I am reminded of a a similar experience I had a couple of years ago when I was the cause of a similar fender bender in a parking garage. I left a note with all my contact info along with my insurance company’s since there was no one around. Neither I nor my insurance company ever heard from the owner. The same thought occurred to me that the owner might be undocumented or have trouble with his paperwork.
Oh how I wish people would be more like Ms. Renkl and try to think about the motivations for their actions and debate with their inner voices about the kind and humane way to act.
Some people might not agree, but this voice is what stops me from going to a supervisor when some waitperson or store clerk or someone in a low level job is rude or unhelpful. Perhaps my complaint might be the last straw that gets the person fired. Maybe they have worries at home or something else. Or maybe it was something I said or did that was the cause. I’m no angel, but I aspire to be on the side of someone like Ms. Renkl
142
@Nancy
Kind to the cruel; cruel to the kind.
4
@Nancy
See, the problem with people like you and Ms. Renkl is that when you don't call people out on their infractions, they go on to continue committing them, to others who cannot afford to "turn the other cheek" and absorb the losses.
If you are of a certain age, I suspect women like you two were encouraged to keep quiet and not make trouble. That explains why so many men in the MeToo offender movement went on to re-rape, re-harrass, and re-offend.
You're not helping society by not reporting. Really, you're not. You are just passing on the problem to somebody else when you had your chance to create change, but were too cowed to use it.
32
@Nancy
100% agree with you about the wait staff, especially those working in service jobs at minimum wages. It does bother me sometimes when I feel that the service is less than what I expected. However, I realize that there is no victory in getting back at someone who is trying to make a living and could be having a bad day. If anger ever gets the better of me causing me to hurt someone, all I feel later is petty and ashamed of it.
So now as a matter of course I never get upset at anyone working low wage jobs, regardless of their treatment. If some clerk somewhere can ruin my day to cause me to lash out, I am no better than a child.
39
I’m sorry but this is absurd.
Regardless of someone’s immigration status, they should leave a note (at least one of apology) after damaging someone else’s personal property.
It’s sweet that you can afford both full auto insurance and the deductible (and the rate increase that can come with claims), but for those of us who just have liability, that sort of destruction of personal property usually means we’re driving around in a busted car for weeks or months.
I don’t care what someone’s status is; leaving the scene of an accident without leaving a note or taking any sort of accountability goes against what it means to be part of a productive society.
429
@Laura
Agree. Am not so sure, based on the account, that the yellow car had a driver with any sort of legal problem. If he or she did have a more serious problem, why stay in the parking lot? I'd get the heck out of there.
18
I suppose that we are discussing the morals and ethics of both parties in this incident. We are reminded often that morals and ethics are relative in our world. I wonder whether we can expect the same morals and ethics of the affluent on those that struggle for food, shelter and clothing.
36
@Laura
Did you read the same story as me? The perpetrator was a white professional woman with advanced degrees. So yes, she definitely should have left a note - in most states that's probably a legal requirement.
What Margaret was writing about was the understanding that someone afraid of being deported might not leave a note for a fender bender. That's the state of things now.
Btw I was once the victim of a hit and run driver, and was on crutches for 2 months. People leave the scenes of accidents all the time, regardless of legal status.
86
the most interesting factor in this story is the anonymous person who chose to leave a note on Ms. Renkl's car, which led to the solution. Granted, this person--who may have been an immigrant or a person w/ advanced degrees--did not put herself at personal risk by taking action, but presumably she did act out of a sense of fairness, justice, or simple decency, which she must have learned somewhere.
202
@ths907 maybe the person who wrote the note did it out of a sense of fairness and decency, and maybe out of a sense of punitiveness and vindictiveness. There’s as little ability to know the motives of the note writer as their is about the perpetrator of the hit-and-run at the outset.
10
Judge Judy always asks if you’re insured when the case involves a crash. Usually one or both aren’t. Woe betide the uninsured.
1
The brain does not cause behavior of any kind on its own. If there are differences in the brains of liberals and conservatives it could be because the brain is plastic and brain organization is partly shaped by behavior. So years of behaving in liberal or conservative ways can shape brain organization. And since the brain is flexible, as behavior changes, so too can the brain. There is always hope!
3
Obviously liberals can be manipulated as easily as conservatives, as this essay so capably demonstrates.
14
Your best column, Ms. Renkl. It seems you have evolved in your awareness of white privilege and how xenophobia is so very damaging and tragic. Your humility is noted. Thank you for writing from such a heartfelt place.
5
The comment about brain scans indicating whether a person is liberal or conservative--just nonsense. Not true.
5
Uh... Yeah... And, when it is an "illegal" doing, "whatever," and people like you fail to do the right thing "because I just can't" then you make the Trumphie's case that these "special people" are getting away with things. Sigh. Even if they are illegal, they aren't entitled, in any way, to break the law and "get away with it." You want to step up and pay for them then publish your name, address, and phone number in the paper, or, take out an ad on TV or radio... I wouldn't mind - at all - if you backed up your "feelings" with your cold hard cash instead of mine. Thank you very much. All of us who have seen people jump out of cars, suddenly not speak English, and run off - will appreciate you handling our unexpected costs for us - and them. And, please, don't get on any juries where someone has been hurt by someone "who was just here to make a better life for THEMSELVES and THEIR family." Please. Thank you.
13
What a ridiculous take. Parking lot accidents are rare in large part because it takes deliberate negligence to have an accident in a low speed area where most of the other cars are not moving. Is it really too much to ask for illegal immigrants to at least exercise basic care and caution when operating a motor vehicle if they won't respect our immigration laws? I think not!
We're forever being lectured by progressives about these mythical hardworking, law-abiding illegal immigrants doing the jobs Americans don't want to do, yet most of the Democratic stances on immigration like sanctuary cities or opposition to public charge rules or having a census question about citizenship seem meant to protect those who break our laws and who aren't working hard much less supporting themselves.
To the extent that someone's immigration status is merely a lack of paperwork, I empathize with those who want to come here, keep their head down, and pursue the American dream. However, I'm tired of being told to accept selfish narcissists who refuse to follow any of our laws that inconvenience them, who abuse our asylum process when they're clearly not eligible (see the 75% denial rate and the vast number who don't show up for court hearings), who don't pay their fair share of taxes while eating up city and state benefits like public housing and free metro cards. Enough is enough.
14
The Rwandan Genocide was instigated by radio broadcasting a constant hate filled diatribe. Now we've had FOX News, hate talk radio and Twitter from POTUS pouring poison in our ears for decades. Is it any wonder we have become a fearful people?
9
@Darsan54
Every Democrat running for office has asserted that Trump is responsible for the Ohio shooter, despite the fact that he supported Bernie, Warren, socialism.
Not one of them has denounced the picketers outside of McConnell's home advocating for someone to put a knife in his heart. Nor did they condemn the restaurateur who evicted a member of Trump's cabinet from her restaurant nor Maxine's rant that anyone wearing a MAGA hat should be harassed.
Is it any wonder Hillary lost the election? She told the voters who put Obama over the top they were racist
Trump criticizes Democrat politicians. Democrats inspire hatred of Republican, independent and libertarian voters.
5
Imagine a near diametrically-opposed scenario: The fearful conservatives mentioned in the article (or maybe even the commenters emphasizing the Doing of Right Things in Productive Societies) hitting an immigrant's parked car. Or worse, hitting an immigrant. In each case, the immigrant speaks in halting English, or doesn't speak at all. Or a bystander notes that the owner of the car/person lying in the street is an immigrant. What does the fearful conservative who has been programmed to despise immigrants do? Drive away? Or do the Right Thing?
4
There is nothing more dangerous than a frightened animal; and you don't give them high-powered weapons with large magazines.
Ever see Bowling for Columbine?
What separates Americans from the rest of the world is our fear set in-congruently with our power. Trump is the perfect example.
5
There's another point to consider here: Ms Renkl obviously made an effort to examine the motives of someone who would leave the scene of an accident after causing damage to another person's property. Her first instinct wasn't to assume it was a greedy, self-centered person wishing to avoid paying for damage they'd caused. That's commendable, if naive.
Perhaps 10 years ago, that would have been hers, and any other victim's assumption. Now, the toxic narrative in the US forces us all to consider that fear is a motive -- not just fear of being charged or having to pay for repairs, but fear that your life, and your family's, could change dramatically. Over a fender-bender.
6
I came to a similar conclusion some time ago - one way to describe the fundamental difference between the conservative and the liberal outlook is their gut feeling about an unknown person - do we assume that they are basically bad, or more likely to be basically good? Are they likely to take advantage of us, or should we assume the best? It's a fundamental difference in attitude towards the world, rooted in childhood experiences, I would think. But how we act on those feelings is defined by the current moment in our culture...
8
"I still take heart from knowing that so much of our political behavior is cued by biology. It reminds me that this terrible political age is not unique. The republic has survived profound divisions in the past, and it can survive the immense political chasms of our own time, too. A crumpled culture is not as easily fixed as a smashed bumper, but it can still be repaired."
Do you?
I don't. I think the republic is built upon the bedrock of the flawed animal that we call a human being. And I think it's thousands of years of biological traits, passed down to take us to the top of the food chain, that causes us to come back around to the problem of the strong abusing the weak, and man's inhumanity to man, over and over again.
I've given up on the notion that we'll ever overcome this essential aspect of our biological ancestry, and find the kinder, gentler future everyone hopes will come to pass.
I hope that you're right, and I'm wrong, Ms. Renkl. But I really don't think that will prove to be the case.
1
Some additional thoughts:
- Progressive’s don’t believe in open borders. No country can survive without immigration policies.
- The author doesn’t present a position in her essay, only a compendium of her thoughts and feelings. She is not advancing a policy.
- Relative to the damage, the author is weighing the possible repercussions to the person she imagined hit her car, and the relative impact of replacing a bumper against possibly destroying a person’s entrenched life in this great country. Relativity.
- I’d say she hit a nerve
5
Re Hibbing and Pizzaro: ever notice how often t'Rump used the word "disgusting" in characterizing events and positions with which he disagrees? Probably cuts both ways in that it is how he feels and hacks into the brains of disgust-vulnerable supporters.
2
Many years ago I was on a solo bicycle tour from my rural home in New England to the Southwest US. Along the way in Rural Tennessee people I would talk to in small towns would wish me luck, but be careful of the people in the next town I was heading they told me. Then I would ask should I worry about the people in their town and my safety, but they always assured me the people in their town were good people and I was safe. Town after town, people would tell me that their town was safe and populated with good people, but beware of the people from the next town over. This was/is completely foreign to me, and my rural Vermont roots where we assume everyone is a good person no matter what town they come from.
Somehow, this parking lot story in this column brought back that bike trip for me, and how disconnected I feel from people who have so much distrust, intolerance, and quite frankly, I’ll feelings toward their fellow human beings. But, it does explain the emergence of Trump.
11
If an illegal alien dented my car, I would certainly report him or her. Illegal immigrants deserve to be deported even without committing hit and runs. They have snuck into this country illegally, and kids or no kids need to leave, immediately. Someone doesn’t get a pass because they manage to hide for 10 years or father a child while evading authorities. Get. Them. Out.
14
False equivalences all the way around: Hit & Run + Uninsured; Uninsured + Illegal. You deal with what happened, not what might be. I guess you just needed a jumping off point for the column.....
9
"...Then it dawned on me that the driver might be undocumented, someone for whom a simple fender-bender would cost everything"
Ok, then, so drive around with a smashed bumper as a "trophy" of your conscience.
What complete nonsense this "opinion" piece is.
And as far as the body shop owner - I'm sure he sees these accidents much more than you do so who's to say he's not correct?
Lastly, as horrific and disgusting as these white supremacy groups are - I would rather be able to keep tabs on these groups from their media coverage than have them be underground.
19
Can you dial it down and not contribute in gifting a second term to Trump please?
The headline to this article could fairly read: "DEMS TELL ILLEGALS TO FLEE ACCIDENT SCENES!"
Reasonable limits on immigration probably include not panicking when an unknown stranger hits your parked car (which is a category of bewilderingly bad driving). It was as likely to be a rich white male jerk as a poor timid undocumented immigrant (sort of racist to assume a minority did it).
The real moral to the story should be to pay attention at all times when behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. A damaged fender could just as easily be dead child. Liberal guilt shouldn't excuse bad driving.
16
Stupidity is pretty evenly distributed. And more prevalent apparently than hydrogen.
7
There are Trazodone, Seroquel and Ambien for this level of errant wokeness.
19
"As it turns out, she is white, a professional with advanced degrees, and fully insured...."
Geez, who'd of thunk it?
6
You should see some cities the United States for a sample Denver Colorado they have a bite playing right in the middle of the road I mean is totally insane once a week will hear about hit-and-run debts just last month a mother of two lost her life due to a hit-and-run driver because she thought IT was safe in the Bike Ln., where do the city fathers come up with these crazy idea is free to kill somebody for roadkill Denver Colorado . So stay out of the bike lane and right you bike on the sidewalk.
It sounds a lot like a German shop-owner not wanting to report a shoplifter stealing bread in 1942 Berlin for fear that she might be Jewish.
@Low Notes Liberate
Well, yes. I see where you're going. But a shop-owner might be out several cents whereas it sounds like there was significant damage done to the author's car. She didn't mention if she had enough disposable income to easily cover the repair (or the deductible) but for many people, the potential of an expensive car repair makes it a little harder to overlook than a loaf of bread. For some, it could be report the hit and run or not pay rent that month.
3
The author asks, referring to the car repairman's different perspective on illegal immigrant drivers, "How is it possible for two people to have exactly the same information . . . and nevertheless, take such diametrically opposed positions? The answer: You don't know that you have "exactly the same information", or the same life experience. How many cars, damaged by illegal immigrant drivers, did she repair? Did she ever compete with an illegal immigrant for her job? Did she ever have a relative killed in a hit and run accident from someone who never should have been in the country to begin with? Did she send her children to a public school, overwhelmed with illegal immigrant children, who required bi lingual classes, which ended STEM science programs for her kids? Did she ever sit in an ER for three hours, while hundreds of illegal immigrants got their free healthcare, and then watch her local hospital go bankrupt? Did she ever read an economic analysis of the labor impact of immigrants on black Americans, and black labor markets? Was she ever curious ? Apparently, it never occurred to her that someone could have life experiences different from her own. She was in her bubble. Impressed with the moral beauty of herself. And I don't think examining the brain scans of conservatives will help her understand a point of view different from her own.
20
@Kenneth Christian
Excellent post. This isn't a conservative vs liberal issue. This is a human issue. I had a vehicle totaled whilst sitting in a shopping center parking lot. Video was able to ID the car that hit mine. The estimate was that the hit and run driver was going 35-40mph. The vehicle made it out of the parking lot and was found a few blocks away full of stolen goods. They found the people from the car, both were at a local ER and both had stolen IDs, were in the country illegally, they had no license, no insurance, no money, no nothing. It cost me close to $5000.
This coupled with the illegals that took over the neighborhood where I lived. The gang signs, vandalism, shooting, break ins and threats went uninvestigated by the police. The police solution - move. I did.
Then there were the more than 100 H1B visa holders that I had to train to take the IT jobs of Americans. I had a family to take care of.
I blame our elected representatives for all of this. The failure to enforce our laws, failure to protect US citizens, and failure provide support for people who have been displaced by the policies that are killing this country.
This isn't about skin color or country of origin, this is about right, wrong, and basic human decency. People who knowingly violate US laws are criminals needing due process and there are no excuses, no justifications. Millions are homeless including kids. How do you put criminals before these people who are just trying to survive?
18
A poignant, cogent essay.
1
this is a did eat dog society. has nothing to do with being undocumented. people are out for themselves, which is why there are so many hit and runs.
1
Can't Congress pass a law forbidding people from passing along false accusations to insurance companies?
@bruce Liebman
It is already against the law to make false insurance claims.
1
I witnessed a car hit a cyclist least week in Chicago
I surprised myself with my first thought - is the driver of the car here legally
1
Let's get the facts straight:
1. An "undocumented" immigrant is, by definition, a law-breaker. They broke the immigration laws of this country and entered illegally. Refugees and asylum seekers do not fall in this category - they have documents proving they have entered this country legally.
2. If it was an "undocumented" immigrant who hit the author's car and then raw away, that is another illegal act.
There is absolutely no reason why someone who has broken the law should be protected. Al undocumented immigrants have broken the law and should be removed. The law should apply equally to everyone. I am pretty sure if I break a law, I will be punished for it. Why are leftists, who demand justice for every minor infraction, not applying the same rules to undocumented immigrants?
Thought processes like what the author went through is what irritates me about leftists/progressives. If the Democratic candidate adopts the same mentality, then they will lose my vote in 2020.
14
Personal accountability ought to be universal...and giving someone who has already committed a crime a pass encourages and incentivizes further bad behavior. If the driver of the car was indeed an illegal, it’s almost certain they were unlicensed and uninsured, posing a danger to everyone on the road. I’m also dismayed by what appears to be a knee-jerk negative reaction to a scrap of notepaper from a Good Samaritan because it depicts a patriotic symbol. The vilification of the proud symbols of our nation needs to stop.
10
The damage was done by a white woman with advanced degrees. Nevertheless this woman sought to avoid responsibility for the damage that her carelessness caused.
I understand that the point of this essay is to point up the "moral quandary" in which the author found herself due to the present anti-immigrant hysteria. However I can not help but note the moral quandary in which we all find ourselves when some entitled, presumably well educated person finds it perfectly acceptable to abdicate responsibility for wronging another so.
It is all about "me" now. I'm sorry I damaged your car, but, LOL. it's me.
8
The United States could reduce anti-immigrant sentiment by incorporating aspects of Latin American immigration laws. For example, Article 37 of Mexico’s General Law of Population bars immigrants whose presence would upset the nation’s demographic equilibrium.
Source: Ley General de Población de 1974
http://imumi.org/attachments/Ley_General_de_Poblacion_1974.pdf
4
"A crumpled culture is not as easily fixed as a smashed bumper, but it can still be repaired."
I pray and hope you are right Margaret but with Trump as our president for possibly another four years I can only say heaven help us. We could be seeing the ending of democracy as we know it in our generation.
1
We get an immense increase of hit and runs in the summer and during ski season - when the wealthy second home owners and (generally) pretty well-off tourists are in town. Nobody wants to admit responsibility for their mistakes or wrongdoings anymore, regardless of their race, income, or class (for class, insert "lack of" rather than "social").
5
On the same token I noticed my driver's side mirror hanging as I walked to my truck just as an senior woman in her 70's came walking around the corner note in hand. "I did that coming down the street. I got too close to your truck to avoid getting close to the oncoming car". She had pulled over on the side street with a note with her saying she wished to pay out of pocket... and two weeks later she sent me a check after I got the cheapest estimate I could. Now that's one nice honest woman.
21
First you should stop describing the apartheid south as Jim Crow. That's a euphemism to gloss over how horrible it was after the Civil War up until Federal intervention in the late 60s.
I'm white and I grew up in APARTHEID Montgomery, Al and attended a high school named after the traitor Robert E. Lee.
Robert E. Lee is and always will be a traitor name that caused the death of over 600,000 American citizens.
He swore an oath to his god to protect and defend the US Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.
When faced with the choice of obeying his slave holding traitorous masters or obeying his god. He chose subservience to traitors.
That is the root of all of this. The Civil War was supposed to end "white makes right" but it still exists up until this very day.
The fine white European culture is one filled with warfare against the entire world. At one time the empires of Europe Britain, France, Spain... ruled the world.
Did they do this by discussing with the natives why they should become part of the empire. No they did it by force of arms.
In North America those fine people carried out genocide against the natives.
I can trace my ancestry back to the Norman coast and I'm the beneficiary of both the good and evil they did.
It's time white people stop just glorifying the good parts and start rectifying the evil ones.
Thanks for all the fish
Dave
USAF RET
7
It was irresponsibility and had nothing to do with the possible cultural background of the person who hit you. I regret you went off on the tangent you chose. Some people are just irresponsible and the woman who hit you fits in that category. The person who left you the note was a responsible Good Samaritan. I wish you had written about that.
16
We must have re-education classes to ascertain who are the real illegal immigrants in the Americas. Is it the Pilgrims, is it the Ellis Islanders, Is it the Portuguese or Spanish, or is it the black Africans forced into slavery. We have to look at America in toto not only USA but South America, Brazil, Argentina. The reality is if one is not 100% Native or has native blood, then one is illegal.
1
@Johnny Walker
Sounds a lot like the USSR and China. Re-educate anyone who believes that history is nuanced.
All humans migrated to America from other continents.
Lucky for Elizabeth that she may have an ancestor who arrived early.
2
When we start to judge people on the type of notepaper they keep in their car, then we sound as crazy as the "other side." Let's not overanalyze the intention of every well-meaning person on the planet.
10
@Mhad
The witness had notepaper, not the reckless driver.
1
We have immigration laws for a number of reasons, just like every other civilized country in the world. These laws are essential to our security, and our sovereignty. "A country without borders is not a country." The extreme left has been quite successful in blurring, more like obliterating, the distinction between legal and illegal immigrant, referring to both simply as "immigrants." A legal immigrant is like someone you have "vetted", and then invited to your house for dinner. An illegal immigrant is akin to someone who breaks into your house in the night. Sneaking across the border, or overstaying your visa, are crimes and should remain so. "Open borders", if implemented, would be the end of the United States of America. BTW, I am no supporter of Donald Trump, but I fear that the Democratic Party will nominate someone whose immigration policies I cannot support.
13
No one want “open borders” whatever that might mean. However, our government spent decades creating havoc in central and South America and now people are fleeing the horror that our havoc wreaked. People are allowed to ask for asylum and we are allowed to decide if it’s really the cause of their arrival. But let’s start asking the people who hire undocumented immigrants and often treat them unfairly, to begin paying the price. They are the ones with power
8
Years ago pulling out of my local animal hospital, I watched a client back into a large sign and break it in two. Later I realized this person might not tell what he did and I called the office, where I knew well all the workers. The driver was still on site and did not disclose his actions. My next visit, the vet updated me that, the driver was a local news personality who's favorite theme was the peoples lack of personal responsibility. He never contributed a dime to repair the damage he caused and even ran down the animal hospital on his news commentary. I guess my point is, ducking responsibility is not just restricted to those who can't afford it.
11
"The time of the dog whistle is over: President Trump himself believes there are some “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis."
An utter lie. LIE! Trump said that there were "very fine people" out demonstrating, ON BOTH SIDES ... and specifically said that there were bad people too. She implies that they were just like neo-Nazis. Of course what she want to insinuate is that everybody there she does not like IS a
Nazi (with no "neo").
And then the writer again attacks: "Conservative voters today are no doubt being manipulated by a political machinery that has long recognized their vulnerability to fear and revulsion." I'm not being manipulated! I'm writing here to try to convince the left wing haters that should stop hating ordinary people. They should stop calling us names.
They should aid us in expelling illegal aliens from our country. They should realized that they are being manipulated (or not, of course ... maybe they are among the manipulators) by left wing people whose brains are so attuned to "sensitivity" that they can't understand laws.
9
Wow, talk about wokeness signaling! Ms. Renkl for the win! Now let’s have a long discussion on exactly when it is morally correct to report a potential illegal immigrant who may have committed a crime. Murder? Rape? Jumping a red light? Owning a dog without a license? It’s silliness like this that is causing the backlash against liberalism.
24
Ms. Renkl, half of all Americans lack the money to cover the cost of repairing the sort of damage your car received.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
For a lot of Americans, the problem is that an oversupply of cheap labor has caused the wages of low/no-skilled labor to fall precipitously. Meat packers made a good union wage a generation ago. Now they get close to minimum wage, under atrocious conditions. The same goes for a number of other low/no-skilled jobs.
GOPers have rigged the system against these people, undercutting unions, and encouraging the import of large numbers of low/no-skilled immigrants, so that they wouldn't have to pay decent wages. Congress has basically collaborated in all this.
25
@David Holzman I'm sorry but it is really your point that it's Republicans who have caused "an oversupply of cheap labor" by "encouraging the import of large numbers of .... immigrants." Refresh my memory but which party currently wants to halt detentions, decriminalize illegal border crossings and abolish ICE?
8
@David Holzman. Huh? Then why aren’t liberals against illegal immigration?
2
The key for me is that the people themselves are described as "illegal". When a citizen commits a crime, they don't become "illegal citizens". They become citizens that have committed an unlawful ACT.
The rhetoric to look for is when the people themselves are attached to the worlds "illegal" or "unlawful" or "criminal":
"Their part has always been and it will be to go after those that are criminal aliens" ... and ... "ICE's priorities will always be to go after criminal aliens..." (Current CBP director).
We won't see the day where banks that committed fraud are called "criminal banks" or their leaders "criminal executives", of course. The silver lining on that is that when you see such constructions, it is always an authoritarian attempting to create a sense of disgust for the person in question, to demonize them as a whole separate kind of human being from our good selves.
4
@roy brander
The correct legal term is illegal alien, to distinguish from legal aliens and citizens. The correct legal term got shortened to illegal or the plural illegals.
The euphemism "undocumented immigrant" is inaccurate. Some illegal aliens intend to work in the US, save up money and return home. None of them are undocumented. The have documents establishing they are citizens of a foreign country and/or fake documents to create the illusion that they are entitled to be present legally in the US.
2
You didn't tell us about the reaction of the person who hit you. Did you not confront her about being so *cowardly*? From what you describe, doing the right thing would not be a burden - why did she not?
I'm going to make my own assumptions here - but I think she is a Trump supporter, who feel entitled to get away with whatever she can b/c she can.
[I am truly curious, and if can't be posted her, please email me]
4
Funny thing about all this "illegal alien" trash talk lately is that it is native-born jerks who are more likely to commit crimes, not undocumented immigrants. While I have no statistics myself, I would be eager to know if the same holds true for driving without insurance; if someone is more likely to be law-abiding when undocumented, I wonder if they would also be more cautious or responsible in having insurance. The same motivation -- not getting deported, would seem appropriate in the insurance context as in general law-abiding behavior. Anyone in the insurance industry have stats?
2
@Skeptical
The GAO has stats that say immigrants and illegal immigrants are disproportionally represented in federal prison. This means they are committing crimes. Non-citizens make up about 9% of the population but represent 44% of those convicted of Federal crimes. that number drops to 21% if you exclude immigration crimes.
These were from Obama's GAO.
6
What did you end up doing about the bumper?
2
A 60-something friend was recently hit by a young man after she was beckoned by another driver to move into traffic on a crowded street when he suddenly came speeding past. He jumped out and started swearing at her. She dialed 911. She's pretty sure the ONLY thing that stopped him from physically assaulting her was that she put the call on speakerphone, and the 911 operator said, "Sir, I can hear everything you are saying and we are recording you." He realized that if he touched her, that tape would be played in the courtroom. One moral of this story is that, even when another driver beckons, he or she may not be aware of what's happening behind or beside him.
6
Failing to hold any segment of the population accountable to safe driving laws and standards will simply lead to more accidents and deaths by people who shouldn't be on the road in the first place. How many of these people are still on the road only because some 'good-hearted' person failed to report them because they would feel guilty later? So much for guilt they should feel at the future injuries and deaths they have contributed to and are complicit in.
19
Music City is my favorite City where we lived for eight years and now we want to go back to retire.
But ten some years ago folks were known to tailgate in Nashville as if they’re some kind of a hurry . And now I hear there is a population explosion.
Unscrupulous people comes in every shape and form of different races and colors. People with money so many times are tight, as I have seen often folks with nothing are more generous and helpful.
Best of luck towards your Husband’s recovery .
5
Any society where people are absolved of crimes based on social status, high or low, is inherently unjust.
29
My car was also hit while parked, in my work parking lot. I was only there for a few hours at the end of the day and came out to find the right side rear bumper, rear panel and side panel crushed and partially detached.
No note. No cameras. In a building of professionals, I'd assume they all have good insurance coverage, as I do.
After paying the $1K deductible and losing my only vacation money this year, a weekend vacation, but still, I wish them ill. Feeling guilty would be too much to hope for.
22
I’m with you all the way until the end. I don’t understand why you are encouraged by evidence of biological dictates upon political behavior. This is because I think modern humanist societies should be built upon reason, which allows us to transcend the material and determinative nature of our behavior. I’m aware we’re not totally free, but we’re supposed to at least aspire to freedom. I admire what I perceive as your free choice to reflect and care for what might be, not actions that arise from your personal biology.
3
Let's also thank the anonymous soul who left the note even though it gave you pause thinking there was some punitive agenda at work. That's pretty good citizenship after all.
When my car was smacked in a parking lot certainly no one bothered to leave me any information. I'm guessing that had more to do with the fact the lot was between two bars than with the legal status of the culprit or the lack thereof.
14
I find it truly sad that in a time when so many people want to blame all the ills of the world on people of color, illegal immigrants, etc, the person who hit your car and tried to avoid responsibility was a white female professional! And my reaction is
that she probably thought she could get away with it because so many would assume it was an "other" who was responsible and she wouldn't have to own up to it. The decay of morality in this country is so sad, even when they are people who consider themselves religious.
5
@Susan in Maine --
I doubt very much that the woman responsible "thought she could get away with it because so many would assume it was an 'other'."
More likely she thought she could get away with it because she figured that no one saw her, and that even if they did, they wouldn't do anything about it.
I'm all for considering zebras when someone hears hoofbeats and sees a black and white blur race by. But if all I hear is the hoofbeats -- let's start by assuming "horse" and working from there with whatever other evidence we might have.
But maybe sticking to the simpler solution -- that the motorist simply gambled that her crime went unseen and would therefore go unpunished -- would make more sense than assuming such evil intent.
21
I was injured by a hit and run distracted driver who then denied hitting me as I walked in a grocery store parking lot. (Someone saw the incident and took down his license plate number). I obtained small compensation from the constant pain in my neck area I still am in because he left the scene and denied the incident. I don't care who a hit and run drivers is ethnically or in any other category. They don't care about other people they've harmed and taking responsibility for what they do.
20
I know we white privileged middle class people born here need to be sensitive to the needs of others and I've given lots in money, food and goods and even ride mass transit that is shunned and stigmatized by so many in my group with all kinds of other people. However, it doesn't mean we have to be harmed in any way ourselves by our sensitivity.
Also this is an example of getting the privilege of writing an essay in a prestigious publication by making a "big tsmis/deal" out of a picture on a piece of stationery. Maybe I am jealous as so many of us see other as or more important goings on that harm others but can not see their observations and thoughts in print.
5
"It struck me how similar his initial reaction was to my own, and yet the way he said it, that emphasis on illegal, told me that we had not come to this conclusion from the same place."
I appreciate your commentary, Ms. Renkl, but it's natural that the body shop person should have emphasized "illegal", since "illegal" is the determining point of his comment. A legal alien would not have the same motivation to hit and run, hence "illegal" was stressed.
Of course, if he sneered or used body language that communicated bias, that's one thing. But as you wrote it, it's entirely possible you projected your expectation onto him.
16
Robert Sapolsky describes a lot of this biologically-linked behavior in his superb book “Behave; the biology of humans at our best and worst”. His findings are worth considering in relation to child care, education, and how our legal system defines responsibility. Perhaps most of all, his discussions are relevant to the way we conduct politics.
2
I'm having a difficult time getting past the facts known: that someone damaged your car while parked and then tried to avoid owning up to the damage they caused you. Since when does this become excusable from a societal perspective? What if the damage extended beyond property? What if it weren't your car but that of a person that couldn't afford to pay to repair the damage - if you'd seen the accident but felt compelled not to report the driver for the articulated concerns, would you feel equally compelled to take responsibility?
22
Yes, "the republic has survived profound divisions in the past," but I still worry that this "terrible political age" is, in fact, unique. What other time has had the perfect storm of Fox News, Russian propaganda, Facebook, gerrymandering, stolen Supreme Court seats, and sociopathic liar with fascist and white supremacist sympathies in the White House?
7
My car was hit in a parking lot recently and there was no note. The damage was $2100 and my insurance covered the repair but it negatively impacted my zero deductible which I earned for safe driving. The lack of morality is the issue not the immigration status or any individual. There are laws for a reason. If the laws are broken or being misapplied then we the people need to fix the problem.
21
Wow. What a bunch of silly, self-satisfied virtue signalling this entire column is.
"Undocumented" is a euphemism intended to deflect from the fact that the person entered the country illegally, lives here illegally, and works here illegally, as if the only issue is some bureaucratic paperwork snafu.
Stop it. Speak truthfully about illegal immigration.
And stop pretending that to want to get a handle on the real, genuine problem of mass illegal entry is to be a hateful, Trump following, tiki torch wielding white supremacist.
It is this narrative that helps create the reaction that Trump takes advantage of. And it's what helps the Democrats lose.
36
I can still afford the Porsche Cabriolet I used to drive, but reading this makes me happy that I now drive an old Toyota Solara convertible ("Cabriolet" should be reserved for the 'finer' machines with top-down possibilities) consequent of -- NOT I -- but my wife's having 'aged-out' of comfortable, sports-car egress and ingress … so that now, when I take her in my Toyota over the 59th Street Bridge (it was never called by its "Queensborough" nomination … so the "Ed Koch" name-change surely will not ever be heard here) for her food-shopping at Costco, in Astoria, I don't care if anyone's car or cart 'roughs up' mine in a parking lot filled with shoppers so 'diverse' that it could 'almost only' be a parking lot in Queens ... so and in turn, I wouldn't care to report any such incident
-- so and in further turn, I shall not ever suffer the occasion of any worry that a 'parking-lot-perp' who should 'victimize' my ride might be one at risk of deportation if I were to report the event.
3
I suspect that an illegal immigrant who does not take responsibility for a car accident that he/she caused for fear of deportation, would probably also flee if he/she hit a pedestrian. Would Ms Renkl feel the same empathy toward the driver if the pedestrian was only mildly injured? Moderately? Severely? I have sympathy with the plight of illegal immigrants but choosing to drive knowing full well that you would never report an accident that you caused, is troubling. As we say in Montreal, take a BMW (bus/metro/walk).
22
Margaret, the potential outcomes of a simple police call can, as we know, result in an unarmed man (and it typically is a young man of color) being shot.
You see someone suspicious in your neighborhood and 'just to be safe', call 911. This is your right. But then the man runs from police and is shot in the back. Turns out he is unarmed and was looking for an unfamiliar address. You never find out why he ran. What is your culpability? The chance for deadly outcomes for what was once a simple decision weighs heavily on many. I'm glad you brought it up.
2
@Dave And I’m so glad to see another woke commentator on this thread. Dialing 911 is simply another way of imposing white supremacy. “If you see something say something” or “report suspicious activity” are racist dog whistles. Sure, calling the cops may be “your right” but so is using abhorrent sexist and racist language. Does the reporting, apprehension and detention of even violent criminals really outweigh our moral responsibility to abolish white privilege?
5
I’m as liberal as they come but this is soft headed..
30
Sorry, but I think it's a little ridiculous to take the immigration status of a hit and run driver who damaged your car onto your conscience.
How would you have felt if the next morning, you read about a mother crossing the street pushing a baby carriage and both were struck and killed by a hit and run driver, who left nothing but bright yellow paint and tire skid marks at the scene?
I don't refer to people who are living in this country in violation of our immigration laws as "illegals." But we also cant overlook the fact that they are in the country illegally, that they are "illegal immigrants" or "illegal aliens." Those are facts.
If someone damages your car and drives away without at least leaving contact information, their reasons for doing so shouldn't cause YOU an ethical dilemma. Are they illegal immigrants trying not to get deported? Are they abused spouses or partners, fearful that this will bring on another attack? Are they teenagers who fear their parents will revoke their driving privileges? Are they just careless drivers who don't want to see their insurance rates go up, or are they poor, careless drivers who can't afford to maintain their insurance if their rates go up? Where does the moral dilemma end?
The notion that because you are a white, upper-class educated person, you should be willing to absorb the costs associated with damage someone else caused doesn't make sense. Lose the guilt, not the information about the other driver.
27
Reflects Edward O. Wilson. "We Live in a starwars civilization with god like technology, medieval institutions and stone age emotions."
5
"every day peaceable people suffer for the crime of not being white"
Nonsense. I'm not white, and the only way I suffered was by being rejected by Harvard. But lots of white people are rejected by Harvard too.
19
love how we're so deludedthat the simple act of reporting a hit and run can bring in frought political topics
15
Years ago, the wife of someone my father tangentially knew from business had her Cadillac damaged in a low-speed parking lot fender-bender. The other driver was an attractive younger woman driving a newer and somewhat fancier Cadillac. When they got out to exchange information, it turned out that both cars were registered to the same person - the older woman's husband.
That may be the single best reason to not stop - when the auto body work ends up being a small fraction of the cost of the accident.
11
It is revealing how a relatively mundane event, getting car parts ruined in a parking lot by an anonymous culprit, can lead to views, so widely disparate, on an apparently unrelated subject: undocumented people. But such is life now in the U.S. I wish I had an answer to how to reconcile the different sides, but do not. Another sign of how problematic things are right now, and not just on this issue. As a very partial substitute, in an interdisciplinary vein, want to point out that it actually isn't so surprising the author found ethical implications here, and one which resonated so strongly with commenters. There are ethical issues associated with many subjects. We're just not used to seeing them. For obvious reasons, the author became focused. As I don't think ethical issues, whether explicit or still lurking, are going away, my medium term suggestion is to add ethics as a "must-have" element to STEP education. It should be a quality component, devoted to unearthing ethical aspects, tapping into relevant ethical theories, and giving students practice engaging on whether and how they are most relevant. A "right" or "wrong" answer to an issue isn't necessarily the goal--unless that happens to be the particular outcome of that discussion. Also, while tapping into biology is a good thing, be careful both with simplistic interpretation of brain imaging and over-interpreting the answer to the nature: nuture question. Getting the answer you want to see is at least a yellow flag.
2
I would just be happy someone gave me the driver's information.
16
More times than not we are more than our biology. It may be in our genetic codes to think or react in a certain way. But we are also subject to the environment in which we live or from which we were raised and grew to adulthood. More consequential are our inner morality and personal ethics. Margaret's column today got me thinking beyond my own Whiteness and how conservatives are more alert to perceived threats. That is changing, I believe. With the latest massacre in El Paso where innocent Mexicans were brutally targeted, let us reflect upon the many interviews of its citizens and how they now feel constantly at threat. They fear for their lives, and that fear has spread throughout our immigrant populations in all 50 states. Heavens, even liberals like myself look over their shoulders now every time they go to a mall, the theater, even church. Human nature is vulnerable and will remain vulnerable until the end of time. Yet it is this Trumpian paradigm of hate and racism which has opened this Pandora's Box of among the worst of evils.
5
Biology and brain waves might explain why a person of color may have voted for trump, but logic, experience and a moral center don't excuse it. I may have a genetic preference for the color green but that does not mean that I cannot appreciate the color red.
3
Well here we go. Somehow or other "conservatives" have "defective" brain wiring as they're presumably only motivated by "fear and revulsion." if it's fear and revulsion, it's a fear of a breakdown in the rule of law that constitutes the basis for a society and a revulsion at the notion that presumes a burden of imagined guilt over the possibility of being a party to an action (in the author's scenario a deportation) that would uphold the law.
if someone enters the country illegally, they should know that they are going to have to bear the consequences of that decision and action. Not to mention that every illegal alien makes a mockery of all those potential immigrants who want to come here and do so by playing by the rules. I think you'll find the majority of conservatives have no problem with immigration, per se, provided it is done legally and in an orderly manner. Where they do get stuck is on the notion of an open border and all the benefits for those who "skip the line" and expect a full welcome.
24
It seems pretty clear what the dividing line is here. If you are affluent and politically thoughtful you may feel the freedom to consider empathy for the possibly desperate situation of the transgressor. You can afford empathy. If your life is lived closer to the bone – if money for a fender means no money for rent or for the doctor, then your point of view is going to differ. Empathy is not a luxury that everyone can afford.
15
@DK In VT Maybe, but where's the data? Anyone who has ever sold school candybars door-to-door will confirm that the most well-to-do homes are rarely the most generous. That too is not a scientific study, but let's not sell the working poor short on empathy. Our president was handed $400 million tax-free by the time he came of age, he clearly has never missed a meal in his life, and yet he created a "charity" that worked purely as a self-serving tax dodge, and frequently stiffed causes to whom he made highly public donation offers. It's simple. Rich ≠ Generous.
4
@Marilyn Showalter On the contrary, she has shown how two white people, from sympathetic and non-sympathetic viewpoints, both came to the initial presupposition that "an immigrant" might have been responsible. That's huge.
It's that inconvenient truth that is so hard for so many Americans to acknowledge. It's called bias. Which is why facts matter in the face of the daily blizzard of lies that FOX, Limbaugh and Trump snow down upon us. And the facts reveal that, when compared to areas of low immigration, areas that have received the most immigration in the past 20 years have seen:
* Decreased crime.
* Increased job creation.
* A younger population, better prepared to go through the demographic transition.
The first two points are easy to figure out. Immigrants are highly motivated to keep their noses to the grindstone and out of trouble. They are a self-selected population for enterprise. The latter point should also be self-evident, the feeble and aged undertake the arduous task of immigration only under the most extreme of circumstances. But it is an eye-popping statistic to realize that until recently there was only one advanced nation smoothly managing the demographic transition. And that was the USA. That transition is happening everywhere, fastest in African nations, but also rapidly in Mexico and Central America. The US stood alone among advanced nations in avoiding the economic challenges of an abrupt transition like Japan's. Now, we don't.
3
@Solar Power
Is it really that hard to insist that immigrants enter and work legally, and to differentiate between those who do and do not? Is the adjective "illegal" now a "dog whistle" for white supremacist fanatics?
10
Not that many years ago, the man at the repair shop would probably have blamed the hit-and-run accidents on women drivers, or Asian drivers or some other group. Now, it's illegal immigrants who get the blame. At some point they'll move on and start blaming everything on some other group--maybe young drivers or old drivers, who knows? People always need a scapegoat. Right now, our national scapegoat is illegal immigrants. If only 'they' weren't here all our lives would be so much better. 'They' cause all the accidents, commit all the crimes, use up all the welfare and Medicaid dollars, cause school crowding and on and on and on. Who 'they' is changes, but the animosity remains the same. Everyone needs someone to hate and disparage. How else can we feel better about ourselves?
331
@Max
It's not the assumption made by the mechanic about illegal immigrants and hit-and-runs. He might have had a valid reason for making that assumption. It's the way he emphasized "illegal," that set his sympathies apart from Ms. Renkl's and betrayed his likely political leanings on the subject. And it's your assumptions about Ms. Pea's "smug superiority," when all she was doing was pointing out our unfortunate human tendencies, that betray yours.
23
@Ms. Pea
Someday they'll blame it on driverless cars.
13
@Max. Maybe. But who would suffer the more grievous consequences—an undocumented immigrant ora white professional? The latter probably would not even be charged with hit and run or leaving the scene of an accident.
15
"How is it possible for two people to have exactly the same information — and exactly the same lack of information — and nevertheless take such diametrically opposed positions?"
I checked out the article on brain imaging studies of conservatives vs liberals, and while interesting, it seems too pat. For example, it doesn't take into account a person whose political views have evolved over time because of defined political events that lead them switch party affiliation.
I prefer the simpler explanation, that we live in an age of too much information, siloed by ideology, that reinforces and exaggerates one's current viewpoints.
I have friends who are totally apolitical, uninterested in the news or what leader is replacing whom abroad. I marvel at such disinterest, but sometimes I wonder, who is healthier, a news junkie like me or them?
The important point for me is the author's sense of history and instinct that someday, our nation will recover from today's ugly climate. I wish I shared her hope, just as I wish a brain scan wouldn't define my political views.
181
@ChristineMcM
Very interesting point. There are also people like me, very left wing on most issues, but what most people would consider right wing on immigration--although I have left wing reasons for wanting to greatly reduce immigration, and to pass a national mandatory E-Verify to stanch illegal immigration, as well as the fact that the US--the major industrialized nation with the greatest GH emissions is the worst place to put more people.
Additionally, I support this immigration compromise, proposed by Harvard's George Borjas, the premier immigration in the US, and despite the fact that I know your views on immigration are different from mine (we probably agree on most everything else), I suspect you might find this a reasonable compromise, too, proposed a couple of years ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/opinion/trump-immigration-dreamers.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20180202&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=9&nlid=18182451&ref=headline&te=1
15
@ChristineMcM
A conservative is a liberal who was mugged last night.
A cliche from the '60's, when there was a lot more muggings, but (like most cliches and stereotypes) with an element of truth.
10
@ChristineMcM: Yeah, the brain scan conclusion is a reach. I've known too many people who went from one end of the political spectrum to the other, mostly because of life experiences. I doubt their neuroanatomy has appreciably changed.
Regarding too much information, siloed or otherwise, I would word that claim differently: too much noise that's masquerading as information. And even stories that are very factual can be tremendously misleading, often by generalizing on accurate but anecdotal information.
I had high hopes, as a scientist, at the dawn of the Internet age. But the closing soliloquy of the TV Series 'Chernobyl' sums up my current resignation: "To be a scientist is to be naive. We are so focused on our search for truth, we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it."
18
It's unfortunate that the author repeats the falsehood that Trump called Neo Nazis "very fine people." As the transcript proves, he was referring to protesters who wanted to keep the statues up. Trump specifically said that his "very fine people" category did not include the nazis, whom he said be "condemned totally."
8
@R.P.
splitting hairs. the people who protested for keeping those statues up ARE neo-Nazi sympathizers.
6
Many species evolved through cooperation, not competition. The Republican Party isn’t one of them.
The dumbing down of our news broadcasts since The Fairness Act was rescinded just keeps lowering the bar for truth, knowledge, and reason, as writ large, even upon parking lot pavements.
190
I believe most Americans welcome LEGAL immigrants, but do not want ILLEGAL immigrants. They recognize that the US cannot afford (or choose not) to support our own citizens: the poor, the ill, elderly, disabled, veterans, et al., and that they and other US taxpayers cannot possibly support the hundreds of millions of foreigners who would like to come here.
US laws allow foreigners to seek entry and citizenship. Those who do not follow these laws are in this country illegally and should be detained and deported; this is policy in other countries, too.
The cruelty lies not in limiting legal immigration, or detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, or forcing those who wish to enter the US to wait for processing. What is cruel, unethical and probably illegal is encouraging parents to bring their children on the dangerous trek to US borders and teaching the parents how to game the system to enter the US by falsely claiming asylum, persecution, etc. Indeed, many believe bringing children on such perilous journeys constitutes child abuse.
No other nation has open borders, nor should the US.
89
I find this to be a bit of a “straw man” argument—no NYT reader, not even the most pro-immigrant, is actively encouraging illegal immigrants to arrive with their children, and telling them to “game the system” by making up fake stories of fear for their lives in their own countries of origin. Illegal immigrants don’t have to be actively encouraged to arrive; economic hardship and/or all-too-real fear for their lives usually seem to do the trick all by themselves. Let’s not invent imaginary enemies (like Americans who supposedly do all these things) when the real enemies (smugglers, drug cartels etc.) are all too real...
20
@Mon Ray
No one is advocating for open borders.
21
@Mon Ray
Aren't we exagerating a tad? Another Trump mis-administration and I think "hundreds of millions of Americans" would become emigrants! This country is becoming less and less desirable as a nation anyone would want to make a home in.
12
This is a fascinating, thoughtful and fresh take on where the national culture is going. Bravo
1
I want to hear how the other (incredibly entitled and unethical) driver rationalized and excused her own behavior. It would probably sound very much like republican rationalizations of the president's behavior.
5
Well said. The right feels entitled and threatened by "other " types. Just do not ask them to pay more for something at Walmart. Do not ask them to admit there are two Americas. One for upscale and one for others , like racism, predatory lending, driving while black. Do not ask them to consider what happens over there. " It does not effect me". Definitely not the greatest generation.
2
There is a great deal of research that suggests that we are alll Bayesian machines - even those of us who have never taken an advanced stats course use the basic tenets that are hardwired in our brains.
We develop and initial hypothesis based on past experience and logical assumptions - we gather new data and constantly update our model.
In this case, you could base your initial model based on racist assumptions or you could base it on questioning who is most likely to be uninsured, damage an unattended car and take off without notice.
There are valid reasons for each opening hypothesis absent actual racism. Refusing to update the model based on actual experience is racist.
Just in passing - the NYT [July 18, 2017] discussed undocumented and licenses a year or so ago - the results of one study they cited:
"With 600,000 new licensed [Cali] drivers who were undocumented in 2015, hit-and-run accidents decreased significantly, by 4,000, from the year before."
So - the Bayesian model that undocumented commit significant hit and runs is actually supported empirically.
4
I don't understand. You both came up with a stereotype. Undocumented person, can't drive, does not pay for his/her own mistakes. But the mechanic was the bad guy and you are the good guy. Please explain.
11
I saw a gum wrapper on the road today.
Could it have been dropped by an illegal immigrant?
Rich white guy?
Person of color?
Gender non-binary?
Batman?
Life-long democrat, hate Trump, by the way.
We have jumped the shark.
16
Too many watch Fox which is not a news station, but a spreader of toxic propaganda.
2
IF your car had been hit by an illegal alien, in the US illegally with no drivers license and perhaps no form of legal ID, are we to just continue to perpetuate the breaking of our laws by not reporting yet one more illegal act? Are not the laws for everyone? Where do you draw the line? When one runs over your child and kills him? We either have a country based on laws or we don’t. If you think the laws are unfair, change them. Liberals are making a mockery of the rule of law to the detriment of the law abiding citizens of the US. Keep your doors and windows open and unlocked and welcome all and anyone in and let me know how that works for you.
15
I've often wondered if "conservative" brains are wired differently (double quotes necessary because they are anything but conservative these days). This does not necessarily imply greatly altered DNA (nature), as these differing reactions could also be transmitted by culture (nurture).
If some of us are more easily disgusted by our fellow travelers on this planet, I also wonder if some of us are just more compassionate.
1
I was accosted similarly, at the gym, by a woman I didn't know, who wanted to engage me in conversation about "illegal aliens, whom she believed were being given almost $4000 a month in "welfare payments," after crossing our border. I told her that that was improbable, that she should broaden her information resources, think more logically, and that I didn't share her opinions and didn't want to discuss the issue. What the heck is wrong with you people? Why are you so afraid? YOUR manner of thinking is far more destructive and dangerous than any undocumented immigrant, who is also less liable to commit crimes than you are. This is in that category with white people who call 911 on black people who are just minding their own business, living their day-to-day lives. Stop doing this!!!
9
Our culture gives lip service to "personal responsibility" and pluralism, but there are huge industries dedicated to the avoidance of responsibility("arbitration", "non-disclosure agreements", SLAP suits, PR firms, Kellyanne Conway, et al) and the stimulation of the reptilian brain against "E Pluribus Unum" (political spinmasters, Frank Luntz, ugh--Kellyanne Conway, , et al).
Optimistic in the face of this huge investment in short circuiting
the seeking of wisdom, kindness and facts?
"Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it."
--Adolf Hitler
3
I once witnessed a hit-and-run in a parking lot. The perpetrator, in a nice modern car, kept driving after smacking an (also nice) parked car with a young couple sitting in it!
As the young couple got out, bewildered, I quickly got the license number of the "perp" --- and a good look at the driver: it was an elderly woman, looking very determined.
I shouted "Hey! Stop!" at her and she heard me (I think!) She must have known she had hit that car. But she kept driving.
I gave the license number to the young couple who chose not to call the police. I also gave my name as a witness.
The lady's insurance company actually had the nerve to push back on fixing the young people's car. They called me and I gave a detailed description of car, driver and incident. I said "that was a crime I saw, and I'll certainly come to court and testify."Then in disgust I shouted, "Just pay for fixing the g--dda--mn car!" Which they then did.
I'm sure the older lady feared losing her driving privileges, which she fully deserved to. I'm an older lady now myself, but I would never do what she did. Whether driven by fear, sociopathy, selfishnessness, a sense of privilege, i don't know, but some people live in a world in which only they and their family/friends merit empathy and honesty.
10
Perhaps ii am not a nice person, but I jumped to the conclusion that the woman's car had been hit by a scummy person. I didn't even figure it for an uninsured person, just a nasty one.
The kind of person who wears a boot to get a courtesy shuttle at the airport and board early; but takes the boot off to walk over and get a coffee before the flight. The boot works to jump the line and get a ride, but it's a bit uncomfortable. Yeah, that one actually happened.
I know the purpose of the essay is to explore our attitude about people we think must be illegal immigrants. The breakdown in our compassion for people is paralleled by the rise in entitlement, irresponsibility and selfishness of our own native population. It isn't political; it's personal. A large segment of people in our epoch of social breakdown have replaced "E pluribus unum" with "I got mine."
For all we hear people yelling about illegal immigrants and personal responsibility, for the rule of law, for old fashioned standards of behavior, these things are not really problems of immigration. The person driving down the highway, weaving in and out of lanes, passing on exits and cutting back in to gain a 7 car advantage? Those people are native born and of all political beliefs.
Before we excoriate the immigrant, we need collectively to look in the mirror.
4
Just shows what an over imaginative mind can do. Something moms and dads do when their kids get behind the wheel. I would like to point out if there is an illegal immigrant hiding they would be a “fugitive”
fu·gi·tive
/ˈfyo͞ojədiv/
nou
a person who has escaped from a place or is in hiding, especially to avoid arrest or persecution.
And that would require for the safety of the officer “zip ties”. Remember we have laws and ALL laws should be followed. If you want open boarders vote for the dems. But until then we still have boarder security. You should also condemn the left who’s certain presidential candidates rhetoric is also echoed In a mass shooters rants. But I notice the left remains quite about that. Can you back up your absurd claim that “Every single day in this country, peaceable people suffer for the crime of not being white, and it’s always the guy with a gun who wants to define what “white” actually means.”? And maybe explain just what that means? I’m unaware that just breathing if your not white is a crime. Surly you grossly over exaggerate for traumatic affect which cheapens your tail of a hit and run. Perhaps conservatives are just grounded in reality while liberals are living in La La Land. The liberal Pollyanna-ish view of everything is beautiful is nice but when you open your eyes you find out it’s not quite that way. And don’t doubt for one minute the liberal view is also being manipulated by the political machine as is evident by the story.
5
There are no limits to white liberal guilt.
It is a well that never runs dry.
12
Actually I was more struck by the author’s underlying view of her fellow citizens. Not having a political litmus test for my friends and acquaintances, I don’t believe conservatives (all of whom the author would equate with the extreme right) are inherently more stupid and gullible than their liberal counterparts, after adjusting for income and education.
The liberal mad rush to mob justice and elimination of constitutional/statutory protections upon the mere allegation related to race or sex is is as irrational and illiberal as the positions of many conservatives
10
Know that this is genetic opens up the door to some terrifying solutions to dealing with the conservative problem..
1
It seem totally alien to me that someone's political beliefs are biological.
3
I'm impressed with you Margaret. Your reaction is one that I would have hoped to have but likely would have failed in the face of my righteous indignation. The problem with conservatives is that they think that something is being taken away from them by whoever Fox tells them to hate now. When in fact it is 98% more likely that it's actually the type of people who work at Fox who are taking things from them. It's most often the rich white person that feels the most "entitled." The woman who hit your car just didn't want the bother. For all she knew you were just an "illegal" so why should she. She is entitled to carry on her day like nothing happened. Was her name Becky?
2
@Wan
That’s “Ms. Renkl” to you.
1
Fox News is owned and tightly controlled by Rupert Murdoch is an immigrant who hates all immigrants that are not as "WHITE" as this corrupt influence monger. His mission is to undermine the democratic nation by using the lowest common denominators to mock decency and make money in promoting this evil.
1
Ok, Ms. Renkl has told us how noble she is, worrying about illegal aliens......
But lets say it was an illegal alien who hit the car.
Shouldn't they be responsible for paying for the damages ?
It seems that because deportation is such a "big" punishment, Ms. Renkl would be willing to pardon an illegal alien for just about anything.
When liberals say no one, not even the president is above the law, shouldn't they also consider that illegal aliens also are not above the law ?
8
@G Deportation is a huge punishement. Especially when it is combined with separation of children from parents. Yes the cost of a car repair is far smaller than the cost to a family of deportation. That's obvious. A person who uses the word "liberal" as a pejorative is clearly a person in thrall to talk radio propaganda. A person who equates the cost of a car repair to the cost of deportation and child separation is someone lacking in kindness and mercy. Justice without mercy is cruelty and perversion.
3
I'm left wondering if the white professional was charged with hit and run. Guess not.
2
Fox News Fox News Fox News. Let's name the most destructive immigrant we can think of--it's Rupert Murdoch! And how much money has he made over the years, stoking fear of immigrants? I'm sure he sits around late at night, laughing at how gullible all those American invaders are--you know, the ones who came to the Western Hemisphere and wiped out the peoples who actually owned the place (and had taken good care of it for tens of thousands of years).
5
On the "biology" "explanation" for conservatives versus liberals,
while of different magnitude,
it would be interesting to study what happened to descendants of Nazis who fled to Latin America?
Did they remain vilely extremist, or did their environment help them become something very different? If so, then what is the weight of "biology" in determination of outlook?
2
Talk about immoral!!!
The author did not decide to pay for the damage to her car HERSELF.
Instead, like most liberals, she, in a pique of self congratulatory arrogance, decided that she alone had the right to force the non-culpable fellow policy holders and investors of her insurance company to bear the costs of the hit and run, rather than the scofflaw who was responsible for the damage.
There are LAWS that cover property damage. But if you already feel so morally superior to your fellow citizens that YOU, in your absolute personal sovereignty, can ignore the laws covering immigration, how dare the commoners beneath you dare deign to ask you to comply with tort law either!
Marie Antoinette would be so very proud!
4
That's what insurance is for. Personal sovereignty is s Republican ideal and insurance considered socialist.
2
"Illegal immigrants"....."gun control"
A good copy writer can change the world.
The author rants, “Every single day in this country, peaceable people suffer for the crime of not being white, and it’s always the guy with a gun who wants to define what “white” actually means.”
But the 2017 FBI Hate Crime report shows 5 whites and 5 blacks were murdered due to their skin color.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/topic-pages/tables/table-4.xls
But most interracial murders are not classified as hate crimes. The 2017 FBI Uniform Crime Report show that 635 nonwhites murdered whites while 353 whites murdered nonwhites.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6.xls
The 2017 FBI Uniform Crime Report show that whites, who make up 76.4 of the population, made up 44.3 percent those arrested for murder. Nonwhites, who make up 23.5 percent of the the population, made up 55.7 percent of those arrested for murder.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/tables/table-43 Whites make up 76.4 parent of the population and 62.6 percent of hate crime offenders.
2
It’s not surprising that you don’t mention the propaganda spewed by MSNBC and CNN.
8
Thank goodness the driver was white. We can now all breathe a sigh of relief and punish her accordingly as, apparently, only white people should follow the law.
9
To add a bit of levity to this serious article, here’s a transcript of a note found left on a windshield:
“Hello, my name is Fred and I just damaged your parked car. Someone is watching so I’m pretending to leave contact information. Sorry, but I’m a jerk...”
2
A timely and well-constructed column on the mindset so prevalent during these trouble times. I applaud you for recognizing the code words instilled in today's lexicon by Trump and his media network, Fox News. "Illegal aliens," has caught on with Republican mad dogs who seem to utter it on demand. It's a wide brush, coloring parents and innocent children as sub-species, racially inferior creatures not to be treated as God's children.
As a very proud Southerner, I fought against the racists who employed the power of the police and politicians against innocent African-Americans who were subjected to mass arrests, beatings, bombings and outright terror. I was naive to believe that we had progressed too far for such behavior to re-surface.
Your commentary is enlightening. Keep on pricking our conscious.
61
@Doc "Illegal aliens" always was the proper term for people who enter the country illegally. That is, until the Left started developing euphemisms to minimize illegal border crossing. "Undocumented immigrants," "Unauthorized migrants," "Entering the country without authorization."
It is all designed to make us accepting of illegal immigration.
8
@Liberty hound
But the miscreant in this instance was a white female citizen and a person with advanced professional degrees. As studies have shown, more crime is committed by citizens than "others." And many of those criminal citizens are people of privilege!
4
"Illegal alien" is the actual legal term used to refer to the people who are in the country without a proper legal visa.
Anything else is a euphemism.
2
A few years ago I witnessed an crash involving two [white] women: the older woman was in the left turn lane next to me and she proceeded when the light turned green. A younger woman in cross traffic ran the red light and crashed into the other car. For some unknown reason, I had not pulled out when the light changed. I thought the woman might need a witness, so I pulled off the road about half a block away and walked back to the crash -- just in time to hear the younger woman saying her light was yellow and the other woman had pulled out on a red light. I told them No, I was in the lane next to her, you ran the red, she had the green. Wrote out my name and phone number, handed it to the wronged driver and said I don't think you'll need me, but if you do I'm willing to make a sworn statement.
Even before the current administration I was seeing an increasing willingness to lie to avoid any unpleasantness. And it's much worse now.
3
I'm familiar with the research on the conservative mind but, sadly, at this point I find it difficult to care anymore. If these folks are so afraid, I wish they'd just go and cower somewhere while the rest of us get some ish done. They can come out and thank us later.
2
What's really conflicting us as a society is the hypocrisy of using the labor of undocumented workers throughout our country for decades, or longer, in many cases precisely because undocumented workers are outside the normal system of legal rights to which employees are entitled (or, if not outside, unlikely to press a claim due to fear of deportation). All the sanctimony about people "sneaking into the country" is absurd when the use of those people's labor has been just about bedrock to the society and economy for so long. It's simply dishonest not to face up to this and create a system of visas or some other transparent and organized form of permission for the many, many immigrant workers we clearly want to do so much of the work in the USA.
As for hit and run drivers, denying or evading culpability has just about been a national sport for many years now, in every area of life. Sadly, I don't know how that behavior is a surprise to any observant adult in 2019. But the habit of denying or evading culpability in auto collisions (not just by drivers, but also by insurance companies) is probably born of the same mindset as the widespread denial and evasion of culpability for how our socio-economic system is so deeply and broadly reliant on the labor of undocumented immigrants.
So, yeah, there's a link here all right.
4
We were broadsided by a car which drove off and were almost sent over an overpass because of the collision. I am glad to be alive. What kind of person in a late model SUV hits someone and drives away? There were children in their backseat. What kind of role model are these parents?
7
If the fear and hate are biologically determined, then changing those people seems rather unlikely. Evil has always existed, and it will continue to exist. In the end, there are simply lots of bad people. Not all the haters are extremely bad people, but on the spectrum it is the worst of them who choose to be mass shooters. As much as we wish love would conquer, and as much as we must keep trying to love, it will never completely win. Somehow we need guard rails against the bad people. Keeping guns out of their hands is the first one needed.
As far as hit and runners, I would bet more of them are Trumpsters with their hate and disregard for others, their total lack of empathy, and their narcissistic selfishness. Rather than blaming the immigrants, it would be more realistic to blame the mainstreaming of hatred.
And yes, it is easy to blame Trump and his Trumpsters for everything bad. It would also not be too far off.
3
Alfred Hitchcock said that a movie needed a "McGuffie", an unimportant item that a plot revolves around. The Maltese Falcon was a McGuffie. The bumper is the McGuffie in this article. She had something to say and needed a plot device to weave her story around.
Otherwise broken window police theory says that small things matter in making a community safe. A bumper is a small thing in the greater scheme of things, but where do you stop? I would suggest the writer spend more time figuring out whether the law is worth enforcing and, if not, spend more time trying to change it. That's the way this democratic republic works. Otherwise this is just whining.
1
How ironic. Whenever a crime occurs, the first thing that comes to my mind is that a Trump supporter committed it. They are the definition of lawless, immoral and unethical.
3
This essay will generate lots of responses along the lines that your quandary is absurd and that the accident should have been reported regardless of citizenship status. I understand your quandary perfectly. With every brown skinned person cleaning the toilets and emptying trash cans and cleaning a hotel room, we live your quandary.
2
This author had compassion for a possible illegal immigrant (who she assumes is kind and persecuted) but anger toward a possible conservative fellow citizen (a flag note, must be deplorable!) Prejudice much?
12
it was the statue of liberty. ironic.
The paranoia of the authoritarian right will destroy our country.
5
"It reminds me that this terrible political age is not unique. The republic has survived profound divisions in the past, and it can survive the immense political chasms of our own time, too. A crumpled culture is not as easily fixed as a smashed bumper, but it can still be repaired."
Very true. If you know American history we have been through much worse. The horrible race riots after the First World War cost the lives of hundreds of African Americans. The Great Depression 1929-1933 was an experiment in societal collapse. The confinement of most Japanese Americans in concentration camps deemed legal by the Supreme Court is a chilling and shameful reminder of fragile our democracy is.
In my memory, the Civil Rights era and the Vietnam War showed profound political and cultural differences in American society. George McGovern, campaigning for the presidency in 1972 compared Richard Nixon to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. He wasn't kidding. In this context, the Trump era isn't that unique. We are experiencing a wrenching societal conflict over the future of our political system. It is a Manichean age, but not the first and perhaps not the last for American history.
3
Another far left paranoidal response to a bad experience she happened to have in a parking lot. Happens all the time, lady! Lucky you got a license plate number so that the other’s insurance company had to pay up. I’ve personally not been so fortunate. But that’s all it was, so calm down, have a drink and take care of your husband after his surgery.
7
What a bizarre article. The last thing that would’ve occurred to me is “did an illegal immigrant hit my car?”
But let’s say it was one. If we look the other way on hit-and-runs, then what other laws are they free to ignore? Oh that’s right, they already broke and entered into the country. Pillage away.
8
It seems as if those on the left really believe in double standards. Hold someone accountable if they are a citizen but not if they are illegal immigrants. The same seems to be the case for driving without insurance, DWI and even domestic violence.
6
How strange it is that people in this country who have actually experienced threats, to themselves or to their families (broad heading: women, people of color, LGBTQ persons, Jews, Muslims) are more likely then to be Democrats.
Why is the 'threat' response so ingrained in people who have not experienced real threat?
5
Imagine believing a crumpled bumper on a motor vehicle was more improtant than the LIFE OF ANY HUMAN BEING who might have accidentally crumpled the thing!
Thank you for considering how your actions might affect others MORE than how your car looks!
2
I hate to, but I am going to play devils advocate. "it’s probably all these illegal aliens we’ve got now.” - could be based on numbers your insurance agent actually has. Hit-and-run drivers' licenses do get noted, and those drivers do get tracked down. Of course, it may be that he's working off a small base of his office's experience - or the base may be larger. Nonetheless - interesting quandary.
1
GOEBBELS' PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA
Do your own substitutions for Fox, etc.
1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion. 2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.
a. It must issue all the propaganda directives.
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale.
c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences
3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action. 4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.
a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence
b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions
c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself
d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity
5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign 6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium. 7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.
...and on. This is 10 years before WW2. The right plan ahead.
1
Indeed they do. The Koch machine has been at work, like termites, undermining our democracy by fifth column infiltration of the Republican party for 50 years. Their unholy alliance with evangelicals and neocons has produced the right wing juggernaut we now face in Trump and McConnell. Though neither of them are libertarians, ironically, they are executing the libertarian long game of destroying the credibility of government.
The Kochs have been at this for many decades. It is kind of impressive in a respect your enemies kind of way.
1
I would only turn them in if there was a “Make America Great Again” or Trump sticker on the car!
1
I just had my first experience of getting the finger and verbal abuse while driving my Hyundai Elantra (not elite) which has a small Biden bumper sticker on it. I was being followed by a guy on a motor cycle and by the time we reached the first stop sign he appeared to be irate, gesturing and calling out. I pulled to the side of the road (thankfully that was possible on PA 441), and let the spluttering "white guy" pass. I have wondered whether to remove my picture from the comments. It could be used to track me down. I have an anti Trump letter in to the local paper, I will put a sign up in my yard for whichever candidate is the Dem nominee. Will these things endanger me and my family? It is now possible to be killed for one's position. We are in the twilight zone.
3
@Boomer
I had a "More trees, less Bush" bumper sticker during the GWB admin. I had drivers throw lighted cigarettes at my car, and I lived in the supposedly liberal S. F. Bay Area.
I am appalled by the lack of common sense by the person who hit the woman's car. You leave a streak of yellow paint on the damage and just park on the other side of the car? Why wouldn't you get far away from the scene of your crime?
1
Maybe “conservatives” react because they do in fact recognize a threat, and “liberals” wouldn’t know one if it hit them in the face? Could it be some brains recognize threats better than others? Could it be that some people are so wrapped up in protecting people who enter this country illegally that they assume everything that happens in life is related to that issue? Just wondering.
3
The hit and run driver in this instance should have been named in the column. I would not want to engage her for her professional services.
2
What an odd line of reasoning. If someone breaks the law by illegally entering this country, then that person is morally entitled to continue breaking the law (hit and run) so that they don't get in trouble for their first offense.
That's nuts.
12
If this correspondent is so concerned about the plight of "undocumented" people, she should sponsor one instead of treating us to her ambiguous approach to the idea of having a law about immigration. You either have one, or you don't. You either enforce it, or you don't.
5
I was amazed at how a parking accident where the person who hit your parked car; left to parked elsewhere; and finding a note from another person who witnessed the event to help you document your damages; as well as, inform you of the vehicle that caused the damage; turned into an undocumented illegal immigrant who may now be deported. Wow. The fact is, it was a hit-and-run. You would then have to file with your insurance, pay a deductible, get your car repaired, wasting your personal time and money. You are more caring than the person who caused the damage and who showed how much they care for you. And, all of this drama when you are going through a personal high stress situation. Just report them, that's why we have auto insurance. Your important duty is to your loved one, period. I hope your husband is well.
7
A biological basis for political preference? This is stunning, and I am not sure I believe it. I have never heard of it before, and I would like to see the NYT devote a lot more space to it. This is as monumental as the claim of a gay gene, which all the science tells us is false.
2
Dear Margaret,
The only broken moral compass is YOURS if you decide that holding somebody responsible for what they did is contingent on whether they are an illegal alien ("undocumented person") or rich white lady ("privileged?") If the former, it's further proof why we should not be abetting illegals driving our streets, since accidents do happen--by illegals and otherwise--and somebody who takes a car out on the road ought to address the damage he causes (and being here illegally DOES NOT give him a pass). If the latter, it just goes to show how we have eroded the concept of "responsibility," which our white lady decided to expand with regard to herself. This column told me a lot more about the moral confusion of our chattering classes than the moral conundrum of parking lot vandals.
7
In what single other country in the world would the citizenry’s reaction be anything like “they might be here illegally and so I’ll pay these thousands myself?” Nowhere. This is nuts.
7
Ms Renkl,
I usually enjoy your articles, but this one missed the mark. A better editor might have pushed you in a different direction. People are politically polarized - everyone, and I mean everyone, knows that. I'm very liberal, and the only takeaway I got from this story is that a privileged, entitled white woman crashed her car into your car and left the scene to avoid taking responsibility - which is both rude and illegal. I'm sure she avoided any meaningful consequences, being privileged, entitled and white. Nothing new here.
2
Margaret, I wonder if your sympathy extends to the US citizens who are out of work and/or underpaid because of undocumented migrants?
6
I hate the word “snowflake” but it applies here. A broken fender is a moral dilemma? “Babies in cages” again? I come from the country where 50 million people were killed in the gulags. My best friend comes from the country where Mao starved 40 millions in his attempt to build a utopia. My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and her baby cousins were not put in temporary detention: they were brutally murdered. Not more than two years ago I had a student whose relatives had to flee gas attacks in Syria. And here we have Americans wringing their hands about...what, exactly? Yes, mass shootings are bad but not as bad as genocide. Yes, Trump’s immigration policies are stupid (though as an immigrant I agree with his attempt to curtail illegal immigration) but he is no Hitler, Stalin or even Assad. I’d suggest that Americans start put things in perspective. And perhaps the author should update her medications.
8
What if instead of hitting your car, the driver had hit your husband being wheeled in for hip surgery.
Still have to measure up your loyalties, to your own or to those who slip through the cracks and might have something to lose? Would you report a rape? A beat down? An aggressive act that injured one of your sons?
Where does your loyalty to protecting people end, and begin?
7
Ms. Renkl could use a bit more computing power. If an illegal alien, scared to be deported, did the hit and run on her car would s/he then park close to where the accident occurred?
3
You both had the same reaction not diametric opposites: blame an immigrant.
Renkl has the money to repair her car. Many people do not. For some the damage Renkl suffered would be insurmountable. They are not all white supremacists either. You call the police on cases like this for yourself and the rest of society. The interests of illegal aliens is material.
6
Don't feel so re-assured, just yet...
She might really hate the make of car you drive...
Its color, even more so...
Perhaps some surveillance video to be found, on which the latest facial-expression-recognition app could be run...
If she looked angry before the bump, and happy afterward...
2 extra years in Jeffrey’s former cell – for each of these 2 counts...
It’s haunted, you know...
So the possibility that a perpetrator of a criminal offense might be an illegal immigrant morally compels you to cover up the offense?
How about if he sexually assaults your daughter?
Is that any different, or are we just haggling about sentencing guidlines?
10
Madam Renkl seems surprised that an educated, professional woman would do such a thing. Why?
It is only the willful cluelessness in the nation's consciousness that produces the kind of response as does Madam Renkl's.
If data were properly interpreted, then it would show that when something tremendously bad happens, there is a high probability that it is being perpetrated by white people (some of them immigrants). I would be quite shocked if a violent crime, a white collar crime, a sex crime, a fraud, was not perpetrated by a white person, who is then set free on some technicality or another.
Almost every single white collar crime, that produces devastating financial impact on its victims, is perpetrated by smug, educated, professional white people. Flint? White people. White people run insurance, banking, big pharma - all mask illegal behaviors. Also nearly all mass murderers. Most social security and welfare fraud is committed by whites (some educated).
I am frankly aghast at Renkl's reaction; unless she has bought into the demagoguery of Tucker Carlson and Limbaug and other right wing lunatics. Of course hit and run is more likely to be perpetrated by educated, professional (and I am sure very good looking) whites; because they have had a life time of experience of getting away with everything and hanging some non-white to make themselves feel good.
Get a life Madam Renkl.
1
We don't call it "Crashville" for nothing. I have driven on three continents, and Nashville drivers are the worst I have seen anywhere.
1
Sorry, don’t care who you are or what your circumstances are - you hit my car and leave (or stay), you just cost me time and money. If you are insured, great. If not, I have to pay the deductible. And my time is valuable too. So no, you hit my car. And if it is a hit and run and I find you? I don’t care if you are the second coming - I will press charges. It has nothing to do with illegal aliens, legal aliens or extraterrestrial aliens, it has EVERYTHING to do with you costing me time, money and frustration and you breaking the law by leaving the scene of an accident that YOU caused.
164
@Nick Pusloskie I can appreciate a man who, upon careful reflection, decides to pursue legal action. A man who takes such action with an appreciation only for his own loss and without a moments reflection upon other possible consequences is a man who has lost touch with his humanity.
48
@Dave Being an illegal alien and in fear of deportation does not excuse a person from paying for damage he or she has caused. It has nothing to do with humanity.
15
@Dave - I agree with Nick - if you damage my property, why should I be concerned with whether or not you are legal/illegal? You broke the law. Just because you're illegal that means you don't have to be held to the same legal standard as everyone else?
23
We've been going down this road for years, but the acceleration in the past decade is stupefying. I don't know what will bring us back except a massive reset, however that might be accomplished, and shame campaigns for the (proven) offenders.
1
I was with you until the conclusion. I do not share your belief in biological determinism and your hope or optimism. Communication technology vastly accelerates and magnifies the "biological" dynamics and the psychological and cultural flaws in human nature.
2
What a strange essay. The author invents a moral drama with herself as its center. And then asks us readers to go along with it, before we find out it's a fantasy. I can see having fleeting thoughts about who might have damaged her car, but not actually giving those thoughts, without evidence, enough weight to act on or write about. Also strange is her opinion that if our political differences are hard-wired, there is reason for hope.
13
Ah-ha moment, for me. That little hack, so-called, is how Trump and party are polarizing the nation. By being outrageous, and triggering responses from the Democratic, liberal, and Progressive side, he gets us to overreact, which then triggers the fearfulness of Republican, conservative, and rightist citizens. And thus when he labels us "the enemy," they agree, from the gut.
Maybe that's why I've been drawn to Pete Buttigieg's campaign, because central to his approach is what he calls changing the channel... Not being part of the Trump show... Not allowing Trump to trigger us.
5
Two thoughts.
First, anyone who hits a car, causes damage, and does not leave contact information is an immoral person, be they illegal immigrant or professional person. For all the hitter knew, the owner of the car might well be an illegal immigrant as well.
Second, if I were in the country illegally, I would be even more careful not to do anything, like hitting another car or leaving the scene of an accident, that might bring me to the attention of the authorities.
4
This is absurd. We live in a society that is defined by laws. By this, I mean much more than immigration laws -- although I mean those too.
Our society functions well because of the rule of law -- even as it affects driving and insurance. If every person were to give illegal immigrants a a free pass as Ms. Renkl virtue-signals, our society would fall apart.
The outrage at people getting away with law-breaking is why Trump got elected and will get re-elected. He is the most flawed and imperfect messenger, but he is giving voice to the frustrations of people who feel preached to -- and disrespected and demonized -- by the likes of Ms. Renkl.
Imagine how easy it would be for a Democrat to win if he/she were to show empathy and respect for the beleagured voters instead of for those who are not only not voters, but who are present in defiance of the laws.
9
1. Bravo to the person who ratted out the driver who caused a significant amount of damage to the letter writer's car. This person perhaps recognized that this miscreant would have been fully able to pay for the cost of the damages and was just choosing to skip out. In fact, isn't this perhaps a crime?
2. Somehow, why am I not surprised that the guilty party was a fully-insured white woman who did this in full view of other people? (I'm a white woman myself) Privilege often begets entitlement.
9
I have no moral quandary about having to pay a price for deliberately engaging in an illegal activity such as being in this country without the permission of the American people. That's what sovereignty is all about. Am I supposed to feel guilty if a "simple fender bender" costs an illegal alien "everything"? Former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza said it best: ""There is no human right to enter another country in violation of its laws."
6
Yes, lindsey graham's perceived threats require him to have an AR-15.
https://www.newsweek.com/lindsey-graham-needs-ar-15-rifle-looters-against-assault-weapons-ban-1453611
Graham is more worried about his perceived threats than he is about the past victims of assault weapons and those to come if we do not ban them and impose national effective background checks.
I don't understand graham's thinking either.
Very scary on so many fronts. Be careful out there. But, then, at this moment, who is more scary than the president who wants to take food stamps away from legal immigrants?
I really enjoy Ms. Renkl's essays. Thank you for publishing them.
2
Unfortunately, there is little one can do against the evil hooligans damaging one's car in one's absence, as described by Ms. Renkl and other commentators.
Such events are outside the sphere of "the four D", taught to drivers, legally carrying firearms in Illinois:
D = Detect, survey and observe the surroundings upon arrival;
D = Depart, if you detect danger;
D = Deter the potential assailant, if there is one;
D = Defend yourself, in the last resort.
I am for skipping the Second D, and for passing straight to the Third.
"As it turns out, she is white, a professional with advanced degrees, and fully insured" And why does writer presume that a white professional is documented? That presumption is simply the flip side of presuming non-whites and working folk are not. The interest should be in the insurance coverage, not the status.
@M.R. Sullivan she is fully insured and a licensed driver — neither of which is possible for undocumented immigrants, regardless of race or advanced degrees
1
I trust your husband is recovering from his operation.
You ask, how is it possible for two people to have exactly the same information and exactly the same lack of information — and nevertheless take such diametrically opposed positions?
I would speculate one of the reason is because one is educated and the other is not, and the one who is educated is the one who more often than not wrong. Look at the current American political landscape
Nothing can be exactly the same otherwise how one would gauge difference; thus denying us knowledge. You the writer have a similar kind of information on Obama and Trump on say, immigrant deportation and shootings, they happened under Obama watch too. Yet with the information you choose a path to castigate one and say nothing about the other; it is as if, metaphorically you damaged someone car and did not leave a note.
2
So, did you report the owner of the other car for hit and run? After all, she was the only law breaker in this story and it would be nice to know what happened.
3
I have witnessed mulitple "ding and run" incidents in parking lots and they fall into two categories: older adults with no business behind the wheel (minority of incidents) and wealthy white people who are too important to bother (vast majority of incidents).
1
I apply Occam's Razor in most situations like this. The simplest answer is that the driver didn't want to address it properly for whatever irresponsible reason. Why concern yourself with whether they're an illegal alien? They might also be a person of interest in connection with an egregious crime. Wild conjecture serves no purpose.
1
I was totally jazzed that the perpetrator was white! And, we are afraid of brown people??? I would rather have as my neighbor, someone who walked here from Guatemala. Think about how difficult and risky that journey is. Those people have courage. I welcome them with open arms.
3
Margaret:
More importantly: When the auto body rep made the comment about "illegal" immigrants, did you correct him, telling him that you too had that thought only to discover that the hit and run driver looked just like you.
People won't change how they think until we, collectively, begin to admit and call out our incorrect presumptions and prejudices.
4
No, it’s wasn’t likely a “illegal immigrant” it was more likely a republican voter, the people that care not a wit for anyone but themselves and care not what damage their actions cause.
Republicans do not care about anyone but themselves and when the tide turns deny being republicans. Remember when the “W to s MY president” bumper stickers suddenly disappeared?
The writer says conservatives are being manipulated. Does no one else see the irony in this statement? This whole article is a manipulation. The writer takes an everyday incident and invents a story in her head where she’s the hero of the downtrodden. See how virtuous she is? Even a dented fender makes her think of racial injustice! See how she (almost) paid for her own car repair and judged the mean mechanic? He may have had a basis for what he said, but why ask when you can just walk away feeling smugly superior?
Let’s talk about real solutions instead of lectures and moralizing.
7
Wow. Excellent article on how the leader of your country has divided you all completely.
1
I used to be a self-proclaimed conservative (with a big "C" in New York State), but the things that were important to me -- e.g., strong local government, support of individual rights (full rights, that is; and broadly enforced), support of business but a respect for labor -- were suddenly subsumed under the mantel of tax cuts and state's rights, which seemed to coincided exactly with the Republican Party's absorption of the Dixicrats. As the Republican Party was dragged into the mud by that Jim Crow legacy, conservatism was dragged along with it.
2
"The republic has survived profound divisions in the past, and it can survive the immense political chasms of our own time, too."
True. But it can just as easily fail.
Maybe it's even more likely to fail since it requires less work and talk.
1
I read the article. I had read the cited articles. Yet, I am confused by the conclusion. How is it that because it is hardwired in biology that this is going to be only somewhat more difficult than fixing a mangled bumper? I would have thought that by now we would have reached the tipping point if we were going to.
2
This is the result when the "open borders" issue is forced upon us. Blame Bernie Sanders for his blatant political opportunism. Ditto for Donald Trump. As a Democrat I believe the solution is to put labor front and center. Pay all laborers a decent wage with benefits. Health care must be one of those benefits. A minimum health care benefit should include Medicaid for all who work.
Citizenship is a different issue. Offering citizenship to those who were not invited here must have the support of the American people. I don't see that happening for a while. And I don't like seeing my political party hijacked over the issue.
11
Helen Fisher describes four personality types. Republicans are mostly Builders -- family oriented, rule followers, cautious and traditional, and like the familiar. They don't take risks and hate any change to the status quo. These are perfect followers for Trump. They don't question or form their own opinions.
3
@Mary Rivka
Wow according to this I should be a Republican instead of the Democrat/Independent I am. Family oriented(my kids and grandkids are everything),isn’t this true of most,
rule follower, more a case of showing thoughtfulness and manners and your word means everything, and find comfort in the familiar(nothing like curling up with tea, a book and the cats) I also love to travel and people watching is favorite pastime. As far as risks go I still climb trees (age 75) to trim since it’s easier than trying to explain. And I detest Trump since he is the antithesis of what I believe in.
2
Excellent article. Accepting the tendency of all of us to “profile” and blame thoughtlessly opens us up to the reality of how effectively propaganda and bias is manipulated—to more destructive outcomes (than guilt) when it targets right-leaning extremists, old people, and every Trump supporter.
4
I would add that environment plays a huge role, too: family, social network, neighborhood, work colleagues. Humans are social animals and they will often bend some beliefs in order to belong.
I grew up in a Republican family (which now labels itself a 'conservative' family). I moved to NYC many years ago and I not only saw life as it was, not as the platitudes say. But I also forced myself to look at situations and people in a more open way and follow the underlying dynamics. I now label myself progressive (mostly).
My mother makes a determined effort to seek out alternate views and incorporate new information in her thinking -- then goes right back to her old thinking that is dominant in the culture and social environment around her.
Confirmation bias, also biological, causes people to seek our support for their beliefs. Not only does the brain block new learning, but it rewards reinforcement of false beliefs (with dopamine) and make it deceptively easy to pull people into the extremes of their existing views/biases. I remind my family that were not always like the way they are now. They don't believe me.
The question is really: does biology drive beliefs or do belief drive biology. I believe there is more in the latter than much of the science reveals. But, it is hard. Very hard.
Without leadership to point the way, it is not likely to happen. Now, when we cannot even believe what we see, it is frightening to think how much worse it is likely to get.
8
Renkl was the victim of a felony hit-and-run. Yet her mind somehow jumped to the conclusion that the person who did it might well have been an illegal immigrant. After all, fear of the law was the only explanation she could see for evading responsibility to the accident. Profiling much?
The profiling becomes absurd when she blames easily-“manipulated” conservatives, like her mechanic, Trump, and FOX whom she lumps together as lacking her desirable level of empathy. Obviously, she fails to listen and mischaracterizes their positions on illegal immigrants - not legal immigrants.
19
@Park Bench: I found this to be revealing: "she is white, a professional with advanced degrees, and fully insured."
Two questions: How did Ms. Renkl know the woman had advanced degrees? And why would Ms. Renkl assume, based on the fact that the woman was white, educated and insured, that she must be legal? I've known a couple of people who fit that description, and they were not here legally.
Agreed about profiling nature of her assumption vis-a-vis her mechanic. I've had the same mechanic for twenty-five years and I have no clue about his politics. I do know that he immigrated here as a child from the Basque region of France, though. He told me.
3
Not a hit and run as the term is used. Not a felony either.
1
well, she might have googled her.
"I still take heart from knowing that so much of our political behavior is cued by biology… A crumpled culture is not as easily fixed as a smashed bumper, but it can still be repaired."
Excellent perspective.
To be sure, political behavior can also be cued by the environment in which we grew up. Since we can’t choose our biology or natal environment, what should we do? Be more tolerant of the other side perhaps? Asiaha Butler is doing things with the Aspen Institute and its Weave project in this vein that is encouraging.
In fact, all of us can help repair the smashed bumper in a but meaningful way.
In our online discourse, we can seek a genuine discussion of the topic at hand instead of attacking the character, motive, or attributes of the other person or group. Sure, attack the substance of the argument itself if you disagree, just not the other person. Over time, we can begin to recognize common interests that can be solved through give and take collaboration.
2
Be "tolerant" of the other side? Tolerant of racism? Tolerant of kowtowing to the very rich? Tolerant of voter surpression? Sorry, there's a difference between right and wrong and always will be.
@Scottilla
Good question.
Tolerant of racism and the other stuff? No. You are right. We need to hold to what is true.
On the other hand, being nonjudgemental and reaching out to the 'other'? Yes.
Darrel Davis, a black man, leads by example. He has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. Once he gains their trust, the Klansmen often realize that their hate has been based on lies. Over 200 KKK have renounced their hate and given up their robes to Davis as evidence. If Davis had just called them racists and constantly told them how bad racism is, both of which are right, he would never have changed lives.
In the end, building right relationships is more important than being right. We need to build community with those who do not agree with our version of right. Over time, we can solve serious problems and heal our communities together.
1
I share Ms. Renkl's concern. I've been hit a few times over the years, and more than once I just let it slide because the person responsible seemed to be struggling in life. I didn't know their immigration status, but it appeared that I was better off than they were.
But I wonder if a conservative might come away from this column with a very different conclusion: illegal immigrants are not responsible enough, or possess the legal standing, to have insurance. Because if they are insured, is there any reason not to open a claim? Who in the claims process--the insurance companies, the drivers, the police--would have any reason to notify INS? Can they not get insurance because they cannot get a driver's license? Does this mean they're uninsured AND driving without a valid license? (These are sincere questions. I do not know the answers.)
It's my observation that the impasse we've reached, Democrats and Republicans, is over the legality of some people's presence in this country. Shouldn't we be focused on reforming our immigration laws, rather than supporting the idea that entering the country illegally is just fine? (Again, a sincere question.)
4
@hammond No one is saying entering the country illegally is "just fine," but rather that those who do should be treated like human beings. Nice straw man, though.
The bigger story here is the stranger who gave you a note. That persons humanity is the real lesson in civic responsibility and they could have been of any party or persuasion.
35
This meditation is a gift to all of us who keep asking what it means to be human. Revealing the inner workings of your mind, heart, and conscience...some might say, “the soul,” makes fine company for me this morning.
It’s a story, a parable, rooted in ordinary life, setting off some expected responses, but expanding to reveal an extraordinary and unique human being.
You taught me once again if it’s only about the facts and only about the law, it’s not fully alive.
8
We spend most of our lives gathering knowledge and information at a fairly superficial level, generally trusting that what we are learning has a factual basis, without having to confirm this. For example, when we say "illegal alien" we have a general, superficial understanding that this refers to someone in the country without documentation. But, we have no knowledge of the details of the underlying statute that defines "illegal", much less whether or not we agree with that definition. We simply take it as fact that the term "illegal" has a legitimate basis.
There's nothing wrong with this, we can't possibly be expected to dig down to the granular level of everything we're confronted with. But, it does open the door to the widely divergent understanding described by Ms Renkl. This is easily understood in the old adage "One man's ceiling is another man's floor."
The problem is not with divergent understanding, because this is human nature. The problem is with what results from that understanding, and in our present political climate we've been told that if someone disagrees with your understanding they are to be feared. And, because we have neither the time nor the capacity to delve deeply into understanding why we should be fearful, we take it at face value that this "fear" has a legitimate basis.
This kind of misdirection of understanding is what happens when leaders misappropriate knowledge to their own ends. It takes only a little digging to come to this understanding.
2
Immigration law was written by freely elected representatives of the people. The job of the executive branch is to administer the law, regardless of its purpose. Hit and run collisions that are the fault of an illegal immigrant are among the costs of having people living in this country illegally. The mechanic she patronizingly refers to has to deal with the fact that cheap immigrant labor can potentially affect his ability to make a living wage to feed his family with. If he's obeying the law, he has every right to expect that others do so too. That's called justice. Illegal immigration is unjust because it creates a special class of people who don't have to obey the same laws the rest of us do, empathy or no empathy.
19
Immigration law may be very clear, but implementation if very haphazard
WOW! What a fascinating piece. In that it couples age old religious explanations or dogma with new age science or rationally. In the first, one’s conduct or behaviors are predetermined or incline towards previous sins or curses of a parent. Now new studies indicate that ‘genes’ are not only precursors to what physical attributes may be inherited from parental lineages but also attitudinal dispositions of future offsprings as well.
Is ancient but correct religious teachings, a form of Divine allegory written for the mutual understanding of older less developed periods in Mankind’s history? But are also meant to be consistent with a more advanced knowledge bases of future generations? Is thereby having the most correct and proper religious interface a personal/social key and road map to an individual’s tranquility and salvation writ large?
How many angels can fit on the head of a pin? No doubt, an infinite amount if each stood a top the shoulder of one beneath. “We reap what we sow.” Nonsense or a Warning from on High?
3
Dear Readers,
While I can understand the writers conundrum, all it does is place more more emphasis that the levels of illegal immigration in our country has vast unintended consequences. Why is it ok that a person has to think twice about holding someone responsible for their actions? What if she had been mugged, (but not assaulted) but only had $5 in her pocket. Should she think twice about calling the police? I think she should call the police.
10
In past years I would not be afraid (just uncomfortable) confessing to something like that fender bender. But these days I would be genuinely afraid of the potential for armed rage or violence from the owner of the car I hit, window my child broke, etc. Being a privileged person, I would now call for help before having that conversation, even if it's the store manager. Not everyone feels like that help would be safe for them either. It's truly scary that our national default setting currently seems to run from indignance to apoplexy.
8
I must say, my first (or even second) thought after being struck by a hit-and-run would not be that the perpetrator might be an undocumented immigrant. Seems a strange leap to me. Maybe a bit of a stretch in looking for a theme for an article? But I do love Margaret Renkl.
6
@Concerned MD. She didn't say it was her first or second thought. She said after thinking of all the different types of people, someone late for work, a teenager, a jerk, etc., and this after she had already called the insurance co. I share this hyper- sensitivity to immigrants being abused or suffering terrible unintended consequences. or those who may "look" or sound like immigrants. Although this dark side of America has always been with us, it is the in-your-face behavior, not to mention children crying for mommy, cages, multi-facility raids (facilities where the owners will undoubtedly receive the lightest slap on the wrist) and rump and wife smiling as if at some gala with an orphaned victim of a mass shooting committed by a person who has written a manifesto that repeats phrases straight from rump's rallies. The last time such outrageous hateful behavior was happening I was a baby aka tail end of the civil rights era. It is truly revolting how emboldened the haters have become :/
3
For all of those who claim that the current immigration has negatively effected the economy, can you please explain how the economy remains so strong.
However, I would like to point out that the economy is not strong; no matter what the metric might be.
There are too too many disgruntled people in this country; the ones that feel the need to own assault weapons and be allowed to take them to church.
In the richest country in the world.
11
A perfect example of how nuts we are going in this country projecting the "news" into our everyday life events, from thinking a motorcycle backfire is a terrorist gunfire attack to having a parking lot fender bender made into an illegal immigrant event. Everybody should just calm down a bit.
17
I share Margaret's concern. Recently we passed a minor accident where a young man in a beaten-up old Honda had rear-ended a Cadillac SUV. Couldn't see any damage on the big vehicle, but the terror on his face and the angry pacing of the hefty blond woman shouting into her phone said it all.
There is something to add to this. Tennessee has more than its fair share of illegal drivers. Some are undocumented immigrants but many are poor, underage, or have lost their licenses for various offenses. And due to poor training and lax enforcement the drivers in this state are terrible in general. Because of prejudice, including that of law enforcement officers, illegals drive like they're on ice for fear of being stopped for trivial reasons. A Hispanic friend of mine who is a legal resident was once pulled over for a burned out tail light, and told me he was relieved when he saw that the trooper was black.
127
@KJ
a "hefty blond woman" and her Cadillac SUV
that said it all to you?
please, can you stop judging
stop judging women based on body size and hair color
thank you
31
@KJ:
What does the weight of the female SUV driver have to do with your argument?
29
@KJ
I have a cousin who moved from New England to Tennessee with his family to follow a work opportunity. He crowed about how nobody honks a car horn at somebody who is really slow to react to a green light because of the "your car is your castle" gun law. So, I can understand the fear on another level, too. Insane.
19
This divided culture looks increasingly like an automobile that has been totaled, not one with merely a crumpled fender. I'm just wondering who will be able to repair it?
8
Reading some of these comments left me more baffled than the note did the author. She describes a situation that made her ponder our zeitgeist and what forms it currently takes. She describes the fuzzy gray zone that exists where law meets compassion, yet many readers insist on making it black and white. She did not pin it down—she examined the idea like a specimen of a possible new species and she the scientist who might identify what this new thing is. Others were all too willing to jump in and tell her EXACTLY what she was witnessing, just another version of a hit and run.
25
@Harley Bartlett
It is black and white. If you are here illegally, you will be sent back. Why is it ok to break laws? You may be a nice person, work hard and break the law; you may be an evil person and hurt people and break the law.
The determiner is not how hard you work, or how evil you are. It's "did you break the law?"
It we all only have to obey laws we like and/or which are convenient for us, then I'm going to stop paying taxes. What do you want to bet the IRS comes after m?. And why? I didn't like the law, so I didn't obey it. I don't think the IRS cares about that.
2
As a Republican who voted against Donald Trump in 2016, I am nevertheless offended that the NYT and other major news outlets continue to countenance and promote the false narrative: "President Trump himself believes there are some “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis..." Anyone willing to read the full transcript of the press gaggle/conference cannot take this claim seriously but must seriously consider the damage it is doing to our nation.
16
@adamsrc I've read that transcript. Trump acknowledges that there were "bad people" present, and goes on to suggest there were "fine people" too. But these "fine people" were indeed "among the Neo-Nazis" and clearly they were demonstrating in support of white supremacy. "Fine people" do not consort with neo-Nazis.
4
@adamsrc..."Anyone willing to read the full transcript of the press gaggle/conference cannot take this claim seriously"....If that comment were taken alone by itself that might be true. But anyone even remotely familiar with his tweets and campaign rhetoric, anyone who puts it in context with everything else and who still believes he isn't pandering to racism has their head where the sun don't shine. It is not an accident that he continually repeated that "Obama was born in Kenya", or that his supporters chant "build the wall" and "send them back". Wake up. We are one step away from "sieg heil"
3
@adamsrc
He said it. Deal with it.
2
I was with you until you repeated the Charlottesville canard. You are too smart to do that. Trump referred to good people on both sides of Lee statue controversy and not good people as neoNazis and Antifa.
21
@O'Brien. I heard him say that on a news video, and his meaning was crystal clear. He said there were good people on both sides of the riot that had just taken place. One side consisted of neo-nazis and white supremacists. Ergo there are good people among neo-nazis and white supremacists according to Trump. In my book, people who spew hatred are not good people, including Trump himself.
8
@O'Brien
He said good people on both sides. To me that’s the same thing.
2
@O'Brien T Are you saying that "the right" in the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally about which Trump referred to "very fine people on both sides" was just a bunch of monument lovers? According to a properly sourced, footnoted, Wikipedia entry "Protesters were members of the far-right and included self-identified members of the alt-right,neo-Confederates, neo-fascists,white nationalists, neo-Nazis,Klansmen,and various right-wing militias.The marchers chanted racist and antisemitic slogans, carried semi-automatic rifles, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols (such as the swastika, Odal rune, Black Sun, and Iron Cross), the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus Vult crosses, flags and other symbols of various past and present anti-Muslim and antisemitic groups."
3
A few months ago I was following a gardener's pickup down our hilly neighborhood road. It went slowly, stopped and paused at every stop sign, and allowed other cars to get past in what seemed an exaggerated display of lawfulness. As my temper flared, I began to wonder if the driver or the other occupants might be undocumented, and driving with studied care to avoid any possible contact with police? Our area is determinedly pro-immigrant, but still... the fear must be there. I am now much more tolerant of otherwise annoyingly careful drivers.
27
My 14-year-old son was messing around on a surfboard-style skateboard in May - he came out of a blind hilly driveway into the street and hit a car driving by. The two women driving the car drove him home, and he came into the house yelling "I'm so sorry! I screwed up! Don't yell at her, it's not her fault!" The whole way to the hospital to set his badly broken arm, he was yelling, terrified that Trump would deport the two cleaning woman in the car that he kept emphasizing HE hit.
Why was he so scared about deportation instead of the bleak prospect of a long summer with no sports? We did not know when we moved to our idyllic little neighborhood that several of our neighbors are rabid Trump supporters - and sure enough, in the weeks after his accident, many neighbors asked whether it was true that the drivers were illegals. I simply smiled, changed the description of both car and drivers, and said it was a car unlucky enough to be in my irresponsible (but wonderfully moral) son's skateboard's path and we were so, so grateful that they took good care of him.
598
@common sense advocate--It IS a relief to know that there are still kind, thoughtful pro-America people in our country. I've been so discouraged! Bless you!
119
@common sense advocate
I think we were siblings, in a previous life. Or cloned.
Cheers, as always.
66
@common sense advocate
You and your son can both be proud of each other. He sounds awesome. His irresponsible phase will pass; his ethics and compassion will be lifelong.
195
So many comments here that simply stay fixed on “someone hit your car and didn’t leave a note, therefore the legal process should kick in, whatever the circumstances, whatever the consequences” or something to that effect. I get it, we are a country of laws, no one is above the law, illegal immigrants are here illegally, on and on. I for one applaud the writer for having the compassion to consider the circumstances and possible consequences to whom ever hit her car. That’s empathy, a very human reaction. Not everything is black and white. A lot of grey out there. We all have benefitted at some point from someone else’s graciousness. We could use a lot more of it right about now.
73
@John Murphy
And applause is exactly what she wanted.
2
@John Murphy What do you mean, "no one is above the law?" Didn't we give that up with the tooth fairy? And we are not a country of laws, either. We're a country of privileged crooks who use the laws to oppress the rest of the people.
The funny thing is, the first thing I thought of is journalism, not the law. I wondered why the writer had to invent a pile of hypothetical circumstances, then write about them as fantasy, then discover the driver was "white" and "fully-insured," as if white, fully-insured people can't be out of compliance with the immigration laws. The whole thing requires a recurrence to fundamental principles, such as this one: There are plenty of factual injustices going on with non-citizen detainees, so why don't the editors keep the focus on facts instead of self-reinforcing fairy tales?
@John Murphy--Well, particularly since our law enforcers can't be counted upon to actually observe the law, and seem much more likely to abuse the "law." You can't tell your criminals without a scorecard. Folks, dump the hatred and fear. It's cowardly, and un-American.
2
Both focusing on illegal immigrants, one with concern for them, one with censure: What a thoughtful description of different reactions.
It's not all biologically determined, of course. Life events and situations can lead to hyper-vigilance, or complacent security, or lots of other dispositions.
12
“A crumpled culture is not as easily fixed as a smashed bumper, but it can still be repaired”. Let’s hope so. Better still, let’s vote to make it so.
38
@John Murphy
That's why we are not voting for open borders.
At what point do we stop making excuses, and expect everyone to learn and live by the rules?
3
I am reading the comments section and I can’t believe what I am seeing. The writer is sharing her thoughts about a tragic event in her life. Her husband is in the hospital but she expresses empathy for someone else who damaged her car. What has happened as a society that we have lost the ability to have empathy? Instead of thinking of the person who lost everything to come to this country and start over, all we can think about is “they broke the law”. If someone is poor and getting government help, we think “just get another job or work longer hours.” We are not looking at the reason behind the action. We need more empathy in this country today.
98
@Ellen
I have empathy for the next illegal hit and run that some white person of privilege does not have to work extra hours for, or longer hours for, to repair their own vehicle.
Ms. Renkl sounds like she is straight off the plantation, with warm quilts her father lovingly collected for her from sick patients who could not afford to pay. Her privilege is not shared by many these days.
2
@Ellen Get rid of the GOP and the insane Citizens United decision, and you might see it.
3
@Ellen Thank you forexpressing my sentiments exactly.
2
Linking brain scans to political leanings seems like junk science. For reasons beyond my control, I am alert to perceived threats, a wariness which is usually more distracting than helpful. I am also a liberal. Call me cautious or cynical, but not conservative. Attributing political views to biology lets people off the hook for their behavior, in the parking lot, the body shop, or the voting booth. No thanks.
18
Huh?
Someone does a hit and run and you’re worried if s/he might be an illegal immigrant?
I can’t even begin to comprehend this mindset.
If someone is in this country illegally, s/he is breaking the law. If that someone also damages someone else’s property, then seeks to evade responsibility for it, s/he is breaking the law.
We are a nation of laws. Or, at least, we used to be.
Where on earth is the moral dilemma?
48
@Skippy
So I assume that all employers of workers illegally in this country--which includes the Trump organization--should, in your view, be punished because they broke the law when they failed to vet their workers. Certainly the rule of law means that it applies to all lawbreakers.
5
@Skippy, the moral dilemma is in questioning whether the punishment fits the crime.
5
@Skippy
We are not a nation of laws, nor have we ever been.
We rely on the goodness of the masses.
The moral dilemma lies with you who can't fathom the mindset of someone thinking more about another person than themselves.
4
The most depressing aspect of this nice personal anecdote by the always readable Ms. Renkl, was the inexcusable willingness of a person to shirk her responsibility in fulfilling the unwritten social contract that binds us to our fellow citizens.
Scapegoating immigrants for parking lot scrapes is the inevitable outcome of a society that is rapidly losing trust in one another, as illustrated in this simple, but unexpectedly complex, parking lot predicament.
24
There are around 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the US, according to the Pew foundation. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/12/how-pew-research-center-counts-unauthorized-immigrants-in-us/
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia issue drivers' licences to unauthorized immigrants, including big ones like California, New York, and Illinois.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_licenses_for_illegal_immigrants_in_the_United_States
Where do you get your information? You might question your sources' accuracy.
.
Most people are right-handed ... others not. Is there a gene for that?
In a slightly different situation, there seems to be an ideological chasm between "lefties" & "conservatives" within the US.
And - sometimes - this political divide exists within a single nuclear family unit! [ Testing that "nature v nurture" debate. ]
Just how powerful IS biology?
3
@JPG
I'll tell you how powerful biology is. Very. I am the mother of an adopted child. We nurtured her with all of who we are.
She has a biological brother who was adopted by another family. A completely different nurture situation.
He is who he is and he is a lot like my daughter.
It is clear to me: Nature rules!
11
@JPG
Nobody has yet figured out handedness. Last I read, there may be a gene for right-handedness; lefties simply don't have it.
I think it's probably more complicated than that, but my family definitely has a high proportion of southpaws.
Check her citation of John Hibbing. Yes, brain scans for all, then we can begin the behavior modification program. Of course, there's the pesky matter of who is in power.
5
'What kind of person does that much damage to someone else’s car and then simply moves to the other side of the parking lot?'
'As it turns out, she is white, a professional with advanced degrees, and fully insured.'
Sure, but what I am more interested in is this: circumstances. Rushing to visit someone in the midst of great medical jeopardy? She had a reason, we just don't know what it was. This act does not make her what we so easily refer to as 'a bad person.'
6
The angst and anger shared by the writer and the auto mechanic is a pale shadow of what people with Hispanic names or features are going through as ICE takes away family members, breadwinners, on an almost random basis. Their moral dilemma exceeds any that a privileged member of society will ever face, unless it's one of those terminators with the official NRA approved weapon of choice.
I appreciate the resistance to our police state that Ms. Renkl struggled with. With enough people like her in this country, we will overcome this shameful episode of these latest American race wars led by our so called president.
16
I wish I had enough time in my day to turn a simple accident into a great moral dilemma this is the problem today everyone wants to turn everything into a battle for the soul of the country. The person hit your car someone was helpful enough to give you their information focus on the person who did the right thing and punish the one who did wrong have we lost sight that, that is how a society functions praise the good punish the wrong doers. Suppose you where a poor person who depends on your car to get to work or transport kids or a sick relative? What right does a person have to damage your property and then not take responsibility.
20
You can do all the virtue signaling you want, but there is only one hero in this story- the person who left the note.
45
@ThirdWay - Please? A hero?! Whatever happened to simply doing one's civic duty?
3
Ms Renkl, As always a thoughtful article, worth reading. Very interesting to hear about the brain scans and perceived threats. I hope your husband's surgery was successful and uneventful.
8
As you say so well, we are all victims of "acts of perception". Who we are, what we believe shapes what we see and how we interpret it. The outside sources that tap into that process, that tell us how to interpret what we see are thriving in this environment, as reported in an article in today's NYT"
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/11/business/media/el-paso-killer-conservative-media.html
It is obvious that voices of reason, or at least of a different perspective are less able to penetrate the conservative brain. Fear beats hope every time.
3
That happened to me once many years ago in a California beach town. A guy busted out a tail light of my new Porsche. He left a note and promptly paid the bill I sent him. I never knew about his politics. I do know he was a decent human being.
18
I am not sure I am buying what Margaret Renkl is selling. The mental gymnastics demonstrated to explain the behaviour of someone who damaged someone else's property is absurd. At minimum it denigrates immigrants, illegal as they might be, to individuals who are so self absorbed about their own situation they can't tell right from wrong. Some may argue their presence in the US already does this. I will concede that. However let's call the situation what it is. Someone damaged your car. They did not leave a note and take responsibility. They clearly demonstrated a lack of ethics and morality. That is the problem, not whether they were in the country illegally.
28
@R. Duguid . I think it's clear that Ms Renkle would not wish someone to be deported as a result of damaging her car. Nor would I. Neither ethic nor morality are black and white issues in my world.
4
While I generally enjoy Ms Renkl's work, she's stretching to make a point on this one...
Since it's all speculation about what was in the perpetrator's mind, let's try this: Medical professional. Advanced degrees. I've worked in a medical school and can assure you some practicioners hold themselves well above the rest of us. The damage to your car was judged as minor and not worth her time or involvement. She has lives to save. Shame on you for placing priority on a minor cosmetic issue.
Or... A political variation of the above: We have a POTUS who takes no responsibility for his actions, never admits an error, and yet enjoys the undying loyalty of a support base more than willing to reward his behavior. If wealth and perceived stature gives Trump a pass on major errors in domestic and foreign policy, why can't a medical professional expect the same for a wrinkled fender?
Some folks are simply better than the rest of us and I have a hunch one of them made an impression on both you and your fender.
PS: I wish your husband well on his recovery... I had a dislocated hip many years ago and while the hip gave no trouble my lower back took the better part of a year to return to its happy place. Hip and spinal alignment is more complicated than I realized.
3
As always, another fine essay from Ms. Renkl, full of insight, empathy, and nuance. Thank you, Ms. Renkl. Yours are the contributions to the NYT. I read most eagerly and value most highly.
6
Liberals also appear to be hardwired - favoring new over old; change over sameness. Even when it is to their detriment.
I still have hope for you too, Ms. Renkl.
6
@Citizen New and change. How do you think that we got to a place with self-driving cars, the internet and cell phones.
I am assuming that you prefer the era of grunts and moans that served as communication?
3
@HT Actually, we don't have self-driving cars in any meaningful way. And the Internet and cell phones have negative as well as positive influences on our society, culture and daily lives. Are those really the best examples for humanity's progress?
1
@HT
Not all change is "progress".
I’m a liberal person but isn’t it a fact that this imagined immigrant was illegal? So why was it so strange for the assumed conservative person’s comment so shocking? And why shouldn’t someone have some consequence for really damaging someone else’s car?
14
I hit a parked car while parking my car. I went into three restaurants looking for the owner. I told the workers in the restaurants where I would be for the next couple hours at dinner. I borrowed a napkin and pen to writ a note with my info and put it under the cars windshield wiper. 6 months went by and finally a call. A young woman’s voice. She was concerned it would cause my insurance to rise. I told her please get your car fixed. My fault not yours.
Last year I was hit in my work parking lot. No note, cameras everywhere and no one wants to help me figure out who owned the white car that hit me. Jerk. It is an expensive car. If they fessed up I would have just said thanks for telling me and let them go. Now I’m mad.
18
We are living in the Age of Reaction.
2
Hit and run? Just another day in Los Angeles. Whether it's people of property, "hit and run" is the way it's done in L.A.
1
Proof that our culture labels everyone and is moving in that direction. What does your label say about people looking at you?
Immigrants are not saints. I just had my immigrant neighbor loosen the bolts on my tire putting me in danger because he thought my passenger door scratched his expensive car. We want immigrants who obey laws and add to our economy; not those who break the law, add to the wallets of big business by cheap labor, and bring their understanding of the law from their countries where it’s ok to break the law to get even with your neighbor. I’m a brown skinned immigrant; the color of my skin doesn’t color my morality as liberals would like to think, taking on the savior role as they excuse the criminality of undocumented immigrants.
17
@Letit Be if you want morality back in the country we need to start deporting out the Deplorables. They would fit in much better in one of the autocratic Islamic countries anyway.
1
@Letit Be Just a reminder that the terrorist murderers in Dayton and El Paso were white male americans.
Did you see him do it?
Good column Margaret. Haven't read your stuff before and this one sure gets one thinking. Don't know what a scan of my brain would look like, probably a Toys R Us after an indoor hurricane.
3
Legal or not, the person leaving the scene of the accident committed a crime. Either way, they needed to pay. This essay is an overreach in an effort to be a good liberal.
And for the record, my brain scan would show I’m a bleeding-heart liberal.
I’m more curious as to why the professional woman in the yellow car thought it was ok to leave. Wonder what her brain scan would show?
19
I remember caring for an older woman in the throes of Alzheimer's disease. She had placed an aluminum pot on the stove, turned on the electric burner and walked away. Inevitably the pot melted. She explained the episode to her family as the actions of "some Mexican" who had come into her home and left the pot to burn. At that time, the number of Mexicans in her town could be counted on one hand but her belief was the legacy of an upbringing in the desert Southwest.
We are the victims of a cultural version of Alzheimer's disease, seeking as she did to make sense out of an often senseless world. Her fractured peanut-brittle brain tied the tendrils of memories together to give her something to hang on to.
This tendency is common if most often hidden. Those abused in childhood will often grow up to be abusers as adults. Children of alcoholics easily fall into later addictive behavior. Other more beneficent values can also percolate through lives. But the threads of experience, culture and memory all intertwine in our life's journey.
Now all we need to do is to reduce the number of negative, exclusionary, misogynist and racist memes to which we subscribe.
For me, I will try today to help just one person in some way.
Random acts of senseless beauty rule.
13
Maybe its because of where I live, but I never would have blamed hit and runs - or dangerous driving habits - on illegal aliens. Instead, I assume that they are someone who is very self-centered, caring only about what gets them ahead in this world.
10
Education, like your column today, can change people. Learned fear, like assuming an illegal alien hit your car or a cop seeing a cell phone as a cell phone when held by a white suspect and as a gun if held by a non-white suspect even if the officer is non-white, requires familiarity with facts, research evidence, historical perspective and moral reasoning. Lack of education plus extreme inequality plus demagoguery for power and profit equals fascism. Recall that Trump said that he loved the uneducated and that Rick Santorum openly scorned the idea of a college education. There is a reason supremacists love ignorance.
2
The premise of this piece is preposterous.
An automobile accident demands reporting to the police and insurance companies.
It is not an illegal immigration issue.
I'm as progressive as they come, but the day we hesitate to report automobile accidents to authorities is the end of law and order.
As for Republicans and right-wingers, it's been well known for years that conservatives have a larger amygdala than liberals.
The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that is active during states of fear and anxiety.
Liberals had more gray matter at least in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that helps people cope with complexity and consider nuance.
Liberal parties are generally more intellectual and conservative parties are more anti-intellectual.
Conservative parties are big on national defense and magnifies our perception of threat, whether of foreign aggressors, immigrants, terrorists, or invading ideologies like Communism.
To a conservative, the world really is a fearful, frightening place.
To liberals, the world is a place where problems can be solved.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201104/conservatives-big-fear-brain-study-finds
D to go forward; R for fear and loathing.
November 3 2020
32
@Socrates I would think that the question remains: nature vs nurture. Does the environment have any relevance to those amygdala and anterior cingulate cortices?
1
HT....both are subject to evolution and the environment.
For example, if a neutral person religiously starts to watch FOX News and listen to Hate Radio, they will become more fearful, paranoid and reactive.
If a neutral person is exposed to more thoughtful, nuanced and balanced news sources, then their ACC will become more activated.
So yes, the environment has an impact, which fear-mongering Republicans understand all too well.
FOX News and Hate Radio have been electoral manna from heaven for the radical right.
7
@Socrates I suppose that that means that there could be hope? Could be? Or is it forever a pendulum of extremes?
Too bad we learn nothing about the good Samaritan who left the note under Ms. Renkl's windshield with detailed information regarding the criminal driver apart from the decoration of the Statue of Liberty on the note paper.
While I do not wish to comment on the skittering of Ms Renkl's mind, it appears that undocumented or illegal immigrants who can legally get a driver's license lowers accidents rates:
https://psmag.com/news/one-big-benefit-of-issuing-drivers-licenses-to-undocumented-immigrants
However, logically this would imply that those undocumented driving without a license or insurance do increase the accident rate, as does anyone driving like this who will not stay around to get caught or admit to it.
Had though Ms. Renkl thought a little further, the chances of someone undocumented just going to the other side of the parking lot would eliminate the illegal immigrant theory. An illegal immigrant would have likely driven away altogether.
9
Interesting that the perp turned out to be white (privileged), educated and insured. Of course. But this also demonstrates that in her flight from the scene, she felt no compunction about bailing on her responsibilities as a member of society, and leaving you a note. Again, cue white privilege.
10
Oh, please. White privilege.
Come to Brooklyn. Plenty of dark-skinned people who hit and run. And what's their privilege?
Everyone seems privileged nowadays except working stiffs of all colors and creeds who make do and follow the law.
3
I can't comment on brain scans however this shows how quick we are influence by the media and internet. Now we have heard for three years how very bad immigration is and how those people are very bad in all ways so when something bad happens we think of them first.
1
Our "zeitgeist"--the spirit of our particular time--is marked by a particularly ugly combination of materialism, self-centeredness, selfishness and generalized anger directed at anyone who doesn't belong to one's particular circle of family and friends.
How we got here is complicated, but having a President whose narcissism is on display on a daily basis, who occupies the office with a pretentious pomposity, who endlessly and brazenly tells lies, who accompanies firing people in his own administration with nasty, personalized rants about what terrible people they are, and who openly praises such vicious autocrats as Putin and Kim, inspires and justifies, in his admirers, feeling anger at illegal immigrants, immigrants in general, and racial and religious minorities.
How we'll transition into a new zeitgeist is hard to imagine, but it has to begin by decisively defeating Trump in 2020.
My daily mantra is that I will work for and vote for whoever gets the Democratic nomination, even if it's a potato.
2
Margaret, you are too nice, and polite. Trump gives them actual incentive, approval and permission to rage and hate. His
Party doesn’t CAUSE the syndrome, it merely attracts those already infected, and greatly amplifies the contagion.
The only Cure? VOTE. Vote them ALL out.
4
This is not a moral issue about illegal immigrants. It's about a driver who hit a car, damaged it, and didn't leave any information at all. The driver was wrong. Had the driver been an illegal immigrant s/he could have left a name, a number, or some other way for Ms. Renkl to contact him/her. Plenty of less than serious car accidents where the only issue is damage to the car are handled without going to the insurance companies of the drivers involved. I did it once when the person was happy to handle it that way. The accident was my fault. I owned up to it and they repaired the car and I paid for it.
The driver's immigration status is not your concern. However, if you need something to write about, write about how hard it is to have a reasonable conversation about gun control, immigration, health care, or the state of our union. A car accident like the one you describe here is a poor proxy.
9
I have trouble with writing off racism as a function of excusable primal fears and disgust. All human beings are capable of reason and choice.
I have observed the pleasure racists seem to derive from expressing their views, their smug sense of superiority. It gags me when one assumes that it is safe to share their delight with me because I am white, as the mechanic did with Ms. Renkl.
So I am slowly coming around to the idea that those who choose to indulge in the pleasures of domination should be simply prevented from acting out their desires. This includes stopping racist speech, which is verbal abuse and public endangerment, not protected free speech.
Fear? No way. Disgust? Maybe, more like contempt. Indulging in delight in domination? Not the average person's response, but most likely from what I have seen. I would like psycholgists and psychiatrists to weigh in more on this, without stopping at fear as the be-all explanation.
I think solutions would be easier to reach if we start calling it what it is.
1
I saw the same thing happen in a Costco parking lot. The white middle-aged woman got out of her car, went into the store, and came back out a few minutes later—enough time for me to write down her plate number, scrunch the paper in some tin foil I had in my car, and push it in the door handle on the other side from where she was hit. The woman checked the windshield of the car she hit, then hurried out of the lot. I waited til the owner of the hit car came out of the store and told her what happened.
So maybe the accident described here was by an undocumented immigrant — or maybe an irresponsible person who thought they’d get away with it.
3
Professor Renkl missed two (2) fundamental points.
The perpetrator needs to be held accountable for what she did. To me, this is not negotiable. [I don't care who the perpetrator is.]
On illegal immigration, we need to get passed the romantic notion about the noble illegal immigrant working long hours for low wages in a job that no right minded American would take. A crime was committed when this individual crossed the border and/or overstayed their visa. In simple English, if you want to stay in this country, THEN GET A SPONSOR.
17
The underlying motivation between your reaction and the agent's can be summed up in two words “implicit bias”. This unconscious narrative must be confronted by every single American if we are to heal this divide. The “jumping to conclusion” without empathy or compassion or understanding of an alternative perspective. To engage in this mental exercise is to allow our humanity to emerge and inoculate us against the American propaganda of the “other”. It requires us to see the other as a person.
91
@CHS
Or, the mechanic may have had a valid reason for making that assumption. But why ask when you can just walk away feeling smugly superior?
6
Perhaps Democrats, as part of their Medicare For All plan, will include free psychoanalysis for all so that we all can rid ourselves of “implicit bias” and all other manifestations of our subconscious that plague us.
8
This is such an interesting meditation on mind and possibility. I'd like to comment on the brain scan observations re. conservatives vs. liberals: this may not mean what it seems. By ascribing behavior to biology we risk skipping right past conditioning. And volition. And ethical grounding. What I'm trying to say is that liberals can be selfish too and we live in times of speediness and anonymity. Let's resist drawing too many conclusions - they lead to polarization.
2
It seems the author is looking for a situation to gin up a moral conundrum they can work through if front of an audience. Any excuse to broadcast your view is a good one I suppose. If the car accident is the issue then just follow the process to which you agreed when you took out an insurance policy.
7
@Jim M
This is such an interesting response given the description of Republicans leading with suspicion and a sense of danger, (not to mention silencing). Rather than taking the writer at her word, you impugn a dishonest intent, trivialize her observation, and tell her what she should have done. According to the research mentioned in the article, you're probably a Republican. If that's so, haven't you proven the point of the article?
It is wrong to think that political views are determined by brain biology.
In fact, the brain is substantially malleable. It designs and shapes itself in significant ways so as to support the projects and direction of the self of which it is a part.
4
My vehicle was scraped while parked at a VA hospital. The parking spaces are too narrow. I assumed the driver was a veteran with an enormous pickup truck. He may not have even known that he had damaged my vehicle.
2
Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. A lot of Americans don't have jobs because employers have hired illegal immigrants in their places. Employers like hiring illegal immigrants because the oversupply of cheap labor enables them to pay less, and illegal immigrants are more exploitable than legal immigrants or (especially) citizens. The labor participation rate is almost the lowest it's been in 35 years.
Meat packers used to get a good union wage a generation ago. Now they get close to minimum, working under atrocious conditions where maiming is frequent. Other low/no-skilled job categories have similarly seen wages plummet due largely to mass immigration and illegal immigration.
We need a national, mandatory E-Verify to stop illegal immigration. Works much better than a wall.
26
@David Holzman
“Meat packers used to get a good union wage a generation ago.”
And there’s the problem. The real problem. The destruction of unions. These jobs wouldn’t exist for illegal immigrants if the unions still existed. Conservatives have worked for decades to destroy and undermine unions.
You are right about E-Verify. Our nation could stop the employment of undocumented workers in a minute if it wanted to: by penalizing and criminalizing the actions of businesses that hire them. But curiously they don’t.
I don’t think they want to. The corporations that support conservative politicians don’t want to actually pay a living wage. They don’t want unionized employees. They’d rather have a shadow force of workers that they can pay next to nothing for their labor.
They’re looking for near-slave labor. And the only way they can achieve that is by constantly demonizing and terrifying undocumented workers so that they will never speak up for themselves about their wages or their working conditions. This also serves to distract American citizens from the real reason their jobs are gone or have become substandard — the destruction of unions.
We will know that conservatives are serious about reducing illegal immigration when they target the companies that employ them and not the desperate people who come here to work for any amount of money and under wretched conditions.
19
@David Holzman Can you offer evidence for your claim? A few years back, Georgia cracked down on the hiring of undocumented workers in agriculture. Result: crops rotted in the fields because Americans would not perform such demanding labor in such difficult conditions for so little pay -- a system which keeps your food bill affordable. You can look this up. The fact is that -- at one end of the work scale -- immigrants take jobs that Americans don't want.
At the other end of the work scale, immigrants with advanced degrees take jobs that Americans can't do. Why can't Americans do them? Americans lack the advanced degrees needed because they live in a country that refuses to support higher education and places young people deep in hock for their education. Immigrants, meanwhile, coming from countries which support the education of their best and brightest, take jobs Americans are prevented from qualifying for.
8
@David Holzman
You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
"Illegal" workers are not reponsible. We are. We want cheap poultry and meat; The employers, mostly billionaires companies want to get richer and distibute dividends, and have their share price increase so managers can get bonuses.
While I share your views that it is a pity that we have to emply "sheap illegal labor", the fact remains that they take jobs no "legal" person want to do at the present salaries.
And unless employers are forced by law to pay "good wages", and you will hear them sceam murder, nothing will change
2
Moral compass? It continues to be broken as more people refuse to accept responsibility for anything that doesn't benefit them.
9
I'm sorry, but if someone hits your car and doesn't stop, they made a choice, no matter what their personal situation.
Once it happens, you have a choice to make. Are you going to report the incident or not? Really, at that point, the race or legal status of the perpetrator shouldn't be of any concern to you at all. Why would you give an illegal immigrant a pass but not a white American citizen?
It may well be that in that situation, in the parking lot of a surgery center, you decide that the kindest and most humane thing you can do is simply assume that the person acted in a way that is not reflective of who they really are due to some personal situation, and move on. Get the damage fixed on your own dime, go on with your life, and send a silent prayer that the the circumstances of the person who hit you improve.
On the other hand, an equally reasonable reaction would be to say that you were in a stressful situation too, you couldn't really afford to foot the bill for the damage, and you're not going to tolerate the inherent selfishness in the act of driving off after damaging another's property. If someone behaved that way once, it's almost certainly true they're more likely than another to behave that way again. So you report it and let them suffer the consequences of their choice, whatever it may be.
Both of those are moral reactions. They only become immoral when you decide your compassion is reserved for certain races or nationalities.
18
@Kristin
She was concerned because the potential consequences for one imagined perpetrator were so much greater than for the other, not because one nationality deserved compassion and one did not.
29
@Kristin You ask: Why would you give an illegal immigrant a pass but not a white American citizen?
The US citizen faces a fine. The undocumented immigrant, who may have lived in the US for years raising a family, would likely be deported to a country he might know nothing about. Further, he could wind up at the mercy of brutal gangs. Worse yet, he could end up dead! The writer obviously took those possibilities into consideration.
2
I have lost count of the number of times knuckleheads caused damage to the various cars we have owned over the past 30 years. It didn't seem to matter if the hit and run damage was caused in a parking lot or side street.
Fortunately, we never needed to contact our insurance agent, primarily because we didn't want our rates to increase and/or get cancelled and we had a good body man who could fix, repair and replace whatever was warranted.
I marvel at the stories where people actually leave notes and take responsibility for hitting someone's vehicle. How refreshing.
I'm sorry that Ms. Renkl had to deal with a banged up car on top of her husband's surgery. I truly hope he is recovering nicely.
The two actions we have implemented to help and hopefully reduce any future smack, scrap and scram episodes is installing a huge hitch on the back of the car and we are extremely cognizant of parking in places where other cars have plenty of room to maneuver, pass and park. So far, so good.
5
I had a different take. What if the person that the insurance company tracked down had a gun and shot the agent? Or worse, tracked Ms. Renkl down? That's the kind of country we live in, sadly. Careful with eye contact, look all around you, wonder where the escape route is, and what you will do if in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Guns scare me more than illegal immigrants, but we desperately need a national conversation--without screaming--about both, which isn't going to happen in my lifetime.
24
I share your concern about guns, but your fear is obviously exaggerated, out of proportion to the threat.
When was the last time you heard of someone shot over an insurance claim. In the heat of the moment, road rage, sure. But for pursuing a claim?
18
@James K. Lowden--I don't think Mike's concern is exaggerated. There have been shootings because of traffic accidents, road rage incidents, playing music too loudly in a car, over parking spaces and even for a dispute that started while waiting in line to buy sneakers. I agree with Mike that we can't be too careful in public nowadays. Guns and danger are all around us all the time. Make someone mad, and you could wind up in hospital, or worse.
19
@ Mrs Pea-
True, true, true. My wife has had to stop me from calling out strangers for doing things they’re not supposed to. Electric scooters are being tested out here in Chicago. One of the rules is no riding on sidewalks. While sitting in front of a restaurant where sidewalk tables were set up, a young man drove speedily past me and other patrons. I said so he could hear, “On the sidewalk? That’s a no-no!” His response was to stop, turn and look at me, pick up a heavy, weighted water glass from a table and hurl it at me with the strength of a major league pitcher, nearly hitting me as it flew into my wife’s back, bouncing off and shattering the window we sat in front of.
I have kept my mouth shut ever since. I was reminded the hard way that civility that existed when I was that young man’s age is gone, replaced by an “l do whatever I want” attitude which is certainly not dominated by any age group these days. Anything can happen, anywhere and at any time.
14
"Then it dawned on me that the driver might be undocumented, someone for whom a simple fender-bender would cost everything."
I don't live in a cave, but the notion that Ms. Renkl's car was sideswiped by possibly an undocumented never crossed my mind. My first thought was that someone was extremely distraught and upset because their loved one had been admitted due to a life threatening situation.
Even thinking that an undocumented individual could or may or might be responsible bothers me because is that now the current mind set of jumping to unfounded conclusions? Doesn't it smack of other similar prejudices that continue to plague the attitude in this country?
I sincerely wish Ms. Renkl's husband a speedy and uneventful recovery after his routine hip replacement.
But I also hope this article proves to be a wake up call to not rush to judgment or assume the worst when something like this occurs. Keeping an open mind has never been more important like it is now.
14
@Marge Keller
Hip replacement is routine for the surgeon, not the patient.
1
@Marge Keller
The only thing that came to my mind was some jerk on there phone not paying attention, then taking off without assuming responsibility. It happened to me. Luckily the parking lot video caught them. Ended up being a so called, white respectable citizen of the community.
The author is a successful pundit for a major news outlet. Married, a widely respected, valued employee and arguably financially stable.
For a poorer individual, single; perhaps not a NYTimes opinion writer, a parking lot incident of this nature, with no collision insurance (which is expensive) and without the benefit of a stranger's note - this could have left permanent damage on their car.
I doubt the nationality of the perpetrator would make much difference in that case. Certainly no good-will would be extended to them - if we're honest - regardless of nationality.
As for me - I'd expect the perpetrator to be a wealthy white person first. Poor people are generally more considerate and honest - hence they're poverty in today's America.
Just something to ponder on.
51
@Mike -
I doubt the nationality of the perpetrator would make much difference in that case. Certainly no good-will would be extended to them - if we're honest - regardless of nationality.
Funniest thing I've heard today
It's a difficult thing to judge from the circumstances.
I experienced a hit and run on my car. The driver left a note under the wiper. I was grateful as I walked toward the car, scrapes all along the side.
Then I read the note. The other driver said that he was seen hitting my car and with people watching he felt he had to leave something. No name. Nothing else.
17
"What if giving my insurance company her tag number would make me complicit in a deportation?"
So if someone is here illegally, they get a pass for injuries they cause to other people? What is the ceiling for their get out of jail free card: $500 of property damage, $5000, serious injury, death? When did it become an act of moral courage to have the mindset (let alone to act on the notion) that individuals are responsible for their actions? It's truly sad when average law-abiding citizens have to internalize the guilt and negative consequences that should be borne by law-breakers.
62
@Earl W.
I think you missed the point. The question is whether the consequence is proportional with the offense.
51
@Philip that isn’t a decision for the perpetrator to make, and it isn’t a decision the victim can make without knowing the facts.
8
The "Law Breaker". The anti- immigration right wing always begins and ends with that. Boil it down to, broke the law - must leave.
What if the law is wrong, that it creates too much injustice? Would it matter that the immigrant has held a steady job for 20 years, a job that native-born Americans would not do? That they paid their taxes? Never been arrested? Never received government entitlements? Own a house and have kids?
This characterizes the vast majority of people here illegally.
The Republicans have rejected all attempts to fix the problem, instead choosing to demonize them and inflame their base with fear and anger. It's working.
27
It's quite a luxury to foot the bill for serious car repair despite having insurance just because you can't imagine a hit-and-run driver would have driven off without a desperately compelling reason.
It would be interesting to know the outcome had Renkl known the cost of repairs before wondering if the driver was not in the US legally. That would have pitted her self-interest against her altruism and perhaps changed the way she viewed the driver's decision to drive off.
18
Margaret, Margaret. You write so beautifully. But I do wish that you would stick to the ongoing destruction of our environment, to which large scale immigration is contributing substantially. Margaret, I am older than you, but a reminder to you and so many others who do not consider these things, I think because population growth is an insidious thing, but when you were a girl on a farm in Alabama, the population of our country was around 150 million. Now it is over 320 million and growing faster than the population of any major, Western country (including Korea and Japan). The reason for this population explosion is immigration and the children of immigrants. The population of the U.S. is never discussed, by politicians, or by this newspaper, or most of the mainstream media, but it should be. You wrote a column in the past few months, complaining about the development in Nashville. But the reason for that development, and the trashing, the paving over, of our natural world, is population increase, which is driven by immigration. Your humanity is admirable, as is the humanity of so many who wish to protect illegal (yes, illegal) immigrants, but your sympathy would be better placed in advocating for the natural world, the species which are having their habitats destroyed by the encroachment of too many people, and the housing developments and roads and shopping centers which follow.
45
@Wan This comment is truly detached from any understanding of the people who are responsible for climate change.
If we focus only on the United States then the people who are responsible for US contribution to climate change are first and foremost the Republicans in the House and Senate, led by the world's most powerful atmospheric change denier, the president.
I cannot take up your assertions about population change because you give no sources that are essential in any discussion of population increase and the role of immigrants.
If you are truly concerned about climate change then you have a clear choice before you: On November 6, 2020 you will add your vote to those of us who will vote for the only party even seriously interested in US action to slow climate change, the Democratic Party.
I fear that the US continued commitment to fossil fuels, symbolized for me by the ever extending network of natural gas pipelines in my New England, will make the relative contribution from immigtants in the US insignificant. I was in Vermont in June, and those natural gas pipelines will largely feed an extremely well off non-immigrant population.
Next time consider the data before writing, please.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
27
@Wan It is always somebody else's fault with some people. Never look inward into how their decisions and lifestyle may have a far greater impact effecting the lives of people in far away lands who find the need to emigrate in order to survive. Are people really illegal or just undocumented. Jesus asks far more from us then we seem willing to deliver.
2
@Wan Yes, the population has grown and immigrants are part of that growth. But the original inhabitants of this land faced a greater displacement by the horde of colonizing Europeans. Those Europeans felt justified in coming to the "new (to them) World" because they were being persecuted in their home countries. People always have and always will strive to bring their families to a place of relative safety when oppressed and desperate - that's human. But how we integrate with the societies we flee to, and how we behave when we are on the receiving end, is everything. With Socrates and Nietzche, I feel that I, being one, cannot bear being at war with myself, and so it is better for me to suffer wrong than to do wrong. How our ancestors tried to exterminate the indigenous population when they arrived here may have precipitated the whirlwind we are reaping now. We still have a choice, even if our brains have hard-wired tendencies. Let's see what happens when we choose to be hosts and peacemakers this time.
4
Many of us can only get through the day by praying that "good people"—Americans who refuse to give into pervasive hate—will resuscitate our country. Unfortunately I have no such optimism left. Watching the Democratic candidates attack each other in the so-called "debate stage" (read: pro wrestling ring) I see the fait accompli played out on live TV. Our country needs future leadership that can rise above the fray and leave the bombastic "gotcha" rhetoric to the destroyer in chief. The one Dem candidate who seems willing to address the moral gravity of the times we're in and to define the moment in good and evil terms gets lampooned on both sides as a crystal worshiping freak. Those with the means and motivation would do well to begin planning their exit from the USA. This country was never perfect but at least it was livable.
6
"How is it possible for two people to have exactly the same information — and exactly the same lack of information — and nevertheless take such diametrically opposed positions?"
Without enough information, we fill in the blanks from what we already "know."
Obsessive compulsive disorder, checking and double checking every fact each time, would not work well as an evolutionary characteristic. It is actually a good thing for a few jobs, but generally speaking its maladaptive.
This is the same place from which come many things that don't work out so well for us, like racial stereotypes.
Acting without knowing enough is often better than not acting at all, but it isn't always good enough.
This places a high premium on knowing stuff, about a good background education, and reliable information. This is the adaptive advantage of wide intelligence.
It is also the opening for misinformation to do real harm. Its opening it built into our common needs.
12
Good data point: hardwiring and social outlook. Not necessarily correct conclusion. We might just as well assume that the biology confirms the conservatives as correct in their worldview, and we liberals are not justified.
Illuminating, but also depressing to the extent that our human nature, not that different from that of other ‘wary’ animals, contradicts our imagined enlightened society. But of course, it’s all trump’s fault.
2
An accident is just that. One of the best quotes I have every read goes roughly like this; "If you are walking on the beach and you see someone drowning you try to save them, but you do NOT spend the rest of your life looking for people drowning."
13
The author is a compassionate person and was worried about the damage she could cause to the perpetrator, regardless of the expenses she would accrue. Now imagine that the author were a minimum wage worker who lived paycheck to paycheck and someone wrecked her car causing her to fall further into poverty. Would her concern for the other person have been the same.
The luxury of affordability is what gives us our superior moral code. To the poor every aspect is a challenge in life and illegal immigration does not improve their lives.
61
It looks like I hit submit without fully making my point.
I was going to add that the mechanic's perspective might have been driven by him witnessing more of these hit and runs and the impact they had on the victims lives. Many of which might have been a lot worse than just a inconvenience that the author endured.
29
@John
Having been poor, I can pretty well guarantee that the body damage would not have been fixed.
2
@Amoret. Thanks. You are writing from the ‘real world’. A bashed in car can be a disaster...most people do not choose to drive smashed, dented cars, we just can’t afford to have them fixed...and can’t afford the insurance rate hike if we are forced to use our own insurance. Hit and run drivers need to be held accountable, period.
1
I think the author was way overthinking on how to deal with this accident. Her property had been damaged and the person responsible had an obligation to fix it regardless of their possible immigration status. If they didn't want their involvement reported to other parties, then they would need to settle this with cash, but they needed to at least leave a note with contact information on the damaged car. However, I thought the data on brain scan results showing how conservative people are more alert to perceived threats fascinating. I always am intrigued in how conservatives and liberals react so differently to similar circumstances. I think this is down more to how people are nurtured in life in their attitudes but perhaps nature through biology plays more of a role than I thought.
20
I owned a Porsche and used it for my commute to and from work. One afternoon I was at my desk and a gentleman came into my office and asked if I drove the Porsche. He told me he left a mark/dent on the side with his delivery truck. I told him that I was grateful that he tried to find me and not to worry. I also said not many people would have searched for the owner especially the owner of a high end sports car.
The dent remained on the side of the car as a reminder that there are good people in this world.
218
@GDB Most excellent response.
6
" I still take heart from knowing that so much of our political behavior is cued by biology."
If the writer considers that racism against all the "others" is cued by biology, she is right in one sense, namely that racism is passed on to the next generation through the mothers' milk.
6
"The republic has survived profound divisions in the past..."
It is now being argued that our current divisions are so deep that they are reminiscent of those causing our uncivil Civil War.
And we have clearly not survived those profound divisions, merely enshrined them in our history's future, our present.
Where there is a contest for hearts and minds pitting the fight or flight deep ancient wiring of our reptilian brains against the calmer dispassionate reasoning capacities of our neocortex, our inner reptile always prevails.
What is different now is that the unstated guard rails protecting us from demagogues and tyrants are being destroyed in the septic light of our civic days. And when this happens, as with Mr. Trump, the legitimizing of this hatred from on high opens the floodgates for the ensuing destruction that is no longer contained.
Our institutions were not created to protect us from this on their own. We see this now. Leadership matters. Mr. Trump and his millions of confederates now rush in to alter our national trajectory using the ever-present raw materials that leaders worthy of the name suppress by word and deed. This one throws jet fuel on the embers.
Where in living memory have we seen and heard this all before?
33
And that Russians pay immigrants in Scandinavian countries to riot so that Donald Trump's ugly rhetoric will have merit.
We are in trouble.
2
I found it interesting that there are so many more hit and runs.
Is it because people cannot afford a hike in the insurance rates? The deductible? The time off from work, if they have work? Nearly half of us can be wiped out by an unexpected expense. Is financial insecurity behind the rise? Are there other reasons? Have we become so callous in this country that we just don't care?
30
That was my first thought too. She might be a professional with advanced degrees. But is she struggling under mountains of debt, unable to find affordable housing, and dreading the thought of the hike in her insurance. Meanwhile, the fat cat bankers and insurance CEO’s just get richer as they hoard resources.
12
@Currents
Some people are just jerks. It's easier — and cheaper — to evade or lie than take personal responsibility.
10
Well said. As Winston Cburchell once said, "ail we fear is fear itself" or something close to that. I suppose now we will have the "Ice" team checking my cleaning help. Sometimes I wonder why our country fears immergrants. Wasn't America founded by immergrents?
I blame all the bad things that are now happening in the world on President Trump.
This saves me from the bother of wasting a lot of my time and energy investigating the causes of major disasters, and in the end I almost always find out that I was right.
67
@A. Stanton Simple but effective.
4
I'm a liberal and I don't hold with illegal immigration; it drives down wages and also makes it harder to organize unions. I suspect many of the "social" liberals who don't think illegal immigration is harmful have jobs that aren't threatened by it.
66
@Thomas B No their jobs aren't threatened because most of them aren't mowing lawns, picking field crops, washing dishes and cleaning homes. Anti-immigration policies will create labor shortages, incentivizing the robotics industry, pushing up wages, and squeezing out small farms and businesses for lack of affordable labor. With America's aging population and low fertility rate, progressive immigration policies are, as they have been historically, the fuel of American prosperity and progress.
32
@Reed Erskine
There's a difference between being against immigration and being against illegal immigration. That the Democrats put themselves in the absurd position of defending illegal immigration is helping Trump.
33
@Reed Erskine You are exactly correct. I am waiting to see how much more the recently raided chicken processing company's have to pay to get new legal employees and thus how much more expensive it becomes to purchase chicken at the store. These jobs are not popular because they are hard work in a difficult environment which are the jobs that immigrants traditionally get because others won't do them.
14
"In this context, protecting an undocumented neighbor — protecting even just the possibility of an undocumented neighbor — is clearly worth more than the cost of repairing a damaged fender."
As a personal opinion of the writer this statement is fine. As a moral declaration it is wrong. It immunizes a particular segment of the population from not one but two offenses, undocumented entry and destruction of property. The immorality of the zero-tolerance crowd cannot be answered with the immorality of the zero-punishment crowd.
80
@Themis your perspective is far too narrow. The punishment you allude to in the “zero punishment” end of the equation is far beyond equitable for the offense.
There’s a problem here, for sure. But protecting people from persecution is not the same as refusing to hold them accountable. The solution is not to “turn ‘em in,” but to change the jeopardy they’re in so you can hold them accountable for a crumpled fender without destroying their entire life [and perhaps that of their children].
You see the difference?
112
@Pat Goudey OBrien
The fender is already crumpled. Working on changing the level of jeopardy may lead to better behavior in future incidents, but not Ms, Renkl’s. I find her empathy both beautiful and over the top at the same time.
6
@Themis
Proportion matters. A system in which the punishment for accidentally denting a fender is deportation (not the case in this particular incident, but it might have been) is itself deeply immoral.
25
This was a very interesting and refreshingly thought out perspective, which I appreciate. I’m not sure if empathy is a hallmark of liberalism, although it goes hand in hand with tolerance, which I believe is...at least to the extent that it isn’t driven by fear. What was interesting is that both a liberal and a conservative jumped to the same ‘villain’, although they diverged as would be expected in further reaction So I suppose we could conclude that liberals are just as affected by all this negative media too, and only by dint of some empathy don’t start immediately casting stones.
16
Studies do link xenophobia to disgust sensitivity. However, what makes one a conservative is much more than one's attitude towards strangers or one's position on illegal immigration. In fact, until Donald Trump came along, one's attitude toward immigrants was deemed a relatively minor aspect of being a conservative or a liberal. Ironically, reducing one's entire set of political beliefs to biology is something that a conservative is more likely to believe in than a liberal.
15
@Jay Orchard
“Ironically, reducing one's entire set of political beliefs to biology is something that a conservative is more likely to believe in than a liberal.”
Perhaps this is because of aforementioned biology. If you are motivated more by fear than reasoned logic, it makes sense to avoid exposing your thinking to opposing views. But if you are motivated by reasoned logic, it makes sense to expand your view, to make sure your reasoning is correct.
The conservative view used to be to conserve the good from the past. Since the work that the original author cites became known, stoking the fears of those whose biology lends themselves towards fear becomes an easier path to power than actually trying to pick out what was good in the past and present an defense of it. This is why I believe that there are so many Republican politicians supporting things that they personally do not think are correct. I don’t (for instance) see a lot of Democratic politicians shifting so quickly from being anti-deficit to being pro-deficit as their Republican colleagues do, simply because who is President. A liberal would not respond as well to such manipulation due to their bias towards reasoned logic.
4
@AS Pruyn
Well AS Pruyn, given a choice between those who are crazy enough to back open borders and a psychopath who’s just generally crazy, I’ll take - neither.
@Charlierf
I agree. But the majority of Democrats do not support open borders, just as they do not support the psychopath. For instance. reading a lot of the statements of the umpteen Democratic Presidential candidates on the border, none are calling for an "open border" in the usual meaning of the term. That would mean that there is no document required to move across the border and crossing the border is, therefore, not an illegal act. The most I have heard is to change it from a criminal offense to a civil offense. It is still an offense, still punishable. And that stance probably comes from the efforts of the "psychopath" to prevent asylum seekers any reasonable chance to apply for asylum.
There are days where at the main ports of entry, no asylum seekers are called to come forward to present their case. The problem with people coming into our country and not showing up for "their day in court" is that our government takes so long that many never get their notice. I have heard of cases where the notice for the asylum seeker to appear wasn't sent until over a year after the person applied.
And given our actions in the past have caused a lot of the dislocation in their home countries, I feel that they are justified to come here for sanctuary.
The offending driver has a responsibility regardless of immigration/citizenship status. Leave a note with a phone number. Offer to pay for the repairs in cash. If it’s not affordable, then we can get into the moral discussion of who should or can bear the financial burden. But there has to be a line drawn somewhere about responsibility.
110
@EdNY if an undocumented driver did, in fact, leave his contact info and offer to pay in cash, would he luck out and get an owner sympathetic to his plight or would he get a righteously indignant Trump supporter? If only we (and he) knew.
1
But what if the other driver, with uncertain immigration status but with demonstrated inability to properly control a vehicle, went on to have another, more serious accident? What if there were casualties?
Wouldn't the author bear some responsibility for those victims?
And isn't that the flaw in overlooking immigration violations in the first place?
61
Did you read the whole piece? The hitter was a white woman.
1
@Jules The whole point of the piece was the fact that she second-guessed whether she should have reported it because of a fear that the driver was illegal. So Patrick point stands: if she had not reported it due to this fear, would she not be morally culpable if this driver had gone on to have more, possible lethal, accidents?
3
The information on the brain is fascinating. I am not sure how it applies to conservatives’’ denial of climate change, a denial that can cause irreparable harm. I did like the optimism at the end of your piece though.
8
@Anne
Their denial is fear that by attempting to address it, they will have to give up what they believe they have earned in life. There are many that way sadly. I used to joke that far too many people (liberal and conservative alike) held the view that "Everyone should get what they need, as long as I get mine first." I have never agreed with that view and understood (through the deep farmer roots of my mother's side of the family) that (as my grandfather used to say) "If we don't look out for one another, who will?" Farmers are the greatest altruists to walk the planet, without them providing food for the rest of us there would be no civilization at all, yet too many hold the view they are owed that food.
Ms. Renkl demonstrated clearly that she's thinking about the circumstances of others beyond herself. She understand her own needs (fixing the fender), but tries to weigh that against her perception of the needs of the person who hit her car. While she could only speculate about impact until the owner of the other car was ascertained, she was correct in concluding that not everyone would be as compassionate as she. There would certain be other people (as evidenced by some of the comments) who would not have sought the other person's identity merely as a means of determining need, but for personal gain.
4
@Anne
Without actually reading the research, I have my, narrowminded but informed, doubts as to its reproducibility,
1
Not long ago I gently bumped into and scraped along another car while turning in to a narrow and hard to access parking spot. I backed out to move my car out of the way and into a better space, after which I was going to take a look at the other car. Suddenly, a woman standing a few feet away started screaming at me that she could see me “leaving the scene” and she was going to call the cops. Although I told her that I was just moving my car and had every intention of informing the other car owner of the incident, she was not mollified and watched me until she saw me doing what I’d said I was going to do. I had made a small mark along the other car’s rear bumper, and left a note under a wiper, but I never heard from the car owner. I’ve since seen the car parked in the same spot many times.
It seems many people are triggered by these incidents, leading them to jump to all kinds of anxious conclusions. The possibility of an unpleasant or even fraudulent interaction looms. You wonder if the other car owner will be difficult, mendacious or even a crazy stalker with a gun. If you live in a more populous and diverse area than I do, you might wonder if they are here illegally. While it’s important to be cautious, we are all too much on edge at times, fearing zebras instead of expecting horses.
55
@Julie Zuckman’s
At the age of 83 I had two gentle bump and scrape experiences. In both instances pleasantries were exchanged between all parties involved, including the police. Insurance paid for damages. I don't think the possibility of "illegal immigrant" status was ever considered let alone mentioned. (All of us involved with the exception of the police were hispanos.) However, I decided I would quit driving while I was still ahead (and before I killed or maimed someone in a serious auto accident). I returned the leased car I had been driving and have not driven any automobile since. I am not particularly happy about being homebound and having to depend on friends' and/or Lyft for transportation but que será será. Life is full of "what ifs." Accepting responsibility for one's actions is always the best policy however unfortunate the consequences may be in my estimation. (Raising my annual insurance bill to $6,000 may also have had something to do with my decision.) Again, que será, será. I dare say my annual Lyft bill will never reach $6,000 and nobody got deported.
22
Well it is comforting to know that our tribal separations in modern society are hardwired. We cannot help it; it is biology, so a political scientist assures us. Reason is the handmaid of our neurological functioning. Why even bother talking to one another? Presumably, some folks are biologically determined to be moral and others less so.
There is a lot of lumping notions into categories here. In my experience, not all conservatives, especially those who actually think about it, are hysterical hypersensitive social paranoids. I am so happy for you, that your moral narrative worked out and did not become the nightmare you originally imagined.
4
@Eugene Ralph
I think the brain becomes hard wired, it is not hardwired when we start out. It takes a life of exposure to casual bigotry and prejudice, fear and anger to actually wire the brain to reflexively think that way. Any one who quit tobacco knows its about re-wiring the brain to kick the addictive habits and gestures that make up tobacco use.
We can re-wire our brains to be inclusive as well.
6
@Eugene Ralph You have a lot of good points here. basically, we have 3 "tribes" in the U.S.: (1) imperfect people who really are trying to play by the rules (2) imperfect people who routinely disregard rules they don't like (these people are also referred to as criminals) and (3) imperfect people who spend their lives making constant excuses for group number 2 and who deeply frustrate the folks in group number 1. Each of these 3 tribes includes whites, blacks, LGTB, Hispanic, etc.
Renkl touches upon a quandary. Pointing a finger, even to summon a just outcome, comes with a proper hesitation. Before we indict someone for wrong doing, we instinctively compute whether greater harm might be the result of our action. This is a good instinct.
If the crime were much worse, that assessment should change accordingly.
28
@RjW Have you ever heard of ‘broken windows’ policing? By allowing, accepting, enabling more minor transgressions society sets the wrong tone for behavioral expectations. If you want more fairness use politics to change laws and punishments. Classic liberal thinking, try to accomplish something without popular opinion or political strength.
6
I think it’s OK to have compassion but it’s not OK to excuse a blatant transgression based on legal status.
This article is what rankles conservatives: an undocumented person who gets away with a wrong-doing. They simply do not see how devastating the outcome could be for such a person.
Another way to look at it is to reflect on the part of the Lord’s Prayer which says ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ I say that a lot in traffic.
21
@Sheela Todd Did you read the piece? The jerk who did this was not undocumented, just unethical. And fortunately, she did not get away with anything. I would have followed a thought process similar to Renkl’s. (Thank you, NYT, for publishing her work...she is among my favorites.)
3
@Sheela Todd
Kind to the cruel; cruel to the kind.
-----"What if giving my insurance company her tag number would make me complicit in a deportation?"
One is required to provide insurance companies with all the information they obtain during these incidents. Failure to disclose this information can put one in jeopardy with their insurance company, and, in a larger sense, be committing insurance fraud if they knew who the other drive was and did not tell their insurance company (who goes after the fault drivers insurance - and TN is a fault state for auto insurance - meaning that if you are injured in a car accident here and another driver is at fault, you may be able to recover damages from them and from their insurance company in a personal injury suit.)
However, what if the accident involved personal injury where the driver left the scene - what would be more important to the author here - worrying about immigration status or finding out who caused bodily injury?
33
@Mary
You're attempting to create a nonexistent scenario to justify your own prejudicial views - in other words, red herring argument. What you described did not happen, and anything you might say is just speculation, not some kind of self-appointed moral superiority.
I think that if someone really needed to hide his/her identity after damaging my car in a parking lot, that person would have parked somewhere farther away from the "scene of the crime," provided there were empty spaces available.
However, credit to you for your empathy, Ms. Renkl, and for penning this thoughtful piece. We'd be better off if more of us considered the impact of our actions on others (a courtesy the person damaged your car did not extend to you, but one the person who left you the note did).
And I hope your husband's hip replacement went just fine.
60
What I thought also. A driver with something to hide would be long gone, unless they were intoxicated.
3
@Julie Zuckman’s
Given that it was a medical facility, they may not have had the choice to leave and go elsewhere for either their own health reasons or those of a loved one.
2
Then it dawned on me that the driver might be undocumented, someone for whom a simple fender-bender would cost everything. What if giving my insurance company her tag number would make me complicit in a deportation?
----------------
Non-insured drivers.
Drivers without licenses.
If people don't play by the rules coming in, they will not likely play by the rules of the road, the rules of the workplace, etc.
46
@Midway "If people don't play by the rules coming in, they will not likely play by the rules of the road, the rules of the workplace, etc."
Cite your source.
17
@Midway
Actually data proves your assumption false. The undocumented are far more likely to follow the rules, largely due their fear of being discovered.
If one were speeding and saw a squad car up ahead, how many would slow down, even to the point of being slightly below the limit?
Your proverbial slip (and assumptions therein) are showing.
7
Though the statistics show that illegal aliens probably commit less crime than citizens, at least as measured by incarceration rates, even in a state that surely is gunning for them.
https://www.cato.org/blog/illegal-immigrants-crime-assessing-evidence
5
Fascinating piece on how the mind and life experiences work to create mental narratives.
We had a similar experience about a decade ago. A note from an observer left on my wife's car windshield, about $2,000 in damages to the car. We filed a police report. The insurance company tracked down the driver. Legal status never occurred to us as an issue. Beyond getting our car repaired that was the end of our involvement. We never knew what the hit and run driver's status or motivation might have been.
20
Thank you, Margaret, for not letting fear or anger get in the way of your humanity. If we didn't have a force of stormtroopers combing our neighborhoods, uprooting entire families for a misdemeanor, there wouldn't be a moral dilemma involved in seeking out law enforcement when a crime like hit and run is committed. That's why ICE needs to be abolished.
38
@Flora
ICE needs to be abolished?
Funny how it is always the well-meaning white women of inherited privilege who are willing to give a pass to the newcomers, at the expense of those American citizens who respect the rules.
Give your reparations privately and adopt if you must. America can and will have secure borders, despite what our wealthy elites tell us.
3
@Flora, She was fearful, which turned out to be irrational and excessive for nothing. There are U.S. citizens who don't have insurance for a variety of reasons (e.g., in between jobs and having had to stop paying car insurance to keep the roof on their head), although the wrongdoer did have insurance.
1
Sometimes we overthink things.
Citizen or undocumented migrant, people who do that much damage to a parked car are driving too darned fast, and the next bit of damage they cause might be to a child.
And they might very well drive off in that case too.
I like to hold everyone to the same standard. Criminality cannot be excused just because someone is an illegal alien or, say, was reared by a single mother. My dad's parents were divorced back in the late 1930s, when my dad was just a kid, and he was an honest, hardworking guy, a loyal husband, a responsible, affectionate father -- and a careful driver.
Excusing waywardness is the worst thing we can do for people lacking self-control.
194
@B. So you're willing to completely ignore context in order to maintain a consistent principle.
Nice.
4
Some circumstances might qualify as mitigating; but in general, yes, you are right. I mostly would ignore context.
Context is for literature and for conversations. And while the law does develop and change over time, the core values of honesty and responsibility really do not.
If a child had been hit, and not a fender, would we say, Poor illegal alien; or poor guy, had no father; or poor guy, had trouble at the office, or with his wife; or didn't like his lunch?
Someone who had a heart attack at the wheel and couldn't control the car -- that I'll give you.
6
While your desire not to be complicit in the deportation of an undocumented immigrant is understandable, your moral quandery is not nearly as difficult as you make it out to be. A person hit and damaged your car and then left the scene without identifying herself. The driver could have left you a note, but chose not to. Leaving the scene of property damage is a crime and you owe it to society to use what information you have to see to it that society holds the transgressor accountable lest they do it to someone else and perhaps the next time, more than property damage will be involved. Also, you had no qualms reporting it to your insurance company so you could be compensated, so the cost of repairs, had you not shared the info you received on the driver, would have been absorbed by the insurer of the wronged party (and the insureds of that company who ultimately pay the price in their premiums) rather than the one doing the damage. What of your duty to your fellow insureds? And had you withheld the information you had about the driver from your insurance company, wouldn't that make you at least morally if not legally complicit in the unlawful act? And all this to protect someone who might be here - illegally? I'm all for compassionate treatment of the undocumented, but not at the cost of the burdens your 'guilt' would impose on the rule of law which itself is also under assault.
251
@G. James Justice is cruel if it is not applied with compassion. If the rule of law is under assault with regards to immigration it is because the law is defective. Awareness of the injustice of laws, in this case of our immigration system, leads to the moral quandary she found herself in. Would that our laws were perfect enough to allow adherence to them without guilt.
51
@G. James, indeed, the "rule of law" is being violated every day by those employing all those illegals everyone is so concerned about. It would fill me with a deep sense of schadenfreude if the Feds rounded up everyone from the guy who hires illegal landscapers to the top CEO's who employ all manner of improperly documented folk. Throw them in prison for, let's say, a minimum of 2 years. Then we'll see just how committed Americans are to "the rule of law." (You know, of course, this will never happen.)
18
@G. James - you put "property" above justice and morality. Warped priorities.
11
Ms Renkl writes well. But I take issue with this, at the core of her essay, and of her argument --
"In this context, protecting an undocumented neighbor — protecting even just the possibility of an undocumented neighbor — is clearly worth more than the cost of repairing a damaged fender."
No. The undocumented neighbours whom we wish to preserve and to protect are those who leave their names, their contact details; those who take responsibility. Those who hurt us and flee -- why do we want them in our polity? They are not good people.
As it turned out, the bad person who did not leave her contact details or her name, who did not take responsibility, was a citizen. Perhaps -- for leaving the scene of an accident -- she can be properly punished. However, we are stuck with her, and her cavalier disregard for others.
We have enough bad people born on our soil. Why ever should we strive to gather in more who were born elsewhere?
148
@A S Knisely
"We have enough bad people born on our soil. Why ever should we strive to gather in more who were born elsewhere?
Because those "born elsewhere" might easily be an improvement.
27
@A S Knisely: The article did not confirm that the fleeing operator was a citizen and being white, a professional and fully insured is not proof of citizenship. Imagining facts which you have done or employing hypothetical facts as another commenter did to make undeserving points, which are two different things and only the second is legitimate if done judiciously, do not buttress views unless they do. Imagining citizenship falsely defames illegal immigrants who work, pay taxes and buy insurance.
1
@Nial McCabe -- I like that. It reminds me of the Dust Bowl joke about how the shift of Okies to California raised the average IQ in both states.
And, who knows? You may be right.
1
Finding that the origin of a behavior or political orientation shows up in brain scans does not mean they are CAUSED by biology. The brain is the porous border between humanness, and the material world of life. Maybe their brains have changed and become that way BECAUSE of their behaviors and political orientations. We don't know.
Scientist, the media, and the anglo-saxon publlc are much to prompt in attributing mechanistic properties to human behavior
23
Great essay. Many of the conservatives I know are scared of everything and question everything. This comes from the media vacuum in which they exist. At what point do people wake up and realize that most cable news is not worth watching and most social media is not worth digesting? Perhaps it is dangerous to outlaw all of the scare tactics due to the First Amendment, but that would be preferable to the constant assault on our humanity.
96
@Anthony, fear and hate is all they have. It's an addiction they can't--or don't want--to shake because it makes them feel they are better than everyone else. It negates the terrifying howling insecurity that they actually are just like everyone else.
7
@Anthony
It's not that they question everything. For example they don't seem to spend any time at all questioning the hateful rhetoric and lies that are fanning their fears day after day after day.
1
Always a breath of fresh air you are Margaret. A fender bender leads to a discussion of who we are, why we see the world differently, the chasm that separates us, and then hope.
Our leadership has failed us these past few years, but you leave us with the idea that we can make change, and make America what our forefathers were thinking. A social fabric so diverse, and strengthened by it, that it will be all but impossible to destroy.
Let's vote in 2020 to return our country on its proper place in the world. A country that is respected for its diversity.
400
@cherrylog754 Thanks for your comment! After reading comments from others, I was beginning to think that I had reading comprehension problems. As I read the article, I see the accident as an opportunity to discuss the vitriol that is overwhelming in places like my home state of Tennessee. That same fear of unintended consequences can color even decisions such as reporting an accident in a parking lot.
8
@cherrylog754:
What a self-aggrandizing column!
If the very definition of strong moral character is the performance of ethical acts when no one is watching, does not the self-publication of one's actions in the newspaper with the largest readership in the nation, (the paper of record, no less), call into question the very motivation for the performance of that act?
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in his thumb,
and pulled out a plumb.
And said what a good boy am I!
2
@cherrylog754
Gosh cherrylog754, I’ll bet I like diversity as much as you, as my wife, kids and grandkids show. But you know what I treasure even more? Rule of law, including immigration law, that’s what.
7