A Rare Day

When I Pen a partisan diatribe. I try to see all sides. Its supposed to make a better advocate.

   But its now necessary. The President is going to issue some kind of unilateral statement on immigration reform tomorrow. Horrah. Finally. Good for Him.

   Senator Barbara Boxer has given a pointed speech where she notes that over the last 60 years, Presidents of both parties have taken immigration action of some kind on 40 different occassions. No one saw it as unconstitutional, threatened to shut down the government, or sue the President.

  She noted that 17 months ago the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration reform bill. It was passed by the Senate and the House did not act on it. Ever hear the phrase 'Do Nothing' House or Congress? That is because their response to a bipartisan immigration reform bill was to do exactly nothing. No Action.

  The President waited and waited and waited to sign a bill. Nothing. None came. It should be called the 'Sit on Your Hands and Suck Your Thumb House' Really annoying. So the President is going to do what the President should do and take responsible action to fix a serious problem.

We have a serious problem at the border. We have a serious problem enforcing the laws that exist. We have a serious problem in the way we are currently treating people who are here, who came here
with legitimate asylum claims. We aren't processing them fairly because evidence can't be ascertained fairly. People fled a civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s. They cannot go back because there is nothing to go back to in some cases. They and their children are American for all practical purposes in all but passport.

   Stories of how families are torn apart with some family members sent back to Central America after being mistreated in immigration detention facilities are too numerous to let go unnoticed. People who have been here contributing to society, paying taxes, raising their kids to be responsible people, educating them in American schools should not be subjected to cruelty of banishment and return to a place they don't know as home any more. This is home.

   I can't listen to people like Laura Ingram or any of the right wingnutty talking heads blast Obama's constitutional theories. They just look too white and too blonde to get it. There are massive numbers, 11 million roughly that we know of, people who have made their life and home here and we should 'Welcome the Stranger'- because families of  EVERYONE except native americans came from somewhere else, and because its the only kind thing to do.

We are not a nation of bullies who rip children from their parents arms to lock them up. We don't need to create that kind of trauma and destruction of families. We can be a kinder gentler place. Did we forget that we are supposed to Love Our Neighbors?