Letters to the Editor
-
I'm with futhark and ann1960 on this one
Our nation's resources (and really our global resources) are stressed to the breaking point as it is. My problem with immigration (and the population explosion of those who are already citizens) is a logistical one.
The ideology that suggested that there's plenty of room and resources to go around worked fine in the days of Manifest Destiny, but we have a population of 300 million people in this nation who are resource hogs the likes of which this planet has never seen. Why throw gas on the fire of global warming, resource depletion and outright environment destruction by adding millions more to the process?
Blaming illegals is just an excuse for those of us already in America not to have to take responsibility for the damaging lifestyles we lead. It's fine for "us" to gorge ourselves on fast food, drive SUV's and pave over our last open spaces, but God forbid anyone from another country should come here and join in.
-
Same old, same old
Today's complaints about Hispanic immigrants (whether illegal or legal) seem awfully similar to past complaints about Southern European and Irish immigrants. There's a nativist streak in this nation that demagogues have historically exploited. Get people riled up enough about immigration and they will be distracted from the terrible job our country's leaders are doing. Get people frightened enough about immigration and they will tend to fall into line behind authoritarian leaders.
High rates of illegal immigration are a sign that our legal immigration system is broken. People come to the United States illegally because the mechanism for immigrating legally isn't working. Increasing the number of temporary work visas and streamlining procedures -- coupled with border enforcement and penalties for employers -- would do a lot to resolve the problem.
Another issue is lack of economic opportunity in Mexico and many of the countries in Central America. Surely there is more that the United States can be doing to encourage economic development in this area! The United States and Mexico have one of the world's largest income differentials across a shared border. People with local opportunities to work and earn money are less likely to pour across our borders.
-
Another liberal here who doesn't support illegal aliens
I have written to my Democratic senators over and over again to tell them that just because I am a Democrat doesn't mean I think we should allow millions of people to break the rule of law. If the first thing you do when coming here is to ignore the law, what kind of citizen are you going to be? What other laws do you think should not apply to you?
It's to the advantage of pro-illegal aliens to conflate immigrants with illegal aliens because after all, how can a nation of immigrants be against other immigrants? The answer is: WE'RE NOT. We are against the unregulated influx of aliens into our country. It's extremely simple.
I would have no problem if we quadrupled our annual legal immigrant quota and screen people to make sure they were able to support themselves, were law abiding and did not have communicable diseases. But I think it is absolutely outrageous that we are not supposed to be allowed to know who is coming into the country.
As for the "racism" label, well, that's a catch-all term to shut down your opponent, isn't it?
-
of course the objective data is false...hence, O'Reilly
If you've followed Bill O'Reilly's career at all, it's patently obvious that he is in the business of reinforcing the beliefs--true or false, doesn't matter--of his target demographic. He claims to speak for the unwashed blue-collar american. The working-class. And as part of that schtick, he reinforces the beliefs of these Wallace and Reagan democrats, regardless of whether those beliefs are fantasy, or not.
Bill is a cheerleader for the beliefs of a certain kind of american, and if those beliefs are a complete load of bullshit, Bill could not care less. His job, his success, and his money all depend on him reinforcing the beliefs of his target demo. Period.
-
another truth no-one wants to think about..
The long crisis of the 21st Century has only just begun as the era of cheap energy draws to a close and we should develop strategies for reducing population gradually and humanely. Restricting immigration is one of the most effective methods of accomplishing this.
-- futhark
******
Futhark is right. The resource pie has gotten bigger in the last 30 years in North America, a lot bigger, but at the expense of pillaging the rest of the world, putting ourselves in seemingly permanent hock to the Chinese, and making ourselves dangerously dependent on imported energy from parts of the world that could go up in flames at any time.
And even at that, the number of people wanting a piece of the pie has far surpassed the rate of growth of the pie.
You keep that up too long, people start to fight over the pie. Pretty simple math.
If we were smart, as a nation, we'd cut off ALL immigration, of any kind, for a year. Then we'd do like Australia and New Zealand do: you get to come to the United states only if you have an advanced degree, and/or a LOT of money.
'Course, there are quite a few native-born Americans I wouldn't mind putting on some rapidly melting ice floe in the arctic, but, most unfortunately, that's not allowed.
Still, in all seriousness, Futhark is right. If we don't get serious about limiting our population, we're gonna be very, VERY sorry..especially in places like Southern California.
But, then, right-wingers in our great country couldn't care less about SoCal. They'd just as soon see it go up in flames. Interesting problem, isn't it? I'd suggest that's one reason among many that nothing has been done about illegal immigration: the areas affected most are predominently blue, so the GOP couldn't care less about it. And, of course, their pals in business love the way immigrants drive down wages.
I know! When we start putting people on rapidly-melting ice-floes, let's start with anyone in the GOP! An excellent start!
-
Immigrants
Say, isn't O'Reilly and IRISH name?
-
Immigrants
Say, isn't O'Reilly an IRISH name?
/please forgive my typo