The issue of illegal aliens in the United States is yet another example of what has become a “designer issue.” Political correctness, like so many salient issues of the day, has been unleashed in all its fury to cloud and attempt to legitimate what should be rather obvious.
They are foreign nationals who are in this country illegally. That being the case, it boggles my mind to think anyone would remotely construe that fact and declare that they have any “rights” guaranteed for the legitimate citizens of the United States. If they are “illegal,” they have no “rights.” They are criminals and should be treated accordingly.
Who are they to come into this country by illegal means and lay claim to the economic, cultural and political heritage of legal, legitimate citizens of the United States? By what authority do they have the right to sap the vitality of our economic and social legacy without having contributed one cent? Further, by what twist of reason do they expect us to simply ignore the horrendous cost of their presence in this country that is to be borne by, again, those who are here legally? The cost to the taxpayers to support illegal aliens is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars. To the extent we cave into that rather perverse notion, those who have a right to lay claim to those assets are expected to do with less and accept yet another reduction in what for many is already a marginal standard of living. I am sure that was never the intent of our forefathers and those who built that legacy for all legitimate citizens.
There is not the slightest doubt in the mind of anyone even casually cognizant of what has been done to this country by the Bush - Cheney axis. They have engineered the greatest transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich in the history of this country. They have plundered the treasury and sapped the lifeblood from our national infrastructure, leaving us incapable of dealing with the legitimate needs and expectations of the citizenry. So, who is behind robbing us of the public services that are the very bedrock of all that makes this country work? Illegal aliens? Hardly. Rather, it is championed by big business, agribusiness, and the corporate mindset that is totally devoid of any semblance of conscience. The illegal aliens enable them to maintain a double standard of labor laws, not the least of which is the right to a living wage.
The darker side to this issue is in the realm of international politics. To the extent Mexico and other impoverished nations can shift the burden of caring for the teeming masses of poor in their countries to the United States, they can continue to rule over a nation of the “haves” and the “have-nots” while they and the elites of their respective countries live in opulent splendor, making them respectable guests at the Carlisle Group or the Bush compound at Kennebunkport.
We are a nation of laws and no one is above the law. Any breaking of the laws of this country should result in the arrest and trial of the criminals they are, be they aliens, business interests or affluent households looking for cheap domestic help.
Citizens doing the same job should receive the same pay. If that means the rest of us have to pay more for a head of lettuce, so be it. We owe it to those among us who do the back-breaking work of bringing the bounty of the fields to our dinner tables. Further, you cannot have a healthy and effective infrastructure without paying taxes. It is time we re-visited that issue, accept the fact that not everyone has an equal shot at the American Dream and take proper care of those who live on the edge. The vulgar indulgence of wealth and privilege is not American. It is the Old World notion of aristocratic superiority that went out with the storming of the Bastille. The time has come to face reality and do what is right for everyone; not just a few living in gated communities, reveling in their superiority and the divine right to exploit the poor.
All this leads to the endless mental masturbation of what to do about the problem of illegal aliens. Firstly, anyone breaking the law should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. That goes for government officials who declare their jurisdictions “safe havens” from the very laws they have taken an oath to uphold. Church leaders who practice that same contempt for the laws of the land should be held to the same standards of conduct and the attendant consequences for failing to do so. Businesses that foster the use and exploitation of illegal workers should be punished to the full extent of the law, even if it means going out of business.
The endless lament about “securing our borders” has been beaten to death with little or no progress. I don’t give a damn about what the political leadership of Mexico may think of us or how loud the hue and cries may be from the bleeding hearts on this side of the border. They are simply wrong and we are under no obligation to accommodate or even humor them. Enough is enough.
I don’t accept that we lack the means to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants or to deal with those already in our midst. We have the technological means to do whatever we need to do. What we lack is the integrity and iron will to call our so-called Mexican allies to task for dumping their poor in our country and make them take care of their own. My instincts tell me those in the highest offices of the land on both sides of the border share a common bond of greed and corruption that precludes any meaningful action on behalf of the American workers and taxpayers. If invading a sovereign country based on lies is construed as legitimate action in the name of democracy, perhaps we should underwrite a revolution on behalf of those seeking relief from oppression and corruption that is rooted in the history of our "Neighbor to the South." Milking that as spreading democracy should appeal to the avarice and Napoleonic complexes of individuals such as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and all the others of like mind. By whatever means we have at our disposal, we need to slow down the bovine scatology, start doing and stop procrastinating.
They are foreign nationals who are in this country illegally. That being the case, it boggles my mind to think anyone would remotely construe that fact and declare that they have any “rights” guaranteed for the legitimate citizens of the United States. If they are “illegal,” they have no “rights.” They are criminals and should be treated accordingly.
Who are they to come into this country by illegal means and lay claim to the economic, cultural and political heritage of legal, legitimate citizens of the United States? By what authority do they have the right to sap the vitality of our economic and social legacy without having contributed one cent? Further, by what twist of reason do they expect us to simply ignore the horrendous cost of their presence in this country that is to be borne by, again, those who are here legally? The cost to the taxpayers to support illegal aliens is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars. To the extent we cave into that rather perverse notion, those who have a right to lay claim to those assets are expected to do with less and accept yet another reduction in what for many is already a marginal standard of living. I am sure that was never the intent of our forefathers and those who built that legacy for all legitimate citizens.
There is not the slightest doubt in the mind of anyone even casually cognizant of what has been done to this country by the Bush - Cheney axis. They have engineered the greatest transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich in the history of this country. They have plundered the treasury and sapped the lifeblood from our national infrastructure, leaving us incapable of dealing with the legitimate needs and expectations of the citizenry. So, who is behind robbing us of the public services that are the very bedrock of all that makes this country work? Illegal aliens? Hardly. Rather, it is championed by big business, agribusiness, and the corporate mindset that is totally devoid of any semblance of conscience. The illegal aliens enable them to maintain a double standard of labor laws, not the least of which is the right to a living wage.
The darker side to this issue is in the realm of international politics. To the extent Mexico and other impoverished nations can shift the burden of caring for the teeming masses of poor in their countries to the United States, they can continue to rule over a nation of the “haves” and the “have-nots” while they and the elites of their respective countries live in opulent splendor, making them respectable guests at the Carlisle Group or the Bush compound at Kennebunkport.
We are a nation of laws and no one is above the law. Any breaking of the laws of this country should result in the arrest and trial of the criminals they are, be they aliens, business interests or affluent households looking for cheap domestic help.
Citizens doing the same job should receive the same pay. If that means the rest of us have to pay more for a head of lettuce, so be it. We owe it to those among us who do the back-breaking work of bringing the bounty of the fields to our dinner tables. Further, you cannot have a healthy and effective infrastructure without paying taxes. It is time we re-visited that issue, accept the fact that not everyone has an equal shot at the American Dream and take proper care of those who live on the edge. The vulgar indulgence of wealth and privilege is not American. It is the Old World notion of aristocratic superiority that went out with the storming of the Bastille. The time has come to face reality and do what is right for everyone; not just a few living in gated communities, reveling in their superiority and the divine right to exploit the poor.
All this leads to the endless mental masturbation of what to do about the problem of illegal aliens. Firstly, anyone breaking the law should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. That goes for government officials who declare their jurisdictions “safe havens” from the very laws they have taken an oath to uphold. Church leaders who practice that same contempt for the laws of the land should be held to the same standards of conduct and the attendant consequences for failing to do so. Businesses that foster the use and exploitation of illegal workers should be punished to the full extent of the law, even if it means going out of business.
The endless lament about “securing our borders” has been beaten to death with little or no progress. I don’t give a damn about what the political leadership of Mexico may think of us or how loud the hue and cries may be from the bleeding hearts on this side of the border. They are simply wrong and we are under no obligation to accommodate or even humor them. Enough is enough.
I don’t accept that we lack the means to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants or to deal with those already in our midst. We have the technological means to do whatever we need to do. What we lack is the integrity and iron will to call our so-called Mexican allies to task for dumping their poor in our country and make them take care of their own. My instincts tell me those in the highest offices of the land on both sides of the border share a common bond of greed and corruption that precludes any meaningful action on behalf of the American workers and taxpayers. If invading a sovereign country based on lies is construed as legitimate action in the name of democracy, perhaps we should underwrite a revolution on behalf of those seeking relief from oppression and corruption that is rooted in the history of our "Neighbor to the South." Milking that as spreading democracy should appeal to the avarice and Napoleonic complexes of individuals such as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and all the others of like mind. By whatever means we have at our disposal, we need to slow down the bovine scatology, start doing and stop procrastinating.
3 comments:
Cowboy Bob!
I am a co-worker of Carin's and she shared your blog with me. I look forward to meeting you! My father was a true cowboy from Montana and I grew up in Eastern Washington on a wheat ranch.
I really enjoyed your blog. It is thoughtful and your writing style conversational. I appreciate your knowledge of our constitution and agree with much of what you have said.
I find the immigration issue to be more complex than simply a matter of law. As you stated, our Mexican neighbors are more than happy to "dump their poor in our country". Human nature tells me if most of these people were able to provide a decent standard of living for themselves and their families while living in their own culture they would prefer this over dividing their families and starting over in a new country doing menial labor.
I don't believe this is a bleeding heart perspective as much as it is a human perspective. Is their one Mexican in this country you would like to change lives with?
We want to blame the Mexicans but I must say, it was not the Mexicans who hired themselves for jobs here. Nor was it the Mexicans who printed all our government agency information in Spanish so they could access services. It also was not the Mexicans who determined we should provide duel language classrooms for children who are non-English speaking. WE did these things and now we are surprised they continue to come. They are here...generations now, with children who are American citizens.
I have lived for the past 15 years in Georgia where I can tell you the percentage of uneducated blacks is still very high. They would not be caught dead doing the jobs the Mexicans in the area are willing to do...many blacks prefer welfare. So, if we ship them all home who will do this work? Will you? Will I? Will our children or grandchildren?
It seems to me the basis for much of the hostility toward illegal immigrants stems more from the fact that they use our systems and services without paying the full price US taxpayers pay more than the fact they illegally crossed an imaginary line separating our two countries.
Wouldn't it make more sense to handle this situation by getting rid of the IRS and moving to a consumption tax? This way no matter who you are rich, poor, citizen, illegal, black, white, blue - if you use a public system or purchase anything you pay the same as everyone else for the items you use. I also believe we should make English our one and only official language and stop pandering to those who want Spanish as a second language. This only divides us.
I don't see any practical way to put the Jeanie back in the bottle. And all the technology at our fingertips cannot erase the millions who are now woven into our culture.
I look forward to reading more of your thoughts!
Respectfully,
Coral
Dear Coral,
I don't place the entire burden on the illegal aliens. Rather, it is a joint responsibility of the governments of the U.S. and Mexico to enforce the immigration laws on the books. They have elected not to do that, largely to accomodate big business and the penchant for Americans to look the other way when exploitation of the human condition provides us with cheaper goods and services. We have the means at our disposal to secure our borders. There is no reason for not doing so.
I regard the posturing of the Mexican government as an assault on the sovereignty of this nation. They have no right to dump their poor on the taxpayers of this country. Our government should (a) serve notice on the Mexican government that we will secure our borders by whatever means are necessary if Mexico fails to assume their rightful responsibility for doing so, and (b) until such time as the Mexican government assumes that responsibility to our satisfaction, the United States will divert all foreign aid currently going to the Mexican government to anti-government insurgents in Mexico seeking to install an honest and genuinely democratic form of government in Mexico City.
I didn't pay my taxes for 58 years in order to have my government summarily exappropriate them for foreign nationals who have not come into this country by lawful means.
Cheers.
Cowboy Bob
Robert,
Having had the pleasure of working with you in a rather intense venue in the Kingdom, I have missed your commentary, both verbal and written. Keep up the blog.
Your latest post leads me to recommend that you read 'The Coldest Winter', Halberstam's treatise on the Korean War and the political environment that lead us into that conflict. Having read that version of 'how things really were', I can't wait to read a future version of the political aspects of the Iraq war.
As always, our common ground far overshadows our few philosophical differences.
Gently, gently,
Frank
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