Day laborers shower us with culture, irrigation
Tom Knott
Harry Thomas Jr. is the Ward 5 Council member who is meeting neighborhood opposition to his proposal to plant a day-laborer center near the Home Depot on Rhode Island Avenue Northeast.
The otherwise good residents of the Brentwood neighborhood take exception to the day laborers sleeping under their porches, drinking firewater on street corners and irrigating the trees, bushes and walls in their midst.
It is a cultural thing, and the fine folks of Brentwood just do not understand. The need to understand those from a foreign land is important, especially if they have come all this way to sleep under your porch, imbibe in bottled spirits and relieve themselves whenever it is necessary.
The enlightened Mr. Thomas wants to do right by the laborers, illegal or not, and has secured $500,000 in taxpayer money to build the center. D.C. officials have not said whether they will check the immigration status of the day laborers who congregate there. We would hope they would overlook this tiny detail.The day laborers merely want to do the jobs that Americans refuse to do, at least when they are not sleeping under porches and showering plants with their natural fertilizer.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070705/METRO/107050045/1004/metro