. Although the book was written 45 years ago, I was struck by the following passage….

“I’ve seen migrant crop-picking people around the country: Hindus, Filipinos, Mexicans, Okies away from their states. Here in Maine, a great many were French Canadians who came over the border for the harvest season. It occurs to me, just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I hope we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat.”

On my radio show this week, Ward Connerly talked about the cultural devastation in the black community and the dearth of jobs available for young blacks and how it is a misnomer that they wouldn’t do the jobs that Mexican immigrants are doing. Steinbeck and Connerly are both bright men and if they’re both right….