IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 135 – January 7, 2013
“Foundations”
Every civilization on this planet claims a foundation. Basically, each is twofold: language and faith. Consider these. Italy: Italian, Catholicism. Spain: Spanish, Catholicism. Saudi Arabia: Arabic, Islam.
Among all nations, ours is unique. America not only boasts an amalgam of varied nationalities, but also a duality in faith. United States of America: English, Judeo-Christian.
Again, I emphasize that these two foundations are seminal to any people. Yet, today, the powers that be seem intent on dismantling both. What do you think would happen if Americans moved to Italy in great numbers and petitioned the native population to adopt English, insisting that advertising and store signage reflect the change? Fat chance.
Why, then, should we — when we find ourselves buried financially under the exploding burden of providing services to illegal immigrants — be forced to provide bi-lingual education in our schools? Keep in mind that added language is not Spanish alone. Depending on the district, many other languages are added every year. Add to this the escalating medical costs (consider the indebtedness of California alone!), and it is no secret that immigration is the antithesis of the poem by Emma Lazarus.
Oh, America still beckons “… 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!”. But these illegals do not come solely for opportunity. Instead, they find it “opportune” to sneak across the border and take advantage of all manner of benefits.
Just exactly what part of “illegal” do those pushing for “reform” of our immigration laws not understand? How many foreign nationals waiting to come to the USA legally are frustrated by the cavalier attitude of a federal government that ignores high numbers coming across the border illegally?
Are we to simply ignore all these legal applicants in favor of those that sneak across the border and then beg the government to stay? How sad. The Constitution outlines that the federal government provide for “the common defense,” yet it even fails to secure its own borders.
No nation can sustain such a situation indefinitely.
It’s about time that American citizens of Hispanic background stand up and demand that those coming here illegally not be afforded the same welcome as those who come through proper channels — often waiting years to do so. There is right and there is wrong. Illegal entry is wrong!
I feel as if I am living in a time warp where wrong is right and right is wrong. Some states condone same sex marriages, legalized marijuana. One paper actually had the nerve to print the names of legal gun owners, but they did not publish lists of sexual offenders or felons who committed gun crimes.
According to John Lott, less than one-tenth of one percent of gun owners link to gun crimes. Who commits the other 99.99 percent? You got it. Criminals. What makes you think that stricter gun laws will keep criminals from obtaining weapons?
Consider technology, too. A Google map of addresses where guns are located simply provides an easy guide for criminal types that either want to know where to avoid an armed homeowner or where to steal guns? Great plan, huh?
The disintegration of our justice system to the point where judges legislate from the bench instead of adjudicating cases solely based on law is appalling. Maybe you haven’t thought about it, but the 1960s hippies and radicals that worried their elders folks fifty years ago now occupy a growing number of elected offices and judgeships across the nation.
I wonder if an old adage holds. You’ve heard it. “The inmates are in charge of the asylum.” I don’t know many of these people, and I have no right to question their sanity. I do, however, question their actions. I am reminded of another truism. Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts.
Sound judgment must be based on law and on morality. Once this nation was known for both. Today, we have lost one and we watch as the other crumbles on the altar of “political correctness.”
Personally, I wish I had never heard the term. It is offensive. I judge it an excuse for poor decision-making. “If it feels good, do it” will never hold up as a basis for effective governance.
Isn’t it about time that we demanded (not requested) that those in leadership really lead? What I see is “weedership”, not leadership. While “weedership” may not be a term you have heard before; but it is my creation, and it is apt.
Consider my logic. Weeds invade a pristine field and, over time, ruin it from within. Today, we witness the fruits of several decades of the weeds among us. Their numbers have grown.
They operate by their own rules, too. When one of them is accused of moral lapses or crimes, peers laugh and look the other way — only to crucify those of the opposition party for even the smallest infraction.
Media only adds to the problem, as it regularly ignores gross dereliction of duty and moves to further demean and marginalize those of conservative viewpoint. If a politician doesn’t comport to a liberal view, he or she is ignored, criticized or, chastised publicly.
Liberals, long in charge of education, have bequeathed us a real mess. Now, due to their influence, we must live with the results of an election that — more than anything else — illustrates the danger of an uninformed and ill-educated electorate.
Celebrity should never outrank ability. Yet, it did. Nobody wanted to hear the truth. They wanted a fairy tale. Bill Clinton’s 2008 primary words to describe his wife’s opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination come back to haunt us.
Sadly, I doubt if much will change over the next four years. Yet, we can withstand a lot as a nation.
History proves it. Abraham Lincoln, had he lived, would have been far easier on the South than Johnson was considering the chasm that existed between the north and the south in the wake of t
he Civil War. Today, however, the rift is a far different one, and in many ways, even more dangerous. The present chief executive is busily dividing America by every means possible — by economic status, by ethnicity, by gender, and by age. Nice plan, huh? It takes little to inspire envy and hate.
Remember, this nation was not founded on negatives. The United States was founded on positives.
A background in political science does no good when assessing this administration. More than anything else, common sense falls on its face.
To find the term “common good,” one must only go to the works of Marx and Hegel. Am I comparing the mindset of these folks to Communists? Well, if the shoe fits, wear it.
Socialists and communists always claim to work for the “common good,” but the good seldom comes. Moreover, the poor (whom they claim to champion) suffer the most. The richest stay rich (provided they ally with the powers that be) and the poor grow even poorer.
The Bible tells us that all the governments will fall in the end times, but I had hoped it might be on someone else’s watch and not mine. Remember the house built on sand? It fell. Only a house built on rock withstands the storm. America has stood for years built on a rock of limited government. My most fervent hope is that that rock weathers the coming storm. And it IS coming.
What’s that sound? A rock cracking? Think about it.