Back in the 2008 election cycle, Larry, a local politician, was working with my neighborhood. He introduced himself with generalities: a volunteer job, a position on a local board, how he’s for open spaces, keeping small businesses, requiring more sheriff’s patrols, cleaning up graffiti, bringing services to the other side of town. OK, great. Sign me up.

He asked what is important to me in our city. Thinking aloud, I told him that we enjoy the local trails and walkways (he nods and grins), we visit the nature center frequently (more nods and grins), we use the community center.

Then I remembered the one big thing that really bothers me about this town. “You know those men who hang out on the sidewalks, waiting for work?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, nodding vigorously. Here, he must have thought, I will finally connect with a voter.

“Well,” I continued, “I think that it’s really sad that people oppose these men; that the City Council voted to make this ‘loitering’ illegal. They are just men looking for work to support their families.”

His face fell. Apparently, I was not the voter he thought that I was.

“You know those men urinate on businesses? That is a problem,” he said.

Well, that is gross, but are we talking about buildings floating away on a river of urine, or a few isolated events?

I suggested, “Perhaps the city should build a central location — that has bathrooms — where the workers can wait for potential employers?”

Larry continued, “A friend owns a local business, and it is difficult to earn a living, hiring workers for legal wages, when so many other businesses just hire day workers for much less.”

“Yeah, I can sympathize with that,” I said. “But isn’t paying the lowest wage just part of capitalism? I mean, this is the economy we live in. Wouldn’t we need to change our economy to eliminate cheap labor? It just seems like xenophobia to me.”

Uh oh. I said that word — that “xenophobia” word. It just slipped out. Really. At that point, I still hadn’t processed that he was on the other side of the day-labor fence. Hadn’t we bonded over trails and the nature center?

But he started backing away from me, saying, “Check out my website; you can learn more about my positions.”

I check out his website. Top concern is illegal immigration.

We are obviously not an impoverished city; we have resources. And these largely wealthy folks are “concerned” about illegal immigration? Translation: Throw those Mexican butts back across the border. Or, at least, hide their Mexican faces in restaurant kitchens and cleaning houses and behind a lawn mowers, where we won’t have a constant reminder of the low wage, dirty work that supports our economy.

Back at the campaign website, Larry blathers on about how undocumented workers create unfair competition for the middle class, don’t pay taxes, don’t have recourse for abuse. Horrors, what will become of our health care, education and infrastructure?

There are so many statistics about how undocumented workers pay way more into the system than they get out.

Do you volunteer to pay income tax with neither tax returns nor access to Social Security? I didn’t think so. Let’s all just get over that argument.

And Larry’s second point, about how undocumented workers don’t have recourse if abused. Hello. May I introduce you to César Chávez and United Farm Workers. Would Larry like to head a local union to protect undocumented service workers?

And unfair competition for the middle class — perhaps Larry wants some socialist market protections, to keep competition “fair?” Nah, he just wants to kick out the brownies. With only white workers, everyone plays fairly, right?

Excuse me, I think that Wal-Mart is knocking on my door. No, wait, it is Enron. No, my mistake, it is Ma Bell — she wants all her baby bells back. See? All is good for the middle class and small business in legally documented whitey white land.

Then Larry goes on about unsafe makeshift housing — aka if you cannot afford our $300,000 houses, then just pack up and move on. Only four people per 2,000 square feet, please.

And day-labor ordinances: Larry wants to adopt some of those. Oi vei! What a knee-jerk reaction.

Yeah, let’s be creative and enforce some archaic trespassing laws and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to toss off the street corner some poor guy trying to scratch together a living by mowing your lawn or remodeling your home or cleaning your pool. That’s a good use of tax money.

Here is the essence of my complaint (finally, the end is near!):

I think that Larry either needs to accept capitalism, or go drum up some socialist alternatives. Fish or cut bait. Mexicans are here to stay. Either we continue to accept their low-wage competition as a natural development of our capitalistic economy, or we form unions and social services to make sure that they are treated fairly.

Or we could just admit we are a bunch of xenophobes, and shoot arrows at anything that smells like beans.

You’d think that a wealthy population like ours, so very many of whom identify themselves as Christians, would be quicker to help the downtrodden, build up a man trying to support his family, to clothe the poor, feed the hungry and welcome the alien.

I know, I am expecting public policy to mirror the religious teachings which predominate our community. But, I cannot privately read Jesus’ admonitions to care for the poor and then publicly support something quite the opposite.

We have so extraordinarily much. Can’t we just let Juan try to score a job in the Home Depot parking lot?

Lori Rivas, amateur opinionator and recipient of zero awards, lives across the border in Newhall, and is hoping that the voices in her head will bother you, too.