OPINION & EDITORIAL
Greenfield’s ‘broken’ logic
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by Letters to the Editor
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Ryan Greenfield’s statement that our sovereignty and the rule of law are “strained cliches” is insulting and displays how little thought he has put into the immigration issue (“Awe an example of broken policy,” April 7).
Beginning with the American Revolution, more than 1.3 million Americans have died defending these “cliches” while in the service of this country. Greenfield should apologize to all who have worn the uniform; he is where he is today because others stepped up when it counted.
And can we put a lid on the nonsensical statement that our immigration system is “broken?” What is broken is our government’s will to enforce its own long-standing laws that were created primarily to protect American workers. Had we been acting like a “nation of laws” for the past several decades, the Awe family and other illegals would not have been encouraged to thumb their noses at the rules we have in place. Nearly 50 percent of our illegal alien population are visa overstayers, many of them having done so intentionally because they believe our government is not serious about strict enforcement.
Also broken is a national school system that fails to instill in our children a sense of loyalty and respect for their country and a mainstream media that have failed miserably in their responsibility to give their readers and viewers fair and balanced coverage of a public policy issue that affects every aspect of our daily lives.
Dave Gorak
Executive Director
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, WI
608-985-7864
mcri@mwt.net
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 9:38am):
A nation filled with crackers like this guy sure doesn't inspire any respect or loyalty in me.
Michael O'Neill (April 8, 2008 @ 10:49am):
What a silly man is Dave Gorak. Executive Director of the so-called Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration, probably a one member national organization of great reknown. He states 1.3 million people have given their lives to defend laws of this country starting with the Revolution of 1776
Psst, don't tell Dave, those rebels were breaking the law; that our nation was founded upon breaking the laws of the crown. Don't tell him that many generals serving under Washington were Irish rebels fighting against the Crown--illegals all, including George!. Don't tell him that "illegal" immigrants fought in every war America has entered, the civil war had entire batallions of Irish and German immigrants, as hid the War Against Mexico, where large numbers of Irish soldiers defected over to the Mexican side, because of intolerable racism against the Irish. The Irish brigade fought with such great heroism against the Yanks they are still enshrined in the memory of Mexican history as the Brave San Patricios,
The War Against the Cuban People (Spanish-American War), also saw the same phenonema of the U.S. Army takingin "ïllegal"immigrant conscripts as was done in WW1, WW2, Korean, Viet Nam,and today's War Upon the Iraqis.
Illegal Latino immigrants enlisting to defend this country imperial war policy have made sacrifice well beyond their numbers in proportion to the population.
Further more than 1/3 of arriving Irish immigrants were turned away from entering the U.S. from 1830 to 1885, because somebody on their coffin ship was ill. They were taken by their captains to Newfoundland and Quebec to disembark where they simply walked across the Canadian border, entering "illegally."
Mexicans and other Latinos here without regular status are no more "illegal beings" than are drivers going over the speedlimit on the Turnpike are "illegal beings" or "illegals." We should be honoring these terribly hard working immigrants who have contributed so significantly to our economy and culture,
If, as if by magic wand, we could fulfil Mr. Gorak's mean, crabbed and soured wish to do harm to these people by deporting them, we would pull down upon our own heads an economic dislocation that would make the 30s depression seem like a picnic. What an odd bunch of criminals, who wash our dishes, watch over our children, mow our lawns,clean our houses, man the car washes and hundreds of other services for us! Never before in the history of the world has such vicious criminality been undertaken to make life more convenient, more profitable for their victims as have these criminals who keep the prices of our food affordable, the cost of our housing lower than they would be without them.
America has always entertained dim-witted Know Nothings and nativists throughout our history, but we have usually been able to defeat their anti-immigrant hate and violence. In 1855, 29 Irish Catholic immigrants were lynched in San Francisco; from 1866 to 1900 over 386 Mexican-Americans were were documented to have been lynched in Texas alone, through that is doubltless an undercount.
Mr. Gorak is in a long and honorable tradition of true blue patriotic American vigilantes seeking to do harm to immigrant communities. Yet once again, we chall overcome their ignorance of U.S. history by forceful citizen response of decency and self-interest. Immigration advantages our nation too greatly to succumb to neo-Know Nothing's virulent racism. Michael O'Neill
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 11:44am):
9:38
Decided to go with a racial slur,huh? I am confused. Are racial slurs allowed here?
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 1:17pm):
"crackers"???
Sounds like stereotyping hate speech.
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 3:19pm):
This issue is upholding the rights of people. This is what respect for America should entail, since this is the principle America was founded on.
People have a right to come to this country and live and work. Our government has no right to keep them out.
See:
http://capmag.com/article.asp?id=4620
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 3:42pm):
It's idiotic to compare illegally entering the USA to speeding.
A better comparison is bank robbery, you know, the un-documented un-depositors, who steal what does not belong to them.
There would be no poor US citizens if companies had to pay the wages which would be required in the absence of illegal immigrants willing to work cheaply.
PS. The Irish weren't talking about re- conquering territory that they sold or lost in war.
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 8:44pm):
"Cracker," to my knowledge, derives from "whip-cracker," and as such is not a racial slur. As a white person I would quite happily employ it to describe oppressive, bigoted individuals like Mr. Gorak.
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 8:45pm):
Higher Wages for US Citizens Through Vast Increases in the Supply of Illegal, Unskilled Labor!
Yeah, that's the ticket!
Anonymous (April 8, 2008 @ 10:34pm):
"...a national school system that fails to instill in our children a sense of loyalty and respect for their country"
So now teaching children to think for themselves instead of blindly trusting the government is unpatriotic?
Guess I missed that lesson, but so did the founding fathers, so at least I'm in good company.
Dave Gorak (April 9, 2008 @ 9:07am):
Bigot? "Neo-Know Nothing?" "Cracker?" Name-calling, as I recall, was a tactic used by Sen. Josesph McCarthy to silence his critics. Is this a common trait among all Wisconsin students?
Dave Gorak
Executive director
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, Wis.
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