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Message |
| Posted By: |
abc |
| Response to: |
Petition to Pres Bush in support of Ramos/Compean,
Posted by: Fish Person |
| Date: |
20-Jan-2008-09:10:36 |
| Subject: |
:-) |
>>--after all, it is because of the courage of the men and women in the Border Patrol that Carizzo Gorge isn't overrun with drug deals every night-->>>>
Is this a logical argument to support the border patrol?
There is infact a place along a route to this location where the border patrol seems to be situated.
The question is, "What does illegal immigration have to do with nightly drug deals?"
If, for instance, there were no border patrol whatsoever, but just a sign saying, "Welcome to the United States. Please drive safely," then there would be no need for anyone to drive to a place so out of the way to do a drug deal. They could, for instance, do the drug deal south of the border and then drive directly to LA with whatever they purchased. Why make a pit stop out of the way?
I'm not arguing for no border patrol. I'm not in favor of jailing border patrol agents for doing their job protecting the border. However, I would like to make my decisions based on the facts. Should I sign a petition to help a border patrol agent who was unjustly imprisoned trying to protect me as a citizen on those merits alone or should I decline to do so for those reasons and only step forward and defend that border patrol agent because I feel protective of a particular place which is not actually in jeopardy, but because I feel protective of it, I strengthen my position to support border patrol by deciding illogically that this place is in jeopardy based on those criteria?
Fish person, you have pointed out in numerous threads the more logical points of arguments where I have merely been able to sort out my own feelings on an issue, but have not been able to sort out the logic as clearly as you have.
In Star Wars Episode VI, there is a scene where Darth Vadar walks up to the Emperor and says that he sensed the presence of his son on the planet below. The Emperor replies, "Funny that I have NOT sensed it. Are you sure your feelings on this matter are clear, Lord Vadar?"
That just came to mind. I am a Star Wars fan. Sometimes, I think in movie quotes.
I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear...
You seem to have a particularly strong stance against illegal immigration. The key word in that sentence is 'illegal'. Laws themselves are derived from logical argument supporting heartfelt ethics. Without one or the other, law breaks down.
Careful lest we let our hearts get ahead of our heads sometimes.
If there were no border patrol on that particular path, legitimate visits in larger numbers might have more viable routes of approach without inviting attention.
---------------
On a separate side of the issue, there was a time in this nation's history where one could simply emmigrate to Ellis Island if one could find passage on a boat. This provided a method for people living in countries where they were persecuted to come to America and make a go of it. If there had been the same policies then as there are now, then my great grandparents would not have escaped the pogroms of the end of the 19th century and would have likely been candidates for the holocaust a half a century later if they even survived the pogroms.
There are still countries around the world where people are barely surviving or will not survive due to conditions that exist today. With the exception of indigenous North Americans, most of us who enjoy the freedom of being in this country do so because our ancestors were able to go to a first world country like Canada or the United States and leave behind the harsher conditions where they originated from.
In other words, someone GAVE something to us freely. There was a price to be sure. There were indentured servants. Some came over as slaves against their will. Others, like the Chinese, worked in poor conditions to start the railroads, but everyone who lives here today has an ancestor who could say that they lived to see their children come to a better life than they themselves had because of the policies that existed at that time in this "land of opportunity".
An unjust law is still unjust. - Gandhi
Are we, who were given freely to, to claim this as our birthright now and deny it to other needy souls who know no escape to their current plight; through months or years of 'wait times for visas' they may not ever see the end of? Or should we, show our gratitude by paying it forward to another generation of "your poor, your tired masses yearning to breathe free air"?
I don't think immigrating from a wonderful place like Canada gives you the life experience to understand what it is like for someone trying to escape the 3rd world of Latin America. We are priveleged beyond our own depth of understanding. Those making and enforcing the laws around immigration might be more inclined to show compassion if they themselves immigrated from the 3rd world, but alas they have no power here. |
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