IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 191
“The Dotted Line”
As I walked through a room the other day, I stopped before a document carefully framed and displayed for all to see — my great-grandfather’s immigration papers issued at Ellis Island.
Ferdinand Schott, Republic of France, 1895. Six words, simply put, indelibly a part of my heritage and that of my brother. Republic of France, the nation borne of struggle and the nation that came, under Lafayette, to the colonists’ aid during the Revolutionary War… the nation with the starring role in the memorable, moving musical derived from Victor Hugo’s magnificent work, “Les Miserables”… the nation to which Americans returned to wrest it from the iron grip of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich….
I remember my grandfather, Lewis Schott, telling me of holding his mother’s hand on deck of a ship leaving LeHarve. He was five years old. His family embarked on a journey to a strange land in search of freedom and opportunity. He found it, eventually becoming an electrical engineer and bringing electricity to my hometown in the early 1900s. The early years were hard, but hurdles did not stop my ancestors. They learned English immediately and set about to earn their living, first in a “soddy” in Kansas and then near Rankin, Illinois, where they finally found a permanent home.
I’ve seen a picture of my great-grandfather. It was taken in a vineyard. He was a small man, but with big dreams. When I was in grade school in the 1950s, one of my teachers looked forward with zest to a bottle of Grandpa’s homemade wine, brewed carefully in large jars on the enclosed back porch of the little house on Broadway. There were jars of cherry, grape, and elderberry wine. I lament the fact that none of us learned from him. Any wine we serve comes from wineries, not from the back porch.
Ellis Island suffered mightily during Hurricane Sandy, but will once again welcome visitors who will marvel at its vacuous spaces where untold numbers of immigrants first met Americans in person. Interviews and medical examinations proved too much for those returned to their points of origin. Even at the height of the surge in the late 19th century, America had her thinking cap on tightly and refused those with dangerous health conditions or communicable diseases.
That’s a 180-degree departure from what we see on our borders today. No longer do we see orderly immigration, immigration complete with papers and documentation of those wishing to come to America. We see hordes of people urged to come here with false information. The British press coverage is interesting, because it notes that people in South America also hear the message that coming to the USA is free and open to all.
Oh, please. Consider the rules for importing pets into this country. All such importation is subject to health, quarantine, agriculture, wildlife, and US Customs requirements and prohibitions. Pets taken out of the United States and returned are subject to the same requirements as those entering for the first time.
Sadly, pets excluded from entry into the United States must either be exported or destroyed. While awaiting disposition, pets will be detained at the owner’s expense at the port of arrival.
The U.S. Public Health Service requires that pet dogs and cats brought into this country be examined at the first port of entry for evidence of diseases that can be transmitted to humans. Dogs coming from areas not free of rabies must be accompanied by a valid rabies vaccination certificate. Turtles are subject to certain restrictions, and monkeys may not be imported as pets under any circumstances.
So, our government is more concerned with pets entering the country than people. So much for any modicum of common sense here!
My kitchen strainer has better control than the US border. The only thing that deters illegal immigration is a permanent, enforced border. Walls and authorities It’s time that we dispatch California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas National Guard personnel to the border. What better time for a terrorist to come across the border than when border guard workers are pulled from their normal areas to deal with all these children?
Our country is at risk. Our everyday lives are in peril. What happens if a terrorist gets across the border with a suitcase nuclear device. What if some of these children are pawns in a deadly game of disease as a weapon? Remember, these children are not dispersed in areas close to the border. HHS is flying them to every corner of this nation. What better way to spread disease and mayhem. Trojan horses? No Trojan ponies — innocent children used in the most despicable ways.
Murrieta, California, residents see the danger. Do you?
Our power grid vulnerable to attack, too. It only takes an attack on it to cripple us all.
A nation without borders is a nation without laws. A nation without laws is doomed. Demand security of your government — if there is still time., as Americans, are much too passive. We leave big problems to “the other guy” to solve. I would hate to see what would happen if “Undercover Boss” used responsible Americans to infiltrate government agencies, specifically HHS. (For the time being, let’s leave IRS, NSA, and VA out of it.)
My, that would be enlightening, wouldn’t it? I wonder what we would find? Hmmmmm….. It’s as if HHS and the Department of Justice are hell bent on bringing in anyone who breathes, regardless of the fact that the vast majority cannot speak English and lack the skills to do even the most basic jobs. The one say to “fundamentally transform America” is to assure that the gap between rich and poor (seen throughout human history) will disappear. Why? There will be equality. Everyone will be equally poor.
I don’t want to think that those at the highest levels are using our federal agencies to deliberately weaken the nation, but too many events point in that direction. It’s as if all these crises are part of a carefully orchestrated plan. Oh, one more point on the border situation — not one truck would have crossed that border and not one tourist plane would have lifted off a runway in the USA until Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi was released. Our government stands by and does nothing for him, and yet extends a full welcome to hundreds of thousands of illegals. Yes, folks, illegals. Not undocumented. Against the law means illegal.
Even a lifeboat has a capacity. Ours is overflowing. It’s time we stiffened our backs and opened our mouths to demand full compliance at the borders with enough armed authorities to enforce the borders. If we don’t, our fate is sealed. We will have been fundamentally transformed as a nation all right, but to one we will not recognize.
Oh, we need transformation, but of another kind altogether.
It’s time that any US border is more than the dotted line appearing on a map. It’s time for THE dotted line at the bottom of common sense Congressional legislation — a bill moved that lands on the desk in the Oval Office. It’s high time for a bill to “fundamentally transform” the US Border Patrol to fully enforce the border to maintain national security. We deserve nothing less. Think about it.