“America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.” – James Madison
The World has mistaken American Kindness as Weakness.
The United States is facing serious challenges that desperately need solving if our nation is to remain a thriving world leader. Few issues spark more passion than illegal immigration. The problems illegal immigration presents are not going to be solved with one single solution. Many people focus on the problem of our unsecured border and believe fixing this alone will fix the entire illegal immigration problem. While this is a major component, we can’t forget the American businesses that are hiring and exploiting the illegal labor. With unemployment at 10 percent or more, I think those jobs former President George W. Bush dismissed as not being wanted by Americans might look pretty appealing these days. This is a sticking point especially for conservatives who are typically against any regulations on businesses. Carole Lutness said it best at a recent City Council meeting: If we want to solve our ant problem, we need to get the open bag of sugar off the table. We must enforce the current laws in place and adopt higher fines that far outweigh the risk of hiring illegal labor.
It was a little over 15 years ago when the citizens of California saw the financial writing on the wall and passed Prop. 187 – an initiative that would have prohibited Illegal immigrants from benefiting from social services, health care and public education. Soon after its passing, a legal ping pong match began between the state of California and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which ended in a great victory for freeloaders everywhere when Justice Mariana R. Pfaelzer put a nail in the proverbial coffin of California’s fiscal future. An excerpt from the ruling reads, “California is powerless to enact its own legislative scheme to regulate immigration. It is likewise powerless to regulate alien access to public benefits. Proposition 187 is not constitutional on its face. We will not act in a way unbecoming to a sensible and humane people.” So tax-paying Californians like my mother and father, who worked their hands to the bone to put food on the table for my family, aren’t sensible or humane people? Justice Pfaelzer thought it was sensible to continue to allow illegal freeloaders to drain money and resources away from hard working Californians? Now a decade and half later, the state with the largest economy in the union can’t pay its own bills.
Continue reading Part 2 // Fighting Illegal Immigration on all levels →
More Empty Words From Gitlin
By ✖ the Monk ✖ on February 26th, 2010
Samual Johnson | Patriotism is the Last Refugee of a Scoundrel
While observing all the talking, shouting and letters written to the editor in recent days on the topic of free speech, I was reminded of the many chats I had with Dad in our family garage while I was growing up. One particular discussion stuck with me where he explained his service in the Marines protected people’s freedom to burn the America flag, but also protected his right to tell them they are wrong. My dad understood that anyone can support speech they like, but it takes a real man or woman to support speech you hate. What an amazing country we live in, allowing its citizens the freedom of thought and expression.
Roger Gitlin and the Save our State crowd are prime examples of what Samuel Johnson so eloquently stated: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Even 200 years ago, Johnson saw right though the manipulation of these self proclaimed plastic patriots who believe that dressing in red, white and blue waving American flags automatically makes their position somehow more American than others.
I never expected Gitlin or his people to understand the satire in my Feb. 6 column. I did however find it hilarious that he took my comments so literally that he felt compelled to address them individually. It was odd however when he publicly claimed not to engage in a war of words and instead enticed his followers to do his dirty work of sending in letters complaining to our friends at The Signal for him. This is not the first time Mr. Gitlin has played puppet master, either. Just a few days before the publishing of his Feb. 14 column, Save Our State launched a campaign to harass The Signal and hinder its freedom of press, not to mention attempt to get the “little bias SOB” Jonathan Randles fired. One would think self proclaimed patriots like Gitlin and the rest of his rodeo clowns believe in Jonathan Randles’ freedom of speech and The Signal’s freedom of press, but apparently Mr. Gitlin and his posse missed that day in patriot school. Continue reading More Empty Words From Gitlin →