Thursday, July 17, 2014

A Message To Central America

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."  Emma Lazarus


Romantic, isn't it?  Per Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, this is the inscription that was put on the Statue of Liberty in 1883.  I'm not sure "we've come a long way baby" is a good thing at this point.  This country certainly no longer can handle all your tired, poor or huddled masses.  At least only the most liberal unrealistic ones wearing rose colored glasses think we can.


Last year a few thousand people arrived at our border illegally.  They filled buses, trucks, various forms of transportation supplied by some of the most amoral individuals alive today --  smugglers of human beings.  These individuals, sometimes called coyotes, sell false hope of better futures to desperate parents who want a chance at the U. S. A. for their children.


When the numbers of abandoned kids reaching our country was over 52,000 (now 57,000) this year, United States citizens began to demonstrate --  to say "no more", "we've had enough, "send them back".  And according to the current President, many (possibly most) will be sent back.


But before your children are returned to you, this country has to feed, clothe, shelter them and provide them with a hearing.  Our current and immediate past presidents have both made decisions that brought on this crisis concerning immigration.  President George W. Bush signed a law which makes it illegal to send children back without due process.  President Barack Obama offered a type of amnesty to children who were innocent bystanders in their family's bringing them here illegally.  But that applies only to those already here. 


The court system dealing with undocumented workers in our country is sorely pressed.  It is not prepared to deal with tens of thousands of children, most arriving alone, who have to be cared for until they receive the hearings President Bush's law requires.  But the coyotes, who care nothing about anything but taking your dollars, keep slipping them over the border by the vehicle load.


These people, slugs that they are, don't tell you of the dangers your children, or even your adults, will face.  Have you heard of the truck loads of people who smother to death en route?  Have you heard of the bodies discovered in the deserts where people die from thirst or the elements?  Have you seen the televised pictures of your children crammed together like sardines in a can while they wait for the courts to review their cases?  You haven't?  Well, perhaps your priests, your teachers, your merchants can give you warning about what is going to happen should you decide to abandon your children to coyotes and the hand of fate.  Yes, you abandon your children!!!


First of all, we have gangs in our country, too.  A lot of Hispanics are caught up in these gangs.  The gangs often use violence to threaten children into their groups. There are frequent shootings -- usually called "drive-bys" - where Hispanic kids are killed.  A few years ago, an Hispanic neighbor of mine was being sought as a suspect in such a shooting.  Then he, himself, died in a drive-by.  Having more money in America makes killers more mobile and increases, not decreases, the chance of death.  We also have drugs here thanks mostly to Mexican cartels.  But we also have drug manufacturers here.  I don't use illegal drugs, but if I did, I know of four places to buy them within walking distance of my house.  I can see some from my porch.  However, I have to drive six miles to buy groceries.


Also, you need to accept the fact that most of the children you send will not be living in the Hollywood Hills in a $6,000,000 mansion.  Very few American children do either.  Your babies will probably be living in crowded inner city communities, a lot of which are considered slums.  A lot of U. S. A. born children live there, too.


Some North Americans like to have Hispanics come to the states where climates are warm.  They put your people to work as migrant farm workers.  Why?  They say that Americans don't like to do such hard work and besides, they can get illegals to work for less wages and without benefits such as paid vacations and holidays and health insurance.  In other words, your people are happily exploited.  We have some homegrown slugs here, also.


Housing is a concern as well.  A lot of Hispanics help their friends and families come to the United States.  They hide them in their rented apartments until work can be found and they can move elsewhere.  But do you know what?  Our laws do not allow more than two persons per bedroom.  If your friends get caught with more than that, they can be evicted.  They will lose their own homes because they try to help you.


Now, one of the arguments many USA citizens use to justify people coming here illegally, is that this is a country built of immigrants.  Well, that's true, of course.  But I speak to you not only as a fourth or fifth generation descendant of immigrants, but also as a fifth or sixth generation descended from a Native American.  And I am saying to you that we have too many undocumented people here right now.  We definitely do not need more.  We need you to take responsibility for your own families and make for them as good a life as possible.  If your cities are too violent, move to the country.  Use those thousands of dollars to relocate locally rather than wasting them with the coyotes.


You see, this country has been in poor financial health for several years now.  I can't imagine how isolated you must be not to have heard that.  Our unemployment rate has gone down to 6.1 per cent --  finally!  Do you understand what that means?  That means that 61,000 out of every 1,000,000 Americans who should be working cannot find jobs.  That does not count the ones who no longer qualify for unemployment insurance because they have been out of work too long.  It does not count the ones who are trying to start businesses because they gave up looking for jobs.  It does not count our homeless/jobless people who beg for quarters on the street.  They have started begging quarters in the local Price Chopper grocery stores.


You may not understand either that our country  --  our government  --  is broke.  We are so far in debt that we have to borrow from other countries to pay just the interest on our loans.  We cannot really afford the $4,000,000,000 that our President is asking from Congress to take care of the burden of your children.  Sure, our credit is still good, but if it gets so bad we cannot make our payments, then our credit will no longer be good.  We have to have enough income from taxes to pay these loans and one of the reasons we do not have is because of undocumented workers who hide out and are paid illegally "under the table".  These illegals do not pay taxes. 


Now, we have a legal immigration system in our country.  It screens candidates and takes them in proper order, rather than shipping them by the thousands to become a national burden to an already burdened country.  Most Americans welcome people who arrive at our door legally.  But we do not want and cannot afford anymore illegals at this time.  And you cannot afford to commit the negligence and abuse that you have been committing toward your own kids by sending them here alone.  If you cannot afford to keep your children, then simply quit having them.  When God told Adam and Eve to go and populate the earth, there was hardly anyone on it.  Now most nations, especially their cities, are overcrowded.


Whatever you may have heard about President Obama's Executive Order concerning children brought here illegally, it was not a free ride.  These children had to have already been here for some time.  It was not a blanket of approval for the future.  They must learn to speak, read and write English.  They must attend college or serve in the U. S. military.  They must remain law-abiding individuals and they must line up behind, not in front of, immigrants who arrived legally.  It is a long and hard process for acceptance.


Predictions are that 150,000 more of these children will arrive next year.  So, we are having to drastically increase our border patrols (more expense we cannot afford).  We are, no doubt, going to have to speed up the process of changing, by law, the decisions of the two presidents mentioned above.  And we will have to make tougher and tougher laws to protect our own children and grandchildren. 


Americans tend to have a soft spot for kids.  Sometimes it is to our own detriment.  So, don't exploit the obvious.  If you have a child, it is your responsibility to rear them.  We have our hands full with our own.  We can no longer take care of your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.  Don't waste your hard earned dollars, because you will just get most of the children back again.  Besides if this keeps up, it will mean our financial ruin and we will all be out of luck by then.


Once again, your children are your responsibility, not ours.   We did not conceive them.  We cannot afford them.



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