Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Editorial: "Uninvited guests don't merit perks"

Indulge me in a brief parable.

You come home from a hard day at work to discover a stranger in your home filling your refrigerator with food and repairing your cable connection.

When you ask what he's doing in your home, he says his boss sent him based on orders you made because his services are cheaper, and he's just trying to make a living.

Pretty cheeky of you to complain about him, isn't it?

Let me point out just a couple of the many ways this piece is designed to make you dumber.

The 'thousands' (accounts vary from 5,000 to 75,000, vs 500,000 last year) who turned out for the weekend event in LA were not there "to protest President George W. Bush's immigration reform proposal," they were protesting the current situation and demanding legal status for millions of productive, law-abiding members of our community.

The Preznit is so far backing legislation sponsored in part by AZ Congresscritter Jeff Flake. That this compromise is seen as insufficient for people forced to live without rights is no surprise, but the people who are protesting this approach with even greater vigor include Russell Pierce (R-Bizarro World) and his anti-immigrant acolytes -- the Courier editor apparently among them.

And while there were illegals among the crowd, no one did a survey on legal status. Which is more likely: that the rally consisted of all, a majority, or even a significant number of illegals, or that most of the people there were legal immigrants and immigrant-rights advocates standing up in solidarity to draw attention to the second-class status of their neighbors and friends?

The Courier editor either does not understand the complexity of the issue or is purposely working to whip up yet more pointless political frenzy. Take your choice.

2 comments:

leftturnclyde said...

ya know its funny I was listening to an NPR story about this subject tin the piece they interviewd this guy ,living in this country Illeagally, who has dutifully been filing taxes on the Plumbing contractor business he has every year for something like the last three or 4 years to show that he would be an upstanding citizen ..and his story was far from uncommon and a recomended way to gain citizenship. All I gotta say if there are people that want to live here bad enough to fill out IRS forms when they dont have to ..yeah I want those folks for neighbors.

Steven Ayres said...

I had a similar experience a few days ago when my father forwarded a rant on illegals by Charlie Daniels. It came with a large portrait of Daniels wearing a fringed leather coat and a large-brimmed grey felt hat, decorated with crossed sabers and a cavalry fob. Even on my pointing it out, Dad remained completely blind to what it means to wear the accoutrement of the Confederacy while protesting that it's not about racism.

I also told him I'd take a family of twelve illegals as neighbors over that rich, gun-crazy nut with known drug and anger-management issues any day.