People who read history know that when outsiders want "in," they will--eventually--get in, fences, walls, and military force notwithstanding. This is not a matter of right and wrong, nor is it preventable--at least in the long term.
Temporarily, of course, walls and police actions can impede and delay this ingress. When we feel threatened by outsiders, we quite understandably implement such measures--even as we subconsciously sense that they won't provide any lasting solution and that they really aren't even justified within our OWN system of American values.
Huh, Kirkeby? So you believe it is legitimate to break American laws and enter this country illegally?
Well, yes, I guess I do. Each of us has only one life; and each of us legitimately, I believe (as Mr. Jefferson so eloquently stated), has the right—or, at least, the instinctive desire—to live that life with as much liberty and pursuit of happiness as he/she can obtain. This is a universal law of human nature, inscribed in the reptilian brains of homo sapiens (though not, I am sure, in any divine or karmic plan— Mr. Jefferson was either wrong or disingenuous in referring to “Nature’s God.”)
Temporarily, of course, walls and police actions can impede and delay this ingress. When we feel threatened by outsiders, we quite understandably implement such measures--even as we subconsciously sense that they won't provide any lasting solution and that they really aren't even justified within our OWN system of American values.
Huh, Kirkeby? So you believe it is legitimate to break American laws and enter this country illegally?
Well, yes, I guess I do. Each of us has only one life; and each of us legitimately, I believe (as Mr. Jefferson so eloquently stated), has the right—or, at least, the instinctive desire—to live that life with as much liberty and pursuit of happiness as he/she can obtain. This is a universal law of human nature, inscribed in the reptilian brains of homo sapiens (though not, I am sure, in any divine or karmic plan— Mr. Jefferson was either wrong or disingenuous in referring to “Nature’s God.”)
So I do not blame foreigners who, following their instincts, gather the courage to leave homelands that offer little and seek to improve their lot in the U.S. This movement of peoples appears to me as natural and as inevitable as osmosis. Furthermore, like osmosis, (and despite any hastily contrived interventions) it will not stop until an equilibrium is achieved--until Mexico becomes as appealing as the US or until the US becomes as unappealing as Mexico.
Question is, once they get in, will they become "insiders" and help the existing culture survive and grow or will they remain hostile "outsiders," committed to overthrowing and dismantling the existing culture? Surely, a lot depends on how the existing culture "welcomes" their unavoidable arrival.
Will we let them become part of “us”? Our history suggests that sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. And that the deciding factor, alas, is most often race or skin color. Sobering, and the subject for a later post.
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