As a 5th generation descendant from a tribe of the Iroquois Nation, I feel it is my duty to add my two Indian Head pennies worth of comment to the latest political controversy.
Immigration has always been an issue for our tribal leaders: should they smoke the peace pipe or sharpen the tomahawks? Obviously, neither solution was able to stem the tide of poor folks coming to this continent in chains or as refugees from economic tyranny.
The rich Founding Fathers of the coalition of un-united states introduced (or seduced) my ancestors with the “art of the possible,” which people today call “politics” and induced the our chiefs to sign peace treaties.
The honorable profession of political statesmen has evolved into a slippery group of crass carnival barkers peddling whatever entitlement issue the media decides to champion.
What was passed off as serious dialogue between honest white male elected representatives desiring taxation with representation, has become bickering between talking heads on TV over how to spin the message. Case in point: the current argument over how to treat illegal immigrants.
Legislation is stymied in Washington by the choice of words for the proposed regulations. Are we granting “amnesty” again, or merely entitling these law-breakers with the right to “earn their citizenship” by paying fines and back taxes, agreeing to learn some “broken” English, and repeating a dozen “mea culpas” in front of some bored INS worker who is employed for life?
Being a authentic citizen of this great American Empire that spans the whole continent and some islands in the Atlantic and Pacific, I am authorized to bring non-native wives and children into this country without them being considered illegal immigrants provided I follow the stringent rules and file the appropriate paperwork. That I’ve done more than once without exceeding my authority.
However, rounding up illegals in the U.S. is no more difficult (nor popular) than rounding up prostitutes. Both prominently display themselves on our street corners seeking an honest day’s wages for an honest day’s effort. Unfortunately, our elected leaders are not committed to making such round-ups a serious endeavor financed by our taxes.
Rounding up cattle is more lucrative. Besides, we can’t slaughter humans unless they have committed heinous crimes against society and spent an average of 20+ years in some California jail awaiting for judicial approval of the sentence from a higher court and for the medical profession to decide how to execute violent felons in the most “humane” way possible using modern technology and the latest in painless toxic drugs.
So, the dilemma is not easy to resolve using the democratic process. Violent demonstrations to sway the politicians have proven more effective when it comes to eliciting entitlements, as we’ve learned from the strife over abortion and the marriage of true gay minds. (Pardon me, two gay lovers.)
The lesson here is painlessly obvious for those of us who don’t employ illegal immigrants. Don’t create anymore legislation that can’t be enforced by our overburdened legal system and by the overworked and underpaid local police forces who can’t solve 20% of the murders in San Francisco, let alone chase down illegal drug peddlers.
Who is going to collect the fines of those who refuse to pay or don’t have the money because they sent what little they earned abroad? And who is going to round-up scofflaws and send them back to their native lands if they don’t pay up? State and Federal police forces don’t complement each other unless a serious crime has been committed by some illegal immigrant. It’s a very ugly situation with no “just” solution in sight because law-breakers are only punished when the police have a quota to fill.
When this volatile issue of how to deal with illegal immigrants finally cools down and the political dust has time to settle, hopefully no new unenforceable legislation will be passed that leads to amnesty.
Then, our respectable “word game players” (as I like to refer to our clever elected represesntatives) can go back to arguing about how to conduct the “nation building activities” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once the local tribes in those countries have signed treaties, our military leaders can withdraw our liberating “peacekeeper” troops.
Have a good day, fellow inhabitants of the U.S. of A.
