Dying to Get In Not Dying To Leave
As Memorial Day approaches I am thinking about the daily controversy regarding the security of our borders in the Southwest aspect of our country. It is not hyperbole to say that people are dying to get into the United States. Very normal people risk their lives—literally—and pay large sums of money for the opportunity to sneak across our border.
Now this is rather curious if all you ever listen are the liberal politicians who can’t ever seem to find a good word to say about the country—at least not while it is the control of conservative leaders. But the curious aspect of this is that if the United States is such a horrible place, with a tanking economy, where racism and prejudice, homophobia and bigotry are prevalent, where the nation is being run by a total incompetent who is a liar and a war lord, and where one’s association with America is to risk one’s life traveling abroad, why would anyone make the ultimate sacrifice trying to get into such a place?
Well, maybe it’s not quite the nasty US that many of our warped and wicked politicians make it out to be. Maybe they have such a low fiber of integrity that the only way they can possibly regain some of their “power” to keep millions in bondage is by portraying the America as corrupt, troubled, wayward, and wicked.
Maybe the United States, with all its problems and faults, is still a pretty nice place to live and is still the land of opportunity and is still the land of fairness and equality. Imperfectly to be sure, and we have some real dark shadows that had better be addressed, but the fact remains, people from all over the world would love to be an American even though they may not wish to be called that due to the duplicitous negative publicity already mentioned.
Nearly 35 years ago I volunteered to put on a uniform and was trained to fight in a foreign land called Viet Nam. Through gracious Providence, I didn’t make it there. The point is, should the need arise, I would do it again assuming there was strong, moral leadership. I didn’t say perfect leadership, I said moral leadership but some are under a delusion that Utopia is ever just an election away.
This land of ours is hurting in many ways, but I am free to go elsewhere and I choose not to; and so do millions of others as opposed to the millions who live elsewhere risking their lives to come here. Now why is that? Memorial Day is coming up; there is some light in our nation’s history. It’s about time many take the lamp out from under the bushel.
Now this is rather curious if all you ever listen are the liberal politicians who can’t ever seem to find a good word to say about the country—at least not while it is the control of conservative leaders. But the curious aspect of this is that if the United States is such a horrible place, with a tanking economy, where racism and prejudice, homophobia and bigotry are prevalent, where the nation is being run by a total incompetent who is a liar and a war lord, and where one’s association with America is to risk one’s life traveling abroad, why would anyone make the ultimate sacrifice trying to get into such a place?
Well, maybe it’s not quite the nasty US that many of our warped and wicked politicians make it out to be. Maybe they have such a low fiber of integrity that the only way they can possibly regain some of their “power” to keep millions in bondage is by portraying the America as corrupt, troubled, wayward, and wicked.
Maybe the United States, with all its problems and faults, is still a pretty nice place to live and is still the land of opportunity and is still the land of fairness and equality. Imperfectly to be sure, and we have some real dark shadows that had better be addressed, but the fact remains, people from all over the world would love to be an American even though they may not wish to be called that due to the duplicitous negative publicity already mentioned.
Nearly 35 years ago I volunteered to put on a uniform and was trained to fight in a foreign land called Viet Nam. Through gracious Providence, I didn’t make it there. The point is, should the need arise, I would do it again assuming there was strong, moral leadership. I didn’t say perfect leadership, I said moral leadership but some are under a delusion that Utopia is ever just an election away.
This land of ours is hurting in many ways, but I am free to go elsewhere and I choose not to; and so do millions of others as opposed to the millions who live elsewhere risking their lives to come here. Now why is that? Memorial Day is coming up; there is some light in our nation’s history. It’s about time many take the lamp out from under the bushel.
posted by PB at 1:50 PM
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