{"id":265,"date":"2010-12-27T08:31:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T15:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=265"},"modified":"2010-12-27T08:31:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T15:31:06","slug":"everybody-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Everybody Out!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rant on.<\/p>\n

Standing tall on a tiny island in New York Harbor is somebody most of this country is familiar with:\u00a0 Lady Liberty.\u00a0 At the base of this historic statue is a quote most of us have heard and associated with her:<\/p>\n

Give me your tired, your poor
\nYour huddled masses yearning to breathe free.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Based on current national attitudes, this bit is apparently due for an edit.\u00a0 Perhaps something like:<\/p>\n

Give me your yearning to breathe free
\nBut stay out of my country<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once upon a time, the U.S. was a melting pot.\u00a0 The place to go if you wanted to be free.\u00a0 Now, the attitude towards foreigners is fairly hostile.\u00a0 The fact is, coming to this country legally is difficult and conversion to citizenship is a complicated and lengthy process<\/a>.\u00a0 Walk through that chart and it’s easy to see why so many step around the law and sneak into the country.<\/p>\n

Most of those who sneak into the country are the “tired and poor” (emphasis on poor) who are happy to make enough to squeeze their family into cramped living quarters.\u00a0 They do the crap jobs the legal Americans won’t.\u00a0 Most of the time, they receive little thanks, and if they are discovered they are deported without a thought.<\/p>\n

America is no stranger to illegal immigrants, either.\u00a0 Ask any Native American–those with American Indian heritage if you prefer–and those with any pride in their ancestry will tell you of the pale-skinned immigrants who came to their lands and took it over.\u00a0 Now those pale-skinned folks are trying are fighting a losing battle to keep illegal immigrants out themselves.<\/p>\n

What’s the answer?\u00a0 That’s a little complicated.\u00a0 I understand we don’t want to let everybody into the country who wants in.\u00a0 There are more than a few criminal folks who see the U.S. as a safe haven from their crooked activities in other lands.\u00a0 Even if we could successfully block only that element, we would have too many coming into the U.S.\u00a0 Ideally, it would be nice to let everybody in, but the practical reality is that we don’t have the infrastructure to support that.\u00a0 Our support system is already strained in many places.<\/p>\n

Still, let’s find a starting place.\u00a0 For example, the possibility of letting illegal immigrant’s children become citizens has been raised.\u00a0 I support this for two simple reasons:\u00a0 The kids had no choice, and often don’t know their “home country.”\u00a0 Many were born in the U.S. which, to my point of view, makes this country their homeland anyway.\u00a0 A large number don’t even speak the language of the land their parents came from.\u00a0 Sending them there is a losing proposition.<\/p>\n

My point is that there needs to be an easier path to citizenship, although not just a wide open door.\u00a0 I want people in this country who really want to be here.\u00a0 Let them serve in the military for a few years if they are young enough, or in unskilled government jobs if not.\u00a0 Let them boost our economy by paying taxes, something which, as illegal immigrants, they most certainly do not do.\u00a0 Find a path in, one which challenges their desire to stay.\u00a0 Let them prove they want to be here because they want to be here.\u00a0 Blindly doing anything, such as deporting all of them or<\/em> letting them all in is a bad idea.<\/p>\n

Rant off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rant on. Standing tall on a tiny island in New York Harbor is somebody most of this country is familiar with:\u00a0 Lady Liberty.\u00a0 At the base of this historic statue is a quote most of us have heard and associated with her: Give me your tired, your poor Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}