I don't often talk politics here at my site, and generally I'm fairly open minded when it comes to issues and I can often argue both sides of the fence. Today as I drove into work, I was listening to a report that made me cringe. Everyday we accept people into this country as immigrants that quite possibly are intent upon harming me or my family.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
Emma Lazarus wrote these words, and they of course appear at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
Must we change these words for our own protection? Do we need to add to those carved words "poor" and "tired", "your terrorists wanting to destroy us"?
Have I succumbed to the fear that the terrorists are advocating?
Though provoking question, G. I don't know what the "correct" answer is, or if there is one.
Opinions will certainly be varied.
Personally, if it weren't for Lady Liberty, and for all of which she stands, I (nor my four children) would not exist.
How should I answer, then?
You know, I'm pretty sure that Emma Lazarus wasn't including "your crazed extremists who want to murder people they've never met out of some misguided sense of religious zeal".
The words still apply to people who want to come here because they want to live as free Americans.
My mother is an immigrant. She moved to America after having married my father, who was a soldier stationed in Korea with they met. She soon became a naturalized citizen and then sponsored the rest of her family to come to America. So, I've first-hand experience with the entire "immigrant experience," but I am very bothered by the thought that we somehow owe it to every Tom, Dick and Harry out there to allow them access into our country as they wish. I resent sentiments that suggest we're isolationist bastards for wanting to put stricter controls on the type of people we let in and let stay in this country. No one has a right to come here and kill innocent citizens just because we have a tradition of welcoming the disenfranchised of the world.
Should that new motto be applied retroactively? I mean, Timothy McVeigh's ancestors once immigrated to the U.S. He turned out to be a terrorist. Should the U.S. then deport all of McVeigh's relatives to their country of origin because they're part of a terrorist family?
I think Timothy McVeigh was deported.
Actually Mac, I'm not saying that we don't already have terrorists that were home grown the likes of McVeigh and the killers involved in the Columbine tragedy, and the Unibomber. I do understand that we have our own nutjobs to deal with, but what I am afraid of is a man that decides to enter into our southern border next week immigrating from God knows where, strapping a bomb to himself and killing my family as we pick out tomatoes in the produce section. The men in London had immigrated to that country at the age of 11 and 12, in the early 90's. One of them had actually applied for and received citizenship, after he had a criminal record. That bothers me a little. Our immigration laws are no better, and our borders a exponentially larger than that of the UK.
My issue is with having selective immigration policies.
UNCLE SAM: "Ok, you people from Cuba can stay if you can reach our shores before the Coast Guard can stop you, but you Canadians must submit the same paperwork as those from most other countries. Let's see,oh yes, you Mexicans? Well, we'll make some special rules for you too. Of course you should be allowed to work even if you are here illegally. How dare those towns in New Jersey try to stop the day laborer loitering. So what if you aren't paying any taxes and yet your kids benefit from the same education and emergency healthcare treatment that those of legal taxpayers."
Don't get me started.
My husband is a British citizen. We went thru the proper procedures and spent more than $2000 total to get him here legitimately. With the exception of those seeking asylum for legitimate reasons, I have zero tolerance for others who think they shouldn't have to jump through the same hoops.
Very valid point. I have been having the same thoughts. People ask, "Where do we draw the line?" My response is, somewhere in front of these people who call my children "inifidels" and desire to kill them, that's where.
We obviously have to think about that in the UK right now.
But whatever happens we're not afraid.