Bilbo said:Are we in a race with China and India to become the most crowded and
polluted country in the world? When do we hve too many people here? This is
not 1807 when we needed people to come here. We do not need these people
here when our roads and airports are packed and we are swimming in our own
pollution. When will this insanity end?Aug. 12, 2007, 6:58PMhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5048112.html
The new California
Latest U.S. census figures on the Hispanic population herald major change
and challenges for Texas.Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
As political scientists and demographers have long predicted, the surging
Hispanic population in Texas is rapidly changing the state's social
landscape, economy and politics. The latest U.S. Census Bureau data indicate
Lone Star government, political parties and schools are in for a period of
rapid adjustment that will require innovation and insight.
At the epicenter of the emerging new Texas is Harris County, where Hispanics
for the first time outnumber Anglos. Combined with blacks and Asians,
minorities now make up more than 60 percent of the nearly 3.9 million people
here. Boosted by high Hispanic birthrates, immigration and a flood of
Hurricane Katrina refugees from Louisiana, the county in 2005 and 2006
registered the largest increase in minority residents in the nation. It is
now tied with Miami-Dade for the nation's second-largest Hispanic
population, behind Los Angeles.
In Texas, 43 of the 254 counties are majority-minority. The same patterns
are reflected nationwide, with one in 10 counties in that category. Among
the nation's most populous counties, the figure is one in three. Previewing
future growth, three of the top 10 U.S. counties with the highest percentage
of residents below the age of 5 are in Hispanic-dominated Texas counties:
Webb, Starr and Hidalgo.
Just as minority population growth transformed California from a
conservative Republican bastion to a Democratic stronghold in a generation,
so Texas is amid such a shift. Whether it has the same political outcome
will depend on which major political party can win the new voters'
allegiance.
When he was governor, George W. Bush's moderate views on immigration helped
Republicans appeal to Lone Star Hispanics. Since then, GOP leaders'
anti-immigrant rhetoric has done the opposite. Texas U.S. senators, both
Republicans, recently voted against immigration legislation supported by the
Bush administration as well as many Hispanic leaders here.
In the Legislature's recent session in Austin, Republicans pushed hard for
voter ID legislation widely seen by Hispanics as an attempt to suppress
voter registration in their communities as well as turnout at the polls.
Only last-ditch opposition by Democratic state senators prevented passage.
In Houston, the changing political dynamics have been increasingly apparent.
Liberal candidates with strong Hispanic support have dominated close or low
turnout elections that used to be won by conservatives. In the most recent
example, Melissa Noriega, the wife of Democratic state Rep. and U.S. Senate
candidate Rick Noriega, easily won a citywide runoff against a Hispanic
candidate backed by the Harris County Republican Party.
Aside from politics, the population shift will force government officials to
shift spending priorities in many areas. Because the new Texans will be
younger and less affluent, medical care and social services will need to be
bolstered to prevent facilities from being overwhelmed. Public school
systems, already grappling with high dropout rates by Hispanic teenagers,
must do better in producing an educated work force upon which the state's
economy will depend. City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado stated: "We need to
educate our community to create stronger voter turnout, educational success
and financial literacy."
Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineburg told the Chronicle that the
population growth is a great opportunity for Houston to avoid the economic
stagnation afflicting other cities.
That advantage can become a negative if area institutions do not meet the
needs of the newest Texans. Depending on how the city responds, the
population boom will either guarantee the continuing growth of Houston or
undermine it's future.
Only the degenerate clergy and sleazy cheap labor advocates are happy
with
the third-world invasion.
greg
http://www.numbersusa.com/ NumbersUSA