Roy Jacobsen, over at Dispatches from Outland, Dispatches from Outland, Dispatches from Outland (I repeat it three times in penance for getting it wrong last night) succumbed to my passive-aggressive hint and posted the pictures of me this morning, here.
He mentioned it in the comments on my last post, but I’m saying it out here in the sunlight to make sure YOU NOTICE IT.
Man, I love attention. That might surprise some people, because I make a fetish of not calling attention to myself or promoting myself, but all the time I’m trying to find oblique ways to get that notice, either by some achievement or other, or by passive aggression.
So thanks, Roy, for being my enabler.
(The blog is called Dispatches from Outland.)
So, the immigration bill went down in flames.
I never knew what to think about that issue. Most of the talk shows are against it, but when Michael Medved came on to defend it, I thought he made a lot of sense too. So I was utterly at sea, and not sure enough of any position to badger my senator.
But here’s what I do think.
I think there’s a movement (not a conspiracy. No council of plutocrats is strategizing in a secret room. It’s more of a state of mind abroad in the land) that wants America to be anything but what it has been in the past.
The people who hold this view love America, but they love it in their own way. They love America the way parents love a drug-addicted teenager—“You’ll always be our son and we’ll always love you, but you have to clean up your act.”
These people don’t love America’s origins. They don’t love its history. They don’t love its traditions (especially its religion).
What they love about America is what they see as its potential to become something they could be proud of.
Because they hate America’s history and traditions, they see no reason why anyone should be expected to go through a regularized naturalization process, to learn about America. Why learn about something we’re going to erase anyway?
Because they hate America’s culture, they don’t want immigrants to assimilate. They want to see Balcanization—a country built up of thousands of ethnic enclaves, peopled by folks who can’t communicate with one another, because there’s no common language.
Because they’re ashamed of America’s history, they want to enable (not cause, but open the door to) the partition of America, so that the Old Southwest either goes back to Mexico or becomes an independent Hispanic nation.
I think they lost a fight today, but they win a little by carrying on the status quo too. So I’m not celebrating.
You know what I see for the future (putting on my prophet’s hat here)? I see—certainly in Europe and very possibly in America—ethnic conflict on a scale never before seen in history. Bloodbaths, deportations, genocide and terrorism.
Until somebody charismatic and ruthless rides in on a white horse to impose order.
And I don’t like the thought of him either.
This post is interesting, because I haven’t thought of the liberal position in this way, but by way of balance, the latest Mars Hill Audio Journal has a guest, Christopher Shannon, who says it’s a fairly new idea that immigrants should abandon their old ways and become Americans as it were. 100 yrs ago we touted our country as a land of opportunity, where self-made success was everywhere, and no one thought they would have to leave their family traditions or cultural familiarities at the border in order to adopt new Americanisms. But this doesn’t have anything to do with my opposition to the Senate immigration bills.
I didn’t hear Medved’s arguments, but I didn’t understand any supporters arguments which I did hear. There were a dozen questions with insufficient answers in this bill, but my big ones were security and responsibility. The path to citizenship looked impossible and pointless. If an illegal immigrant did not choose to “come out of the shadows” and jump the hurtles to citizenship, what would happen him? Nothing. What is being done to stop new people from unlawfully crossing the border? Not enough. Why isn’t the money legistlated last year for border security being used this year? No answer.
And why are immigrants in this country able to find decent jobs at all? I heard one radio talker say businesses shouldn’t have to enforce the law, so they can hire illegal immigrants and bear no responsibility for it. Give it up! Some of these businesses are arguing that they need the low-paid labor to survive in our economy. That’s the same argument we used to support slavery! We can’t allow people hoping to earn freedom in America to be exploited by American businesses.
Anyway, this bill did do some things right, I think, but the path to citizenship looked pointless and there was this ridiculous touchback idea that appeared to be a voluntary deportation. I don’t know what Bush wanted to gain from it.
We need full scale immigration reform to allow smart, legal immigrants to set up new lives here, but not pardons for people who shouldn’t be in the country in the first place.
I’m ducking the worthwhile immigration theme to comment on your photos. There you are with that fine head of hair. If a guy like /me/ went around wearing a hat, people could see why. But hyou ought to flaunt that hair sometimes.
I don’t want to rub it in.
What was the name of that blog again?
Can’t recall.
Outlandish Dispatches, or something like that, wasn’t it?