Posted on 02/19/2008 6:25:31 AM PST by shortstop
When you counsel someone to be compassionate, you make an assumption.
It is an assumption of moral superiority. You presume that they are, in fact, not already compassionate. You presume that their position is inherently one that lacks caring and human concern but that your position, on the other hand, is somehow morally superior and enlightened.
And that's a pretty arrogant thing to do.
Because in presuming that others disagree with you because of some lack of intellect, understanding or humanity on their part, you run the very large risk of doing exactly what you accuse them of doing. You end up condemning people whose motives you fail to understand.
I'm talking about illegal immigration.
Specifically, I'm talking about the assertion that those who oppose illegal immigration somehow lack compassion, that they fail to see the human element of the issue, that they lose sight of the fact that illegal aliens are children of God, that if they only knew an illegal alien and his family their view on the issue would change.
I think that viewpoint represents both arrogance and ignorance. Specifically, it represents a failure to understand the people who oppose illegal immigration.
So let me explain.
People who oppose illegal immigration don't hate illegal aliens, they love America. And they understand America and its reliance on constitutional order and the rule of law. They know that liberty is rooted in and protected by law. They know that it is the moral duty of all Americans to uphold the law. In fact, they join with Abraham Lincoln in declaring obedience to law our “national religion.”
People who oppose illegal immigration have no objection to immigration, but they can never accept “illegal” as a way of doing things in this country. The Lord said that his house is a “house of order,” and so must the affairs of this nation be. Unchallenged illegality – of any nature – is a threat to our Constitution and – consequently – to our country.
When the laws do not matter, then the Congress that passed them does not matter and the executive who supposedly enforces them does not matter and the courts that interpret them do not matter and our entire Republic does not matter. When the laws do not matter, our Constitution twists in the wind, dangling by a thread.
It is the duty of Americans to defend the Constitution.
It is the duty of Americans to defend the law.
It is the duty of Americans to demand the enforcement of law.
It is traitorous of Americans to countenance, encourage, facilitate, induce or ignore the breaking of law.
People who oppose illegal immigration are not being bad Christians, they are being good Americans.
The law may change, we have a system for that, and the people through their representatives may choose new laws. But until that time, there is no excuse for ignoring, disobeying or skirting current law. Abraham Lincoln, again, in discussing the cursed Dred Scott decision said that though it was a noxious piece of case law, which he would never quit working to overturn, he was duty bound to obey it until it was changed.
That is the duty of any American.
Further, it is a false principle to assert that compassion is done through government action. Compassion is an individual virtue, chooseable and expressable by individuals. A society can only be compassionate as the consequence of individual choices in the aggregate. Governments cannot have compassion, they can only exercise compulsion.
Compassion is the choice of one person to feel and give credence to the feelings of another. It is an act of moral agency. Governments – which regulate such things as illegal immigration – cannot have compassion. They can engage in generosity, or pass laws favorable to a group of people, but they can only do so by compelling that “generosity” from others.
To extend a benefit to illegal aliens, for example – like in-state tuition or free health care – the government must use compulsion to tax its citizens in order to pay for those benefits. And that's not compassion, that's socialism. Individuals do not use their agency to benefit illegal aliens, the government uses its power to take from one group the money it proposes to give to another group. That concept has been attacked for two hundred years by defenders of our Constitution.
It is also a false premise to assert that giving benefits to illegal aliens is compassionate. It is, rather, broadly hurtful. There are some 12 million illegal aliens in this country. There are almost 300 million citizens and legal visitors or immigrants. That means roughly 4 percent of our population is here illegally.
Is it compassionate, then, to damage the interests of 96 percent of the people in order to facilitate the interests of 4 percent of the people?
Is endangering the institutions, law, governmental stability and prosperity of 96 percent truly compassionate? Isn't it actually hurtful? Doesn't continuing to ignore illegal immigration – and rejecting efforts to curtail it – show a stunning lack of compassion for the interests of some 300 million people?
It is not compassion to take food from your children's mouth and give it to your neighbors, it is betrayal of your children.
And finally, accommodating illegal aliens in this country shows a lack of compassion to their compatriots in their home countries. When soft-hearted politicians give more benefits to illegal aliens, they provide an incentive for illegal immigration – they make the choice to come here all the more tempting for people in other countries.
And that draws people into the decidedly dangerous and exploitative process that smuggles people into this country and houses them in our communities. When a state's generous treatment of illegal aliens convinces a family to come north across the desert, and that family faces tragedy at the hands of either the weather or of an unscrupulous smuggler, that compassion has actually been a curse. It has not helped these people, it has hurt them.
If you give a panhandler money, you are not showing him compassion, you are causing him and society problems.
The duty of an American is clear, it has been explained by every true leader since George Washington. If you don't like a law, you work to change the law – you don't encourage the ignoring of it.
That is a true principle.
That is a foundation of our Republic.
A man who encourages the ignoring of our law is not a friend to us, our freedom or our country. A man who encourages the violation of law in the name of compassion understands neither law nor compassion.
Yes, illegal aliens are children of God. Yes, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. But defense of our country, our home, our families, our liberty and our law is also a divine principle and commandment.
All we ask of immigrants is that they do what we do: Obey the law.
All we say to those who condemn us for lacking compassion is: You don't know us or what this country is about.
We are Americans. We defend the Constitution and we uphold the rule of law. We welcome all who come here legally.
And we will not silently suffer those who do otherwise.
Many of us once swore an oath of enlistment or commissioning that obligated us for the rest of our lives to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
We intend to keep that oath.
Even if the domestic enemies we face point the self-righteous finger of condemnation at us.
Is ignoring this Conservative?
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The first law suit in American history to bring a President and a Senator to court for defrauding the Senator’s largest campaign donor and his public company will be set for trial and discovery at the Case Management Conference before Judge Munoz. Discovery and depositions of key witnesses, including the Clinton family, Al Gore, Ed Rendell, Terry McAuliffe, Harold Ickes, Howard Wolfson, Kelly Craighead, Barbara Streisand, Brad Pitt, Larry King, Mike Wallace among an array of political and entertainment leaders, will present an inside look at a culture of corruption that will shock the public.
Excellent, excellent post shortstop. I will be sharing this widely. Let us not forget that illegal immigration, while being a problem, is also a symptom of a bigger problem: politicians who allow the situation to exist and refuse to do anything to solve it.
It is, instead, a hurtful, immoral, non-Christian act of bigotry and greed.
NOT!
The only thing we lack is money. We cannot AFFORD them any longer.. if we EVER Could!
I can barely pay my own way, let alone succeed with a boat anchor around my neck... because that’s what supporting and subsidizing them amounts to. I am working two jobs and I am NOT getting ahead.... I am just breaking even. Nice, huh??!! Nothing to do with COMPASSION and you know it!!!! Stick your COMPASSION where the sun don’t shine and stop STEALING my money! BTW- got any COMPASSION for me, the theft VICTIM in all this???!!!
I know plenty of illegals and that hasn't changed my opinion. In class the other day, a teenager started a whine fest over illegals and the border ---
Whaaa, y'all are so unfair wanting to put up a fence to keep Mexicans out! Why can't I live where I want?
Ok, so what about a fence along the Canadian border?
Oh, we need one there because Canadians shouldn't be allowed in America.
So, you're saying Mexicans are fine but Canadians are bad. Do you have locks on your doors at home?
Of course!
Whaaa, you're so unfair! I should have every right to walk into your house, plop myself down on your couch, eat your chips and watch your tv.
Whos doing that? any country you know of?
MSM will slop on enough icing to float a battleship and it will be the fault of evil white Republicans and the Clintns will once again have angelic halos gushing out of their ears...
More tha 15% of the people coming in who speak spanish are not from Mexico, wake up and know what you are all talking about.
Brazile is made up Portugese, Uragauy is made up of Austrian, and Italians mixed with others blood lines.
The majority of the people are mixed European blood line, and speak spanish, so does that make all aliens Mexican?
Do some homework people
The last few minutes of the 9 minute vid deal with good intentions.
One of the best summaries of the issue I’ve ever read.
Ah, yes.
The infamous "Undocumented Houseguest".
Which the open-borders advocates would never put up with for a second if it happened in their own house.
I never said there weren't OTM illegals. The conversation I had was with a illegal from Mexico.
A country? How about political parties ~ the Democrats and the RINOs.
On the other hand the comment to which the response is being made focuses on ILLEGAL ALIENS, and clearly differentiates between IMMIGRANTS and ILLEGAL ALIENS.
One of the first lessons in English is to know what words mean.
How About the differance between Pretenders and Real Americans who are Fighting and dying on the battlefields,
for the protection of the FreeWorld?
If the name is Garcia, Should we ask them if thier realtives have gren cards?
If you think Garcia's relatives are not legally here you should report them to ICE.
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