May Day! May Day!

Arizona; I am not sure what my position is on this state’s tough new immigration law. On one hand I agree that immigrants who are here illegally should be sent back to their mother country, especially if they are caught doing any crime. On the other hand, I have a problem with the idea of requiring people to show their papers. It sounds too much like Communist Russia where no one could move around the country without their papers. This is not America.

Arizona’s new law seems to be nothing more than putting a bandaid onto a punctured artery. It will do nothing to stem the tide of Mexicans pouring over our borders. I think what we really need to do is to analyze the underlying reasons regarding our illegal immigration problems. Only then might we find an answer to this growing problem.

For all our talk, over half of the country wants these illegal immigrants here. First there are the businessmen and women who need the cheap labor. Their argument has been that Americans wouldn’t do those jobs although now I wonder about that what with our high unemployment. Nonetheless, as long as employers hire these illegal immigrants then Mexicans will continue to cross our borders. It is as simple as supply and demand.

I’ve mentioned this before but the second reason people dislike Arizona’s new law is that the Democrat party is looking forward to this group voting next fall. Even if the Mexican’s here illegally can’t vote, there is still a huge Hispanic population who can and Democrat’s want and need their votes. Even some Conservatives are backing off from embracing the new Arizona law because they can’t afford to offend the Hispanic community.

Whatever America does, Mexicans will continue to rush our borders as long as their country cannot provide the jobs and economic security which is found in America. It is truly outrageous that the United States is one of the richest countries in the world and yet there is a third world country on our southern border. We have spent millions of dollars to help prop up democracies throughout the world, why can’t we do the same with our own neighbor? Mexico may not want our interference, but too bad. Until they can control their own country and bring economic prosperity to their citizens so that they aren’t forced to come to here then we have every right to butt in.

No laws or walls will stem the tide of Mexicans crossing our borders for jobs and a better life. But if we can help Mexico provide those goals in their own country then there would be no need for Mexicans to come here, legally or illegally. Why aren’t wealthy liberals or groups of Hispanics raising funds to start schools, provide doctors, help Mexicans start their own businesses in their own country? Why can’t we offer loans for new factories and advantageous deals for trading across the border? Yes I know that the reason we can’t do the latter is that Mexico’s government is very corrupt and run by drug cartels. But we have to start somewhere, somehow, to encourage economic growth in Mexico, other than through drugs.

Until Mexicans can obtain jobs, economic security and better health care in their own country then they will continue to walk across the border regardless of our laws. The ultimate benefits in America are simply too tempting.

In the meantime, however, Hispanics will be making a huge mistake with their upcoming May Day protest in cities throughout America. Individual Mexicans cleaning your house or small groups working on your farm or factory don’t seem threatening or problematic. Sure there are parts of town controlled by Hispanics where there are frequent robberies, gun shots and murders, and all signs and conversations are in Spanish as most don’t even speak English. But you ignore that part of town and stay away from those streets after dark. Thus non-Hispanics tolerated the growing influx of Mexicans as long as they didn’t disrupt their life or appear threatening. This will all change come May 1st.

Once again, our big screen TVs will be filled with images of angry Hispanics. Signs in Spanish will be waved along with the Mexican flag. The demonstrations may start of calm buy you know they will eventually deteriorate into angry, perhaps even violent protests. Americans, of every background other than Hispanic, will suddenly feel threatened and upset by this display. I don’t think this protest will help the Hispanic cause at all.
We see ourselves as a good country, a country that helps our neighbors, a country that has basically been willing to look the other way as Mexicans migrate here and flood our schools and hospitals and take menial jobs. We bend over backwards to enable Mexicans with our dual language approach which irritates many Americans. But now? These protests may seem very ungrateful and extremely disrespectful to this country which has done so much for our neighbor. And seeing what amounts to a foreign demonstration in the United States will make Democrats uncomfortable and Republicans downright angry. This is a huge mistake which will only inflame the already volatile situation.

Easter Resurrection

This country was founded on Christian-Judeo principles. A lot of people would like to ignore or even deny this fact. Progressives and liberals have been working for decades to eradicate any hint of religion from the daily life of Americans and to a great extent they have been successful. But there is hope…

It is amazing how much has changed in the past fifty years. I suppose to some, 50 years is a long time, but when you’re 52 those years go by quickly. I recall as a young child my mother taking me to see a live nativity scene – in front of city hall. In school we would sing Christmas carols before we were let go for the Christmas break. Christmas decorations, including religious scenes, adorned every store and people easily wished each other Merry Christmas. During Passover there were Jewish symbols out and yes in school we sang Dreidle Dreidle Dreidle right after an older student would tell us the meaning of Passover.

In American history we learned that religion was a major reason why the Pilgrims came to America, a fact that is rarely taught today. We would have Good Friday off and get an Easter break. After school it was just assumed that you went to Sunday School or Hebrew School. No stigma attached, it just is what you did although the non-Jewish kids were rather impressed that the Jewish kids were learning a language written backwards. The Jewish kids also got to have a great party with lots of gifts and money when they turned 13 whereas after my confirmation all I got was my own bible with my name engraved in gold on it. And yet, even though I don’t go to church much anymore, that same bible is still kept in my nightstand all these years later.

So where are we today? Just about all talk of religion has been eliminated from school and city hall. As to how children are being raised today, I really couldn’t say as I have no contact with kids. I can only look within my own family to see how they are raising their children. My oldest sister raised her two boys in the church. They may have gone kicking and screaming at times but it must have stuck. The oldest doesn’t go to the church his parents and grandmother attend. No, he found his own more contemporary church where he now goes with his wife and children. Religion always was important to my sister’s youngest son who is now married and in the navy and I have no doubt that he will also raise his children in the church.

On the other hand, as much as I love my middle sister and her husband, we all know not to discuss religion with them. Actually I still recall the heated discussions about religion they would have with my mother when they were teenagers and had decided they were atheists. And yet, having grown up in a church I think they missed the closeness of the congregation so they found a compromise in the Unitarian Church. As much as I understand it, Unitarians celebrate everything and believe in nothing. But this gives them some place to be Sunday mornings and provides the socializing they missed and contact with others who feel as they do. From what I can tell, both of their adult children are not religious either but might occasionally attending a Unitarian “church”.

Then there is my brother who probably disliked Sunday School more than any of us. My mother finally gave up trying to drag an angry resentful teenage son to a place he had no interest in going. Religion is still not important to him. Our mother would occasionally take his daughters to Sunday School but after she moved to live near my oldest sister I doubt if my brother or his family have stepped foot into a church since then. So there you have it, three children and three different paths when it comes to religion. And what about me, you ask? I am one of those Christians who truly do believe and religioun is important to me and yet I rarely attend church. But that’s a long story for another day.

A hundred years ago, my sisters, brother and I would most likely all be Christians who attended church regularly. Instead, due to exposure in school and college some of my siblings began to question the concept of God and Jesus and ended up walking away from both. So the liberals and progressives have made progress and are slowly moving our country away from our Christian-Judaism faith. But they are about to meet a very large bump in the road.

Everyone agrees that after universal health care the next big issue that President Obama is going to tackle is illegal immigration. The fear is that he will somehow allow for them to quickly become citizens. Yet the liberals and progressives are ignoring one small detail. Most of these Mexicans and Cubans and other Hispanics clamoring to be in our country are Christians. I have a feeling that their faith is strong and enduring and these Catholics will want to continue to worship God once here in the United States. Then there are the Asians who are here legally. The man who owns the nail place I go to has a card on his work area, similar to a baseball card, but instead it has a picture of Mary with information about her. And each of the other Asian workers have either a card or rosary beads or a cross at their work station. Nor are they shy about talking about God and their religion, proselytizing as they do your nails.

Finally there is the story of young man, mid twenties, single and apparently looking for something. He was a good friend of my nephews and became a fixture at my sister’s house when they were in high school. A few months ago my family were all at a wedding and ran into my nepthew's old friend. After talking for a while, he asked my sister about her religion and basically asked if he could go to church with them. And so each Sunday he began to go to church and sat with my sister, her husband and my mother. A few months go by and one Sunday he tells them that he is taking classes to become a member of their church. Last month he officially joined the church and yet he still had never been baptized. And so today, Easter Sunday, this young man who found what he was looking for in God and Christianity, will be baptized.

The moral of this long Easter Sunday sermon is that, no matter what the progressives may try to do, religion and God are not going away. In fact, thanks to the immigrants, legal and illegal, Christianity is once again important to a growing segment in this country. More exciting is the fact that the story of my nephew's friend is not an isolated story. I’ve read that there has been a small swell of interest by men and women in their mid twenties who are interested in learning about Christianity and who end up joining churches.

If you think about it, it is pretty silly for progressives to believe that they can eradicate a religion which has been persecuted for over 2000 years and yet is still here. Not to sound too blasphemous but those who thought that religion was dead and buried will find that just like Jesus, religion can never be totally buried and will always rise up again, stronger and more vibrant than ever. Hallelujia. Have a blessed Easter and Amen.

One More Thing...

In my last blog, A Patient’s View of HR3200 I argued against the government sending someone to discuss your medical and end of life options if you are seriously ill or injured. Since then I have had people tell me that it is one thing to discuss end of life options with a 51 year old but a totally different matter when the patient is 91. They reminded me of the burden these elderly people were to the system and that there comes a point when you should say enough tests, operations, medical treatments and to simply let nature take it course. End of Life options are appropriate not only for the sake of the elderly person but also because of the extreme expenses to both the family and the government to keep them alive.

I agree, up to a point. In fact I was a bit angered to learn that a friend’s 87 year old mother-in-law had just had a hip replacement operation. This elderly woman suffered from dementia, diabetes, extreme arthritis and a multitude of other ailments plus her family ignored her the one time she spoke out against the operation since they thought they knew best for her. Or at least most did since some family members argued to stop everything and simply let her die but these voices were drowned out by those wanting her to have the operation. Plus I am sure that the nursing home also encouraged the operation for the practical reason of wanting her to be mobile and able to go to the bathroom on her own and not to require diaper changes. Yet all of the family infighting about treatment could have been avoided if she just had a Living Will. But at this point it was too late as she wasn’t capable of making decisions.

So yes, I agree that this woman probably should not get more medical treatment and should simply be made comfortable as she dies. But this puts you on a very slippery slope. For what is the cut off point? If my 51 is too young but there is a need for end of life options for this 87 year old patient then perhaps at 80 people should be denied treatment. Except I look at my own 81 year old mother. If she were to fall I would be one of the ones arguing for a hip replacement operation. Am I being hypocritical? No. For unlike the first elderly woman, my mother is a sharp, active, intelligent older woman who neither looks nor acts her age. My mother at 81 is as active as many a 65 year old. So you can’t use age as the criteria. What might have worked for my friend’s parent certainly would be wrong for my mother.

In fact, my father was only 65 when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After only one chemo treatment we realized he was dying and we then wanted to make what little time was left to be as easy as possible for him. In this case we turned to Hospice to help him. If a family member is dying then Hospice is wonderful. So why does the government need to create a whole new panel and one more bureaucratic department? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to provide government grants to this organization which is already in place and functioning quite well?

The final argument was the costs associated with health care for the elderly. Wow. How cold is that? Liberals actually worry that keeping mom and dad alive and paying for their health care will bankrupt the government. The same problem of lack of funding concerns treating uninsured people. Who is more important – the people or the government? For if the former, we can find the money. Hell, let the banks pay back their bailouts, take the majority of the stimulus money not spent and gee here’s a thought, fire the 30+ highly paid Czars (the Energy and Environment Czar is getting $172,000 for example) and let the Cabinet do its job instead. Money is not an issue. If Obama could find all these trillions for people to buy a car then he can find the money to take care of our parents. Besides, using existing groups such as Hospice would save billions in the projected salaries for new government employees.

Conservatives have made their point about the major problems with HR3200. Now is the time to start offering alternative ideas. Here are a few suggestions; some are already being discussed while others are my own ideas:

• Let the insurance companies create a co-op through which uninsured people can get health insurance. Restrict this to only US Citizens. Illegal immigrants are a tough situation and this country needs to review and revise their entire illegal immigrant policy as soon as possible. Meanwhile the expenses for treating illegal immigrants or citizens who don’t sign up for insurance should be shared by the entire country and not just the border states and those with high illegal immigrant populations.


• Provide grants to encourage and pay for anyone who wants to be a nurse, doctor, technician, nursing home aide or in any other medical professions. We will need all of these once we insure everyone but other than talking about rationing no one has thought of this.


• Use Hospice as the primary end of life care givers. Provide them with grants to expand their current business rather than the government creating a new parallel department. Offer the same grants to any other private company to insure competition.
  
• Make health insurance mandatory when you get or renew your driver’s license. When you renew your driver’s license there should be a Living Will form with the paperwork sent to you. They already ask about organ donations so why not also include Living Wills? Use Hospice or SS to handle all questions about Living Wills.


• Require all Americans including government employees and union members to be a part of whatever new plan is approved.

So come on conservatives. Instead of simply trashing HR3200 you need to start to come up with alternative suggestions. Forget calling people Nazi’s and instead present your Congressman with some great ideas that they can take back to the Senate and House. For we need a Health Care Plan that is truly by the people and not this monstrosity which is a plan by the government for the people.

Immigration Irritation

After listening to the debates I am tired of being told that we need to be compassionate to the illegal immigrant’s children. That it isn’t their fault that they are here illegally and they shouldn’t be punished if their parents bring them here. Instead the politicians tell us that it is humane to educate the children who are here illegally and provide medical aid.

Bullsh*t. What about our kids? Our own children are getting short changed due to the increase of illegal immigrant children flooding the schools. If we sent even a fraction of illegal aliens back to their own homes then the teacher – student ratio would dramatically improve. We wouldn’t have to worry about bi-lingual classrooms or lowering educational standards to help the young immigrants who didn’t even get the basics in their homeland.

The same is true with medical help. Hospitals in border states are overrun with illegal immigrants using their limited resources. Again, our own citizens are often hurt when after helping the uninsured illegal immigrants these hospitals become bankrupt and close.

If the education and medical care is abysmal in their homelands than wouldn’t we be punishing these children by sending them back? Probably. But that should be their parents concern, not America’s. Why don’t those parents take the energy and deviousness used to get in to the USA and instead use it to better their own country? As for those Americans who think we should help the children, wouldn’t it make more sense and cost a lot less to go to their country and teach them and build hospitals there instead of subjecting the children to what can be dangerous or even deadly trips to get here?

Throughout all of the debates I have yet to hear anyone mention any of the above. Romney comes closest to these ideas while Hucklebee, Giuliani and McCain still preach compassion. Maybe I am cruel and uncaring but we need to save our compassion for our own U.S. children, which does include immigrants who are here legally.