Flip side to my previous post. There are times when I join the shout of the anti-illegal-immigrant crowd "What part of ILLEGAL don't you understand"? After all, the crux of the argument against ILLEGAL immigration is that we are talking about people who have broken the law by coming into the country without permission.
When I hear Ted Kennedy waxing philosophic about how our nation was built by immigrants, and how we have to have compassion and concern and care, I wonder how long a person would last if they broke into the Kennedy Compound in Kennebunkport and set up a tent on the lawn. Think Ted would offer to feed them dinners, and provide an out-house for them? No way, he'd have them hauled off to jail as trespassers.
Still, there are laws, and there are laws. And so I was wondering, how many people this past week were on the highway with me, listening to shows on talk radio, and shouting "what part of illegal don't you understand!!!" -- while driving 80 mph?
I don't think illegally entering the country is as minor an offense as speeding. But I think it is useful to understand that at least SOME of the people who support amnesty of some sort DO understand "illegal", they simply are viewing the particular law being broken as somewhat LESS IMPORTANT a law than say, the laws against stealing or committing acts of violence.
I'm not saying they are right, I'm just saying that they deserve to be debated, not ridiculed. When a "law" has gone virtually unenforced for decades, it's not hard to understand why people wouldn't take that law seriously. If the government doesn't respect the law, the people won't either.
6 comments:
Charles,
Looks like Greg over at BVBL is taking some flack over his surreptitiously running the www.voteday.org website. It took some one complaining to get the Sponsoring Registrar of the site "Schlund+Partner AG" to out ole Greg. Any moron with a computer could see that www.voteday.org,www.helpsavemanassas.org and votehamsandwich.com are all run out of the same anonymous bunch of servers...DUH ..Think you have to be Einstein to know who is behind all of the sites? But here is supposedly a bright guy who is doing some good with the illegal alien thing, who is now going to possibly get sidetracked because he thinks he's "cute". Ole Greg needs to keep his eye on the ball.
Charles,
Uh...Oh...Some anonymous poster over at BVBL on the "Blowin Smoke" thread @11:01 AM, is suggesting that Greg's Help Save Manassas group should stage protest marches while accompanied by armed members from the "Open Carry" gun owners group. I've never met any of the "open carry" membership but I have heard them described as kooks, and even some police agencies described some of them as "AS*HATS".
Greg needs to monitor his followers' posts a little more carefully. Even the suggestion that some members of HSM would like to sponsor armed protest marches to "scare" the recently arrived immigrants, can't be good for HSM's image.
Next time Greg shows up on national TV, the questions might be embarrasing.
Charles,
I need to make a correction. It wasn't a police agency that refered to some of the Virginia members of the Open Carry gun owners who invaded Tony's Pizza in Manassas, as "AS*HATS". It was a Manassas City police officer who used the term to describe some of the members who were at Tony's. Remember that whole fiasco.
So over at BVBL in the "Blowing Smoke" thread, apparently some of Greg's HSM followers are proposing to hook up with the armed Open Carry members for what can only be described as a "POGROM MARCH" through or down streets where there is a concentration of Spanish speaking residents. Whew!!!
I repeat, Greg is doing some good work with Help Save Manassas. I know he can't vet every potential member of HSM to determine whether they were ever involuntarily or voluntarily committed to a mental hospital, but Greg can control BVBL's content a little better. I can just see the POGROM MARCH,now. Greg's HSM members, wearing their red tee-shirts, sorrounded by a phalanx of Armed Open Carry members with their guns proudly displayed for the local residents to admire, wearing their manly white "Open Carry Monkey" tee-shirts. Breathtaking.....
We are a country of laws. Greg's HSM needs to help get the laws changed with respect to illegal aliens. What we don't need are any negative images of HSM members going on marches with the "OPEN CARRY MONKEYS", as one commenter posted, to "scare" residents of Prince William County, whether they are illegal or not. I would hope that HSM doesn't degenerate into something like the Sturm-Abteilungen (Nazi Brown Shirt Storm Troopers)who were used by Hitler to terrorize his political opponents in the early 30's.
If he is to maintain HSM's credibility, Greg needs to keep his eye on the ball and some of his overly zealous team members.
Charles,
Isn't it ironic that Greg over at BVBL has banished YOU, who had done nothing but try and rebut some misinformation posted over at BVBL, but allows his Scandal Jackels to rave on about staging armed marches through Spanish speaking neighborhoods in Prince William County.
On Charlie Deane: I'm not going to defend his statement before the County Boards of Supervisors. It's indefensible He simply made a whopping big mistake. And I don't think he was putting forth other employees' thoughts. But I wouldn't discount that he might have had someone else prepare the speech and that he may have been ill advised to deliver same. The reaction from Greg and his Scandal Jackels is very instructive.
Remember Greg's reaction to Scott Linghamfelter's support of Faisal Gill. "Oh..It's just a loyalty thing." Scott has done so many good things for us...Let's give him a pass on this one mistake...Blah....Blah...Blah. And, Greg's Scandal Jackel followers give Scott a pass. Don't get me wrong. I like Scott and I do think he should get a pass on his support of Gill. I don't expect my public servants to agree with me every time. If I agree with their judgment 80% of the time, I'm ecstatic with their performance.
Charlie Deane has faithfully served our community for 37 years. Don't you think he should get a pass on one mistake? Greg and his Scandal Jackels are eager to give Scott a pass but won't brook with Deane's contrary opinion, even if it was possibly written by someone else.
Some would call that HYPOCRISY.
Maybe that's why you are banished from BVBL and some of his more looney HSM members are not.
Charles, don't feel bad about being banned from BVBL, too some degree I am as well, if you post under my moniker, his site will not accept the comments. I post anonymously however, the site allows them and then Greg goes back and changes the name. I just wish he would reign in some of his more vitriolic commentors as the tone on his site is starting to sound like the initial phases of some of the darker moments in the 20th century.
As to Chief Deane, everybody is giving him just a little to much credit or blame for his actions. Although Chief Deane may be wholely responsible for most day to day or personnel decisions, with regard to policy, I suspect he simply does what Police Commissioner Gerhardt tells him do. If you want to get at the true nature of what going on look at the puppetmaster not the puppet.
Dear Mom,
Nice to see you over here at Charles' Place. Your comments are always cogent. It's hard to quarrel with you about Gerhardt. You always seem to be right-on-the money with your analyses of what is happening at the dreaded McCort Building.
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