The above statement is on one of those “ILike” boards on Facebook. And for a reason I have yet to determine, it really makes me angry.
I get the whole “Pilgrims were uninvited and sailed to the New World” thing. I know they nearly died that first winter and but for the
I understand that bad white people from America decided that people with dark skin from other countries would make a good entrepreneurial enterprise by kidnapping, beating and enslaving them then selling them for a huge profit to more bad white people who couldn’t till their own fields or make their own mint juleps.
I realize that these people had no choice in what happened to them. They were invaded upon or robbed of their homelands and caused to live in places they did not choose; in horrible and cruel conditions. We treated them all badly. And we can’t take that back or make full reparations. Ever. We can’t throw money at it or build enough monuments or rewrite the history books. What’s done is done. Let’s move on and try to move forward.
But from my bigoted, racist, hypocritical, whatever-the-fear-of-the-day-a-phobic viewpoint, the illegal immigration issue is completely different. For one thing, these aren’t just immigrants we’re talking about. These aren’t people coming over on boats, passing through checkpoints, filling out paperwork, having their names changed and integrating into our societies; working, owning businesses, paying taxes, paying their own way, educating their children, providing a useful service to their new country. These aren’t people who were stolen from their homeland and made into less-than-human creatures.
These are people who have CHOSEN to come here from MANY other countries and in many cases, taking great risks and paying huge sums of money (probably to more bad white people) to live in this country. And when they get here, they make little or no attempts to follow our laws, be members of the community, respect the country they came to. They chose to come here, but not to live by our laws. Because our laws are too cruel, too mean, too hard to follow.
The new classes of bad white people want them to have paperwork; we want them to hold legal jobs, work hard, make money and pay taxes. We want them to learn our language, read our books and integrate into our society. Because they CHOSE to come here. This was the country they risked it all to enter. And, I’m assuming it’s not because they wanted to immerse themselves in the language or needed a good hamburger and fries. It’s because we have jobs, free medical, education and services for all the down-trodden and huddled masses yearning to be free. And we offer them to everyone; regardless of race, creed, color or whatever. And they couldn’t get that in their country.
We don’t want them here unless they can live under our laws. Don’t bring your drugs, guns, bombs or religions with you and expect us to integrate to your way of life. You chose to come here to our wealth of learning, freedoms and riches. We expect you to give back to the country you chose. We require that you comply with our laws, our courts, our way of life. If you don’t like our laws, our ways, then why did you come? The laws that you hate are the very reason you have freedom: including the free benefits of living here. Laws govern the people and allow freedoms to flourish. Without them our country would be a place of thieves, murderers and rapists. There would be no safety on the streets or churches or places to hold up signs stating your displeasure with something. Exactly like your country -- the country you left.
Man I’m getting tired of this subject. I wish it would go away. But, like anything worth fighting for, it’s not an easy fix. No one wants to be the bad cop in this. We have laws that no one wants to enforce because they’ll hurt people’s feelings or send the wrong message. The only message we need to worry about sending is that we welcome everyone to our country – as long as you follow our laws, pay your dues and work towards becoming a legal, naturalized citizen of the country YOU CHOSE. Embracing takes open arms on both sides. Not handouts and dishonest ways.
You can’t take the gift without accepting the responsibility for the obligation to say thank you. And the biggest thank you our country could receive is for immigrants to come here legally and follow our laws. No matter how hard they are. Because anything worth having is worth the hard work to get there.
**UPDATE 9/3/2010** Oh, and BY THE WAY? It wasn't ILLEGAL "back then" to come to America without paperwork.
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