Posted on 01/14/2003 2:26:38 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
Ants...
That's my answer.
My wife hates ants, she freaks out when she sees those little tiny ones (pissants we called them as kids) running across the kitchen floor. She buys gallons of insecticide, she drowns them in the stuff, and we pay a guy to fumigate every month.
But the ants always come back.
One day I decided to find out what was going on, I had always thought that ants are just a fact of life, and that you better get used to interacting with insects, living in the tropics and all (the Florida State bird should be the mosquito), so I tracked one.
It came in through a tiny hole under the sliding-glass door leading out to the patio. It ran across the floor, along the wall, up the side of the cabinet, and into a little crevice that led it to the storage area below my kitchen sink. I opened the door just in time to see the little guy climb up the wall of the kitchen trashcan, and into a veritable pissant smorgasbord!
My kid's leftover banana peels from breakfast, the last two bites of a Pop Tart, some coffee grounds, and the crumbs from the bottom of a box of Frosted Flakes.
No lid.
That's our problem, we leave sugar out for the ants, and then we act surprised, and outraged, when they show up to do what ants do.
What needs to be done about illegal immigration, in order to truly bring an end the problem, may be more than what we as a nation may be willing to go through. We need to stop giving the house away, and quit electing politicians who do it. We need to convince others that they need to do the same.
The quick (and deadly) solution of militarizing the borders, is scary, and has no possible end in sight, the moment we think we have things under control and stand down, the ants will come again. It's like taking an over-the-counter cold remedy, you're still sick; you're just too medicated to notice; and as soon as you stop taking it, you feel like crap again.
We need to seriously curtail the welfare entitlement programs, for everyone too, not just illegal immigrants. We need to limit State assistance to anyone believed to be here illegally to:
· Emergency temporary shelter
· Transportation to the border.
We need to challenge the current interpretation of the XIV Amendment in Court, a well-organized, well-financed challenge seeking to eliminate "anchor babies". We need to severely fine and/or prosecute employers found guilty of knowingly using illegal alien help. We need hard time for smuggling, and manufacturing and/or distribution of falsified legal identification documents...hard time, not Fed time.
We need to increase the technological abilities of the INS and the Border Patrol, and improve their efficiency.
I think we should offer incentives to American manufacturing firms looking to set up shop overseas, to build in Mexico, and not China. Mexico needs to co-operate with some internal reforms, and by relaxing some laws. If we are about to help a nation grow economically, I want it to be the one right next door to me, not the one who has nukes trained on me.
We should also bring back the Bracero program, it's a win-win.
Any individual caught in the U.S. illegally should be deported, and not allowed to return to this country, for any reason, for life. But I also think that if we find someone who has been here illegally for fifteen years, working, not breaking laws, setting roots, and otherwise being a model member of the community, we need to give them special consideration, and try thinking out of the box for a kinder solution.
I want to solve the problem, not medicate the symptoms.
I think a long-term goal of US foreign policy towards Mexico should be one of mutually beneficial trade terms, and wealth creation.
And I think that we need to clean up our spilt sugar. The ants will not sneak in under the sliding-glass door, because they know there's nothing in here for them.
Works every time...
And BTW, if you are really trying to rid your place of ants (and not just using that example as a really clever ploy to get us to read your editorial) look for a damp place where they can hide their nests.
My mother was plagued by ants for years. Nothing helped. Last Christmas when we were out in California doing repairs on her house my husband found the mother of all ant nests under a matt of rotting leaves and other tree vegetation collected on her cedar shake shingles. Removed the shingles, removed the nests, no futher problem with ants. Who would have thought to look for them on the roof????
I liked your ideas. As usual.
The only thing I disagree with is making exceptions. If you're here illegally, you should be deported.
I don't care if you put down roots or not. Breaking the law should not be rewarded.
Regards,
L
One note to add to the 'right on' essay: it is time to bring our employed military folks home to patrol the borders using their techno skills. Will it stop the ants from coming in? No, but it will slow them down, and it will get our people out of the nations we're paying to insult US, like South Korea, Germany, and ... oh never mind, no one listens to a non-political kook like me, anyway. You, on the other hand, they need to listen to, Luis!
"And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."
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