27. Whither America?

Today's big news?

1. Tana Conner used cocaine? Miss USA; remember her?
2. President Bush announces there is an income gap between the rich and the poor. Where has he been sleeping? In the Chamber of Commerce's spare bedroom? It reminds me of when his father learned that supermarkets used scanners to read prices. Just who are these people?
3. The governor passed out more tax breaks yesterday, this time to military personnel who honestly probably deserve a break. Is he running for something?
4. This item may really be news, or may not; we'll know in a year or so. Barbaro had a full blood brother colt - same sire, same dam - who is two years old and living on a farm outside of Lexington. He is being sent to Florida for training.

Back in December, Stuart Perelmuter, a local screenwriter and actor, educated at and a graduate of the Fine Arts program at Syracuse University and recently appointed Press Secretary for newly-elected Third District Congressman John Yarmuth, sent me an email concerning immigration. He has asked me to communicate with a Maria Ramirez of the local ACLU about a program the KCCIR (a statewide immigration reform movement) is planning to put on soon to educate folks in Kentucky about immigrants and their place in our society. Maria and I have exchanged emails and are scheduled to have lunch soon. The KCCIR has a program director for this project and my role will be as an adviser, perhaps.

I am known to be fairly liberal on a number of issues, certain gun rights, private property and land use and/or zoning matters not being among them. On immigration, I am well to left of most liberals and most anyone else on this matter. The by-word in the campaign office, not entirely in jest, was my strong support of both free love and free borders. To start with, I do not favor the "Wall" along the border, the one that has Tancredo and his crew celebrating about 700 miles of blockage, while a handful of illegals are also celebrating, but at milemarker 702 along the route.

I will readily acknowledge there is a problem with illegal entry into our country. The problem is manifold, and not entirely to blame are those actually making the illegal entry. Others who should share in the blame are the governments of both the country from which thse folks left as well as ours which they are entering. Countries south of the border need to do more to keep their folks at home. We need to find ways to help those who wish to enter to do so legally. Rather than throwing up walls, both literally and figuratively, we should be throwing up welcome centers. We could use the words from the base of the Statue of Liberty as a greeting sign.

In my life, I've met many immigrants, particularly those from Latino countries as well as a number of Middle Easterners. Most have come here as some form of refugee. Most are gainfully employed, paying taxes, enjoying the benefits of their work and of their life. Some are not employed, and some may very well be illegal. There is an economic argument made on both sides of the immigration argument as to whether or not immigrants cost money or make money for the taxpayer. Those who use illegal social security numbers are to some extent inadvertently sustaining that system, as there will be no way they will ever draw on the money they pay in through their (or someone's) social security number. Arguments are made that many of these illegals will work for wages at or lower than the going rate for Americans. That is true. Arguments are made that these illegals are taking jobs from Americans. I believe that is a little hyperbolic. They are, for the most part, taking jobs that Americans have not or will not do. If Americans would do these jobs, they wouldn't be available.

In my post on President Bush's State of the Union address, I stated I believe one the ways to improve our immigration program is to pursue a program of amnesty. The president said he isn't interested in this, although I personally do not believe him. I think he, personally, probably recognises the opportunities in an amnesty program. Several years ago, under Clinton, America passed a welfare to work program, moving folks from the welfare dole to a payroll. How well it has worked I do not know. In an amnesty program, we could move a number of people from the black market to the tax rolls. This is a good idea. The more people legitimately paying taxes in our country, the better off we will be. I am surprised that conservative Republicans do not see this idea as a good thing. As they are in the habit of cutting the amount of taxes we (the government) receive, mostly from their friends, here would be a ready source of tax dollars, and one that very few of their well-designed tax breaks would ever effect.

All of this was sparked by a news item I read in the Washington Post on an increase in fees the U. S. Citizens and Immigration Service is proposing. One fee would rise from $325 to $905. A second one doubles to a total of $455, from $225. Another increases from $330 to $595. While much of what I've written above concerns illegals, these fees are for people we have already let in, and often times encourage them to become citizens of our great Republic - at a cost. That's really egregious behavior on our part. Are we inviting people in so as to make a few bucks off them?

Now I know I have made these few arguments rather simplistic and this issue isn't. I just do not understand why America insists on being a bully in this regard, other than the fact that we tend to be a bully in most regards, as we relate to the international community. We used to be proud of our melting pot. Now we are proud of our insular attitude toward non-Americans. I, for one, am not proud of it at all and I do not find any purpose in such haughtiness. And I think a lot of the problem along our border to the south isn't economic at all. These folks aren't European. In other words, they aren't white.

Here below is a link to a report given to a subcommittee of congress last summer pertaining to immigration in Kentucky.

http://www.kccir.org/kccir/Important%20Documents/Dr%20Kirby%20Neil%20Paper%20on%20Undocumented%20Immigrants.doc

By the way, the real news of the day is of a much lighter nature than the serious discussion above.

They finally did it, they finally got it right. The weather forecasters called for one to two inches of snow, and snow actually fell, and in some places fell to the height of an inch or so. It began about 2:00 am, meaning that January went basically snowless here at the Left Bank of the Ohio near Milepost 606, but February is off to a good start.

One final note: RIP Molly Ivins, Queen Writer of the Progressives, who died today in Austin, Texas, her home. I listened to her speak and met her when she spoke here in Louisville at the ACLU Annual Dinner in August, 2004. Raise More Hell, Molly.


A poem by Emma Lazarus


Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"