Personal rant

I am mad as hell right now.

I absolutely HATE when people who don't have a snowball's clue in hell what they are talking about spout crap about immigration. And 'crap' is really not a strong enough word.

"Round 'em up, deport 'em all."
Right. Like that's going to happen. Whose tax dollars are you going to use to send them all back? 'Cause you're gonna be flying people to some pretty far off places - Tanzania, Panama, Ireland, Mongolia, Argentina - not just a hop across the border.

We couldn't get half a million people out of N'awlins when their lives were in danger after Katrina, and you think we're gonna find 20 million people in this entire country and ship them all out? What world are you living in?

"They choose to come here legally."
No, as a matter of fact, they don't. If they could come here legally, they would. There is no line for these people to get in to come here. There is no visa. It's not a choice to come here illegally. It's a choice between watching your family go hungry and providing for them the best way you know how. It's not ideal, but you know what? If I had to do it to feed my kids, I would. People think it's as easy as walking up to a kiosk on the border, filling out a paper or two, paying a couple hundred dollars and you're in. Nope. Not so. Twenty plus years of waiting. Thousands of dollars. And no guarantee even then.

"They could march in their own countries and demonstrate for change."
1) Our ancestors didn't do that. Nope, they just marched (or sailed) right on over and staked their claim to territory that didn't belong to them. Didn't ask anyone's permission, didn't learn the native language, spread all kinds of diseases, took all kinds of stuff that wasn't theirs, and waved their flag(s) all over this land. Sometimes in my musings I think God must have an ironic sense of humor.

2) We take for granted so many rights. People in so many countries - I'm more familiar with Mexico and Latin America, but they're not the only ones - don't have their rights recognized like we do. We take for granted that we can freely speak, and march in the streets, and clamor for change. You do that in Myanmar, you get burned. You do that in Mexico, your family disappears. You do it in Guatemala, death squads come for you in the middle of the night. Yeah, I think they oughta just stay home.

"I'd do their jobs if they'd pay me enough."
Really? Then get your lazy bum out there and do it, dammit. Clamor for increased wages later. Get out there for 14 hours a day and haul and 80lb bucket of sweet potatoes for 30cents a bucket in August. Put a 50-gallon bag over your shoulder and shimmy up and down ladders in orange groves in Florida. Clean toilets in a seedy motel for minimum wage. Prove to me that you'd do it, and then I'll believe you.

"No more anchor babies."
Exactly what defines you as a US citizen? You were born here. End of story. It's in the Constitution. And, I hope you aren't referring to my son when you use that term.

"If it's so dangerous to come here, then why are they coming?"
Better question: How bad must things be where they are coming from from that they'd risk all THAT to come?

"They are sucking our government dry."
As if they are the only ones.

"They deserve nothing. They are breaking the law."
Hmm. I hope you never drive over the speed limit. And if you do, I hope you never try to get out of a ticket.

On the flip side, the law is not always right. When the manmade law is wrong, the thing to do is defy it. We learned that from Rosa Parks, from the Good Samaritan and from Jesus Christ Himself.


What I think makes me angriest is that the same people who go to church on Sunday and say they love Jesus are many of the same people who I've heard say crap like this (not everyone, of course). I am so fed up with this hypocrisy. Are you going to truly love your neighbor as yourself, or do you only love people who look, talk, think, act, and smell like you? Do you really think you're better than them? Do you think that the Christ you profess to follow agrees with you?

I feel better now.