My family spent part of our spring break in Washington DC . The capital doesn’t disappoint. It’s a wonderful mix of beautifully crafted idealism and cheerful, blue-collar determination.Walking the grounds at Arlington Cemetery, my 10 year old pointed to a headstone marked ROWE and asked, “hey look, I wonder if that guy is related to Mike Rowe?”
“Well, “ I answered, “he probably is because getting buried…”
Is a dirty job.
We are fans of the show.
Later that same day we found ourselves wading through a crowd of immigrant activists that was later estimated to be 200,000 strong. We didn’t know if this was just another Sunday in the capital or a sign of sea change, but we were glad to be witnesses, glad to feel the energy.
I must have had a far off look in my eyes at dinner that night, because my wife asked, “what are you thinking about?” I grinned sheepishly because the truth was a little embarrassing. “Mike Rowe”, I confessed.
“Micro? Do you mean like micro fabric or micro-technology?”
My sons and I exchanged glances and raised eyebrows. She is not nearly the fan that we are.
“No. Mike Rowe. The guy from “Dirty Jobs”. I was just wondering what he thinks about immigration.”
The show is about “hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us”. From what I’ve seen, a heck of a lot of these jobs are done by immigrants. On this trip alone, our cabbies, our maids and our busboys were, in large part, from someplace else. They seemed to fit the bill.
I tried to remember how many of the real people he’s worked with and filmed were immigrants. I understand that, for on-camera interviews, it’s important to find spokespeople who can be understandable and clear, especially when Mike isn’t. It’s best to have someone whose first language is English. But the show doesn’t seem to reflect the idea that the least desirable jobs go to those freshest to our soil.
At my high school job, no one wanted to bread chicken. It involved taking ice cold chicken pieces, ripping extra fat from their skin, then covering it with a fine seasoned powder, as quickly as possible. It left your hands painfully cramped and your body covered with a chicken smelling ooze. Usually the job was rotated among the employees, to prevent open revolt, but occasionally it was used as punishment for being late. I remember a kid was fired for throwing chickens away so that it appeared he’d done the job without actually having to do it. Eventually, the job was taken permanently by someone who would do it cheerfully and well…an immigrant.
Mike Rowe believes that, “hard work needs a PR campaign.” This seems to align with the message on so many of the placards I saw at the DC rally, “Immigrants Work for America’s Prosperity”. Immigration policy is too complicated for both Mike Rowe and me, but I think that “Dirty Jobs” is the perfect place to acknowledge the contribution of new Americans to hard work.
So what do you say, Mike? How about dedicating an episode?
