More on immigration: 2 Beefs
Always something good at the Corner.
Beef #1: In accordance with my last post, illegal immigration is illegal. Do I need to expound?
Beef #2: The benefits of living in America are for Americans. (In accordance with the last post, don't get upset if there are house rules already in place. I'm reminded of that Terry Tate commerical, "You can't come in my kitchen, and kick my dog and take a box full of bone bites...")
This is America, I think we pretty much have well-defined borders and laws (see Beef #1). If you want to take advantage of the benefits that are offered for that group, be part of the group. Don't think I'm talking in Borg assimilation language. They actively sought out people to assimilate into themself. I'm just talking about the ones that want to be here and are already here.
I remember somebody at my college graduation saying something about the benefits and yada yada yada confered upon us with our degrees. Those benefits were for the people who earned their degrees, not for all the thousands of other people who happened to be in the Devany Center at the time.
This is a hell of a country and I love it here. But if you want to be a citizen or if you want this to be your country, there's two ways I can approve of it happening. Like I said before, we've got well-defined borders and laws. So it can happen...
1) Through legal means. This is the simple way about it, even though you may have to jump through a number of hoops. As my roommate has often said, "You gotta want it." If you want it bad enough, you'll do what it takes.
2) Through territorial conquest. If you want a small part of this country to be your own, I'm not too fond of giving it up without a fight. Bring it. (I'm an antagonist at heart....)
By the way, don't feel the need to read specific races or countries into this. I'm trying to be general because I have no ill will against any person or group of people that wants to come into this country. I think Mexico is alright; I'm going there this summer. But I'm not going to show up and start expecting benefits of citizenship that are afforded to their citizens under the laws of their land if I'm not included in them. Why? Because I'm not Mexican. I'm small town white boy. If you've got a problem with that, just let me know.
I'm done.
Beef #1: In accordance with my last post, illegal immigration is illegal. Do I need to expound?
Beef #2: The benefits of living in America are for Americans. (In accordance with the last post, don't get upset if there are house rules already in place. I'm reminded of that Terry Tate commerical, "You can't come in my kitchen, and kick my dog and take a box full of bone bites...")
This is America, I think we pretty much have well-defined borders and laws (see Beef #1). If you want to take advantage of the benefits that are offered for that group, be part of the group. Don't think I'm talking in Borg assimilation language. They actively sought out people to assimilate into themself. I'm just talking about the ones that want to be here and are already here.
I remember somebody at my college graduation saying something about the benefits and yada yada yada confered upon us with our degrees. Those benefits were for the people who earned their degrees, not for all the thousands of other people who happened to be in the Devany Center at the time.
This is a hell of a country and I love it here. But if you want to be a citizen or if you want this to be your country, there's two ways I can approve of it happening. Like I said before, we've got well-defined borders and laws. So it can happen...
1) Through legal means. This is the simple way about it, even though you may have to jump through a number of hoops. As my roommate has often said, "You gotta want it." If you want it bad enough, you'll do what it takes.
2) Through territorial conquest. If you want a small part of this country to be your own, I'm not too fond of giving it up without a fight. Bring it. (I'm an antagonist at heart....)
By the way, don't feel the need to read specific races or countries into this. I'm trying to be general because I have no ill will against any person or group of people that wants to come into this country. I think Mexico is alright; I'm going there this summer. But I'm not going to show up and start expecting benefits of citizenship that are afforded to their citizens under the laws of their land if I'm not included in them. Why? Because I'm not Mexican. I'm small town white boy. If you've got a problem with that, just let me know.
I'm done.
posted by the jake at 7:57 AM
3 Comments:
Posting 2 days in a row... Craziness! Also, the subject matter of your post reminds me that you live with David...
Perhaps unrelated topic, but how can our economy be doing so poorly (as many liberal-minded individuals purport) when we have so many jobs we need illegals to step in? Maybe that's because labor unions have lobbied the members they "serve" into salaries so high that companies can't pay that much and are forced to hire non-union at a much lower rate....Easy now...
erundur:
1) It would certainly be in the best interest of all parties if the process of legal immigration were streamlined a bit. It is good to recognize that such a difficult process provides an incentive for illegal behavior. However, this recognition mustn't be made in the vein of being "sympathetic" or "understanding" (which you may be doing) and certainly not in the vein of making excuses (which I'm sure you're not doing). Instead, it must be stated in the context of enforcement of the laws. Thus, we must look at the implicit incentive the difficulty of the immigration process provides as an element of effective or ineffective enforcement of laws and not as an empathetic, "awww, look how bad we're making it for those people."
2) ". . . as a whole our country (gov't) ignores the plight of other nations except when it can throw money or military at perceived problems to ourselves." No nation or it's government is a service organization for the the "plight" of other countries. A nations government is an organization to serve self-interst of its citizens. Argos is an organization meant to serve the development of foreign countries, but that is not the role of the US or any other government. I am certainly willing to entain the notion that our government should participate in the economic developement of certain areas of the world to a limited extent as a means to serve US citizens. However, I am unwilling to even vaguely imply that it is the US government's obilgation (moral or otherwise)is to help foreigners get "functioning businesses, sustainable local economies, and jobs in their own countries."
Finally, if I were to guess I think you see the truth to these statement but are also slightly irritated that they seem to leave the ills you see and feel unaddressed. The point is this. Argos and other similar NGO's are the means for US citizens to help foreigners plight by "get[ting] functioning businesses, sustainable local economies, and jobs in their own countries" because "it's a good way to help people out anyway" thus helping "to finding a decent solution to the problem." It is the US government's role to serve its own citizens. If the US chooses to serve its citizens through international economic developement, it should do so in an effective way; but, it must also not mix up the reasons it is doing that. It is not doing it because "it's a good way to help people out anyway" it is doing it for the self-interest of US citizens. If this is the case the individual citizens can be glad they found a way (through their own governemnt) that their self-interest coincided with the good of others, but we mustn't muddle up its reasons for doing it.
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