I got to thinking about my ancestors and as to why they chose to leave the old world and come to America in the 1800's. Looking back on the history of Bohemia and knowing well The Troubles in Ireland, I can well imagine that choosing to remain catholic in an increasing Protestant world of The Reformation had a lot to do with it.
In America, The First Amendment gives us the right to practice whatever religion we choose, by forbidding Congress to establish a State Religion, as is practiced in England. That was important to the Founding Fathers. I don't care what you believe. I honestly don't. I don't expect anyone else on this planet to believe as I do. It would be a very boring world if that were to be true. However, the moment you infringe on my right to practice my religion, you are trampling on MY First Amendment rights. I think my ancestors could appreciate that after the excesses and horrors of The Reformation in Bohemia. Don't believe me? Travel to Belfast one day and see what enforced State Religion can do to a people.
I firmly believe that our founders believed that it was WRONG to enforce a belief on anyone and that is why the First Amendment is written as it is. These fundamental rights were recognized to be the most important. We have the right to practice as we wish, inform ourselves as we wish and speak out about our government if we feel they are trying to overreach themselves. That is why, I believe to my Irish soul that we are living in the most interesting of times. I feel that the decisions we make in this era will have far reaching consequences, and I can only pray that our leaders are wise enough to stop what they are doing and re-read the Founding Document that rules our country.
I watched an interesting Front Page with Allen Barton over at PJTV. If you don't have a subscription there, do yourself a favor. the $5 a month for the basic plan is well worth the information you get. Allen Barton spoke with Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights and Terry Jones of Investor's Business Daily about the recent Arizona law, that parrots, exactly, Federal Immigration Code. It gave me a different view to see it from. Being from Texas gives one a certain disdain for illegal aliens. Try living in Pasadena, Texas for 5 minutes without seeing a crime committed by an illegal. It can't be done.
However, Yaron Brook gave me a fresh insight. Trust me. I am the one who suggested we save money on training our Scout/Sniper teams by setting them up along the Mexican Border and shooting anyone who slipped in illegally. Trust me, illegal immigration would dry up faster than a stream bed in Big Bend in July. They are breaking the law. To me it's simple. I had grown sick and tired of illegals dumbing down our schools, lowering property values in whatever neighborhoods they infested, and raising crime exponentially. I have no love for illegal immigrants. Especially when I know hundreds of people who have immigrated here legally and jumped through all of the stupid hoops the Feds make them jump through to be here legally. To me illegals are scum who shove their way to the front of the line. Yes, they still are. But, thanks to Mr. Brook, I am now able to consider our immigration laws a bit differently.
We cannot absorb the population of poor countries. Our ancestors knew this, which is why they codified immigration rules in the early part of the last century. Ellis Island set a grand example of a young country attempting to come to terms with the fact that their success made everyone want to live here. We welcomed in everyone, however, we expected them to become Americans, not hyphenated Americans. You came here, learned English, got a job and you were an American. Back then there was no ceremony. You didn't waddle across the Rio Grande into McAllen, Texas and pop out your anchor baby, saying, "Here is my anchor, you can't make me leave. It's automatically a citizen."
That was where we went wrong. By stating that any person born on our soil with foreign born parents was automatically a citizen, we opened that whole door. How many citizens of dual citizenship are in Texas alone? We need to change that rule. We will have less poor Mexicans in squallid colonias with their anchor babies who sip on the nectar of welfare, housing aid, food stamps, WIC and other social welfare. They live in filth, speak nothing but Spanish and milk our welfare system for all it's worth. And, we let them. That is our fault, because we have allowed it.
We need extreme immigration overhaul. Start from a clean slate and use all of the knowledge of the abuses in the past to make new rules that will make it not so desirable to come here illegally. The biggest idea, and this is where Mr. Brook and I disagree, make it a felony to be here illegally, and make them serve time in hard labor. They came here to work? Make them, then deport them. If they aren't making money to send back home, then what use is being here?
Now, if you think my views on illegal immigration are outrageous (which they aren't) wait until you get a load of my views on Why Goldman-Sachs isn't in the wrong and it's all the government's fault. More on that tomorrow.
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