The moment you enter ACE Hardware, someone is immediately available to assist in obtaining exactly what you want. HD has really taken a slide away from customer service.

I just hope they stay in business for many years to come. I actually look forward to going there over the dread of entering HD.

Previous generations of people who came to our country all had tough times and their share of kin who ended up on the wrong side of the laws---some in prison (come hell of high water they were going to feed the kids). Thus, in the late 1800s it was me Irish kin that filled Sing Sing (“Oh has Patty gone up the river, you say?” Yup, with all the other Micks).

But the Irish (still called dirty Micks) moved up by participating in activities where talent alone was good enough. So, when they started not showing up in the clink, they were filling the various professional sports: John L. Sullivan and likes in boxing, McGraw and Jackson and the likes in baseball, and football to such an extent that Notre Dame became the “Fighting Irish. And also, basketball to such a degree that we got the Boston Celtics.

And the Irish also started showing up in the performing arts. Singers like McCormack, and actors like O’Brien, Crosby, Tracy, etc. And the Irish also moved into politics and elected mayors of our great American cities: New York even got a whole bunch of Irish mayors in a row.

Next it was the Italian who came to these shores. They too found some hard going and some (dirty Wops) turned to crime and started filling Sing Sing and the likes. But they too escaped to better times by doing what their talents let them: Marciano and the like in boxing, DiMaggio and his fellow Italians in baseball, and heaven forbid, the Fighting Irish had a whole string of Italian quarterbacks. And Italians also went into acting and singing. The likes of Sinatra and Dino were all over the place. Next they started electing Italian mayors of great American cities, like Fiorello LaGuardia of New York (good heavens, they even named and airport after the Little Flower).

Next were the African Americans who did not even need to come here. They were brought as slaves. And in spite of this crushing start, they too are and have been moving up into boxing, baseball, basketball, singing acting and even into politics. And have also become mayors of great cities: Dinkins, Washington, Andrew Young, Coleman Young and many more.

Now it is time for Mexicans and other Hispanics. However these good family centered people have in large part been skipping right over prison---in relative numbers there are few of them in our prisons. They just stared moving into placed where talent or hard work alone was all that was needed, from sports to singing to acting and even some mayors.

Good for these good people. And welcome, you will make fine citizens, and as it says on the base of the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

That... was beautiful.

My mother was born and raised in the US..she moved to Miami about 4 years ago and could not get a retail job (even though she has extensive retail experience) because she does not speak spanish. Give me a break..I think she should have sued...

I lived most of my life in Miami--it is now the closest thing to a foreign city you can get in the US. When Carter welcomed all of Cuba's unwanted, Castro sent them all to Miami--wish it had been Plains. For many years now,unless you speak fluent Spanish you cannot get a job in Miami. Never mind that the person who does get that job speaks such broken English you cannot understand them most of the time. Don't bother complaining to their employees--especially in local government--because they, too, in many cases cannot be understood. Americans are treated like unwanted intruders in their own country. They hold just about every political post there is in the Miami and neighboring cities. When the influx of Cubans came over they were given mortgages of 1%--when they got ready to move on they just moved out--creating many slum areas. They all received government checks and most still do. Right around the time I retired they passed a law that said they would need to get their citizenship in order to continue getting aid. They raised holy h---. One woman who had been in this country for 20 years and still had not learned English was complaining because she was going to have to learn English. She had been receivng, all of those twenty years, a larger monthly check than I was going to receive from Social Security after working and paying taxes for 50 years! Spanish surnamed students were given preferential treatment for admission to colleges and universities. The schools ended up with teachers who could not be understood by students. I left and moved here--where I could hear English spoken and be treated as a native American or anyone else should be. Years later I moved back there to be with my grown children--after a few years I left and returned here --it had worsened. People jokingly call it North Cuba, but it is not a joke.

As for California, my sister has lived in San Diego for years. Every day school busses bring children from Mexico to the border and there they are picked up by San Diego school buses--taken to school and then the procedure is reversed at the end of the school day. Is there any wonder they are having financial problems?

We now have the Mexicans who come here illegally and immediately go to Alpharetta or elsewhere and buy bogus papers which allow them to get drivers licenses, etc. This is not hearsay. I have this directly from someone who bragged about it. Everyone deserves a chance, but we must first take care of ours and our country which is slowly but surely going to the dogs--financially and otherwise. The time will come when, as a country, we will not be able to support ourselves or anyone else.

Ellis Island processed these folks and they came legally and did not force our language on us. This is a totally different story. My grandfather was Mennonite and spoke German as his first language but they all were fluent in English. My husband's grandma emigrated from Wales legally in the 20s but did not expect to be catered to and spoke fluent English. Ich spechen de Deutsch..

The Irish were the wetbacks of my great-grandfather’s day; at least some of our clan were. They just splashed down the Great Lakes from Toronto and somehow got on the census rolls.

But legal or illegal, they weren’t always too welcome. In hard-to-find-work times some were greeted with NINA signs (No Irish Need Apply). But they and others just kept coming to take jobs that self-respecting Americans didn’t want.

However, there was a big difference between their opportunity back then and what George W. Bush has in mind with his guest-worker program. Our past immigrant workforce came with the promise of citizenship.

They became Americans and discovered that not all of the streets were paved with gold.. Thus they entered the working-class’s struggle to better their lot by forming labor unions and bargaining collectively.

So I got an idea. Why not let the good folks from south-of-the-border-down-Mexico-way come to get a new start on life and become citizens. And of course, also join labor unions, and for sure, become members of the Democratic Party.

Since these folks will be donin’ the heavy liftin’, a first job could be to move the Statue of Liberty to high ground south of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It would give this era’s “tempest tossed” a nice sign of welcome.

1. You cannot compare legal and illegal immigrants. They are already crminals by entering illegally.
2. Not committing crimes? Close those eyes and ears, as you always do in your idealic dream world, and do not pay attention to reports from states with their high crime problems from illegals.
3. As with Los Angeles, in example, 44% of all workers, meaning 44% are illegals, get paid in cash. Which means they are getting far less pay than an citizen would get and are not paying taxes.
4. A new report by the Feds show illegals cost the Feds over $50 billion a year.
5. It is a lie jobs taken by them are jobs Americans will not do. I know too many that got knocked out of jobs they had for years to be replaced by far cheaper illegals.
6. Illegals go to emergency rooms for everything from headaches to serious problems. They cannot be rejected, but when payment time comes they simply disappear, leaving the financial burden on the citizens (illegals are not citizens).

I know you don't let facts getin in your way.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

True in California, the illegals are a problem.. especially gangs.
Here, however, they are close to harmless. Americans cause more of a problem here, as far as murders. Look at Clayton County. It's our own citizens causing the problems, and there's a TON of Mexicans living there now.. they're just trying to keep out of everyone's way and deal with living a disgusting crime-filled city. (there are even WHITE prostitutes walking around there)

Taxes.. true, they need to be paying taxes.. All of the Mexicans that I have known get an (legal) ID from the Mexican consulate in Atlanta and with that get a Tax ID number from the bank and pay taxes every year...

If it's not them paying the taxes, it's the employer paying a load of taxes...
I get the point here, but there are more reasons to complain about americans than illegals.

We have a very large Mexican community here. They are great people. And they did not come to this land in a way much different than many others. For exaple, me own kin.

Have some faith in mankind. It will help you with your own outlook and brighten your day and way (buck up).

I have faith in God and some segments of Mankind.

Only a liberal is foolish enough to have faith in all Mankind.

That requires turning a blind eye to man's nature and destructive cultures and societies.

Later, on another topic, maybe...
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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

That’s your problem---God does not need your faith, but His children do. But if you are too insecure or shallow or devoid of compassion to give it---‘tis your problem and other will pick up the slack.

Indeed Gil-Roy's is good.

It is so disappointing they built a Home Depot that carries so much less than other area Home Depots or Lowes do.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Go to city council meetings and hear about where you will see a new Lowe's store. Hint, it could be north PTC.

Interesting!

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Think about the land across from Publix on 54 that Group VI has.

That's more East actually. You speaking of the land between McIntosh and the new Townhome/LiveWork development? I don't think it's zoned properly, nor is it big enough. There is a tract in my mind that may be a little East of there on Hwy 54.

There? Is it properly zoned?

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

What service. Can you imagine the hoards of people that get bad advice on how to fix something. I learned along long time ago that if a Home Depot employee wants to help you that's a signal to go to Lowes and figure it out yourself.

That's cold...true, but cold!

You confused me with someone else. That person Get Real got banned a long, long time ago.

But he was right about those HD employees. Wasn't he.

My bad! Yep, he was right though!