In the "weird medical issues" category this has to be near the top:
"Dr., I can hear my eyeballs move."
At the resting version of my stress test this morning they injected something into my arm, had me wait 30 minutes during which time I was to drink "at least two glasses of water," and then put me on a table with instructions to lay motionless while this automated image machine slowly circled my chest and took pictures - at least another 30 minutes worth of pictures.
It nearly qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment to tell an old guy to drink (3) glasses of water and then lay perfectly still for the next half hour.
I am at variance with most of my friends on the matter of immigration reform. I take a more (what I prefer to call) nuanced view based on our (America's) complicity in the problem, going back generations. We lived in the Salinas Valley during the late 70's and early 80's. The fields of lettuce, strawberries, celery and other vegetables were tended and picked by workers we all knew were illegal. The same was true throughout the nation in hotels and motels where rooms were cleaned by women no reasonable person would have taken for legal residents. Add landscape workers, lower end construction workers, slaughter house workers... basically any low skilled, physically demanding, and socially disdained position. I'm not saying their presence here was any less illegal, just that we winked at it and gladly accepted the benefits of their work at jobs we wouldn't or couldn't do. Most of them didn't have any (forged) documentation, licenses, insurance or any of the other paperwork. They just showed up, did their work, and got paid in cash at the end of the week. Others had fake IDs with false Social Security numbers that got them a W-2 at the end of the year. Not legal, not right, but also very rarely investigated or prosecuted.
Our political landscape changed, and for reasons I don't completely understand we decided those illegal immigrants posed a threat to...? and had to be deported en masse. Any suggestion that some other solution could be found to the problem was labeled "amnesty," a term that has taken on the inference of rampant disregard bordering on lawlessness.
So today the President, in what was clearly a political move in light of November's elections, and in a writ that thumbs the nose at Congress, signed an order implementing major elements of the Dream Act. It only affects those who were brought into the country by their parents when they were still minors. It only affects those who have no criminal record, who have completed their H.S. education OR have served honorably in the military. It says they may stay here as long as they obey all our laws and register every two years. They aren't granted citizenship but they can work here legally and go to school. Their parents can still be deported, but these now-grown children who had no part in the decision in the move to the U.S., can stay here under fairly strict conditions.
I fail to see what threat that poses to the safety and security of our nation. Rather, it seems the better part of fair, given our aforementioned complicity. The Devil's in the details, and there may be specifics of the President's plan that need revision. But I'm naively hoping that the Republican leadership will pass on the opportunity to grab this opportunity to play to the worst in our citizenry by fear mongering and sloganeering. (I realize that goes beyond naiveté'.) I'm also going to refrain from commenting on any of the Facebook posts already appearing on my page hurling invectives at the President for snubbing his nose at the Constitution. For its several positives, Facebook is no place to conduct an intelligent discussion.
But here I'll express myself. I don't have "comment moderation" turned on, and that may change before noon tomorrow, but for now, let 'er fly. Explain to me why we shouldn't bear some responsibility for this problem and what apocalyptic outcome will result from the President's actions.
5 comments:
So you know I'm always good for opening my mouth. I guess the part that aggravates me about the whole thing is how politicians on both sides will throw these "bones" to a particular group obviously for votes and not out of any genuine concern for people or actually fixing a problem. My father was a Border Patrol agent and had a great amount of respect for the illegals coming from the south. He told me of times that he would get "anonymous" phone calls about illegal worker camps the night before payday because the farmer didn't want to pay up. Apparently the farmer didn't like my dad bringing all the workers to his house to collect their paychecks in the middle of the night before they were deported. Let's face it we are happy to enjoy cheaper food prices from fruit and vegetable farms and slaughter houses because they will do the job for what nobody else will. A number of the jobs illegals do are the ones that teenagers used to do but are too lazy, spoiled or good for on their summer vacations (or federal labor regulations forbid teenagers from doing). Our "pervasive prosperity" will be our downfall. I love how this sums it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAOrT0OcHh0
On a note for those who will gripe about welfare and other benefits being paid out (I not so long ago was one of them and still have my days). The thing about welfare is it is given to people who aren't exactly in the habit of saving so it almost immediately will be put back into the system even if it is on Pepsi and Doritos or beer. The money will get spent on food or a service which then cycles back into the pocket of a business or individual. This outlook helps me be a little less frustrated about those gaming the system. I don't know what the ultimate point of my ramblings are other than we are responsible for ourselves and presenting a good example for others. We shouldn't spend all our time being bitter about what everyone else is doing.
I appreciate your comments, BJ. Interesting perspective from your dad. thanks.
I don't have all (or any) of the answers, but I do know that some of the conservative Christians that I'm friends with on Facebook are so offensive when it comes to this sort of thing that I find myself wanting to disagree with them, even if I agree.
Human history shows that it takes a massive police state to enforce, in any truly effective way, the borders of a Nation-state. Since they are an abstraction imposed on geography, culture, peoples, and ethnicities by the human mind, people will migrate largely without respect to those borders. Instead, humans will migrate as need dictates tempered by what's offered in the place to which they migrate -- stability, family ties, ethnic ties, the rule of law, etc.
I agree that this nation has been complicit in allowing the status quo to develop. It's also true that for people to blame "the government" in a representative democracy is to blame themselves
In my opinion that status quo exists because it is largely consistent with how peaceful, law-abiding societies have dealt with human migration since the beginning of time. Our status quo largely tolerates law-abiding job- and asylum-seekers. It also can contain within it some mixture of contempt, atavism, marginalization, and protectionist impulses that are only all too human in their manifestation.
In other words, our nation's response to human migration is equally human. In a nation of laws, the ideal would be a system that follows rational and common-sense rules. Unfortunately, humans and their politics (on all sides) don't often allow for rational solutions to irrational problems.
Mike H.
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