Ants.

Self | January 14, 2003 | Luis Gonzalez

[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 medical services

· 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.

[Cool Guy]

Waiting for you to answer the rest of the questions. Thanks.

[Luis Gonzalez]

In other words, you don't think anyone should get in, and you also support the maintenance of entitlement programs for natives?

[sarasmom]

RAID also works against ants.

I could live with a 15 year "otherwise" crime free statute of limitation amnesty, as you described it.Not 3/5/10 or 14yrs 11 months.

With a penalty.

So long as it is set in stone, perhaps with a constitutional ammendment, that it will never,ever happen again.

Come here willingly and legally to join us, add your flavor to the USA melting pot, and be welcomed and respected!

Steal your way in,no dice.Try Canada.

[Luis Gonzalez]

I figure anyone who can survive 15 years without welfare and working, should get a hearing and a chance.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[JulieRNR21]

You have some very good suggestions for solving the illegal immigrant problem. I hope some capable INS people are lurking.

We also had an ant problem (doesn't everyone in Florida). The ants were sneaking in to eat our cat Georgio's food. We called the exterminator and moved the food to a less accessible location. Problem solved.

The real nasty ones are the fire ants! Some of them bit my right foot on election day as I was waving a Jeb sign. I think they were Dems....LOL

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your great essay!

This makes a lot of sense to me:

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.

[Cool Guy]

In other words, you don't think anyone should get in, and you also support the maintenance of entitlement programs for natives?

People can get in through legal channel. Breaking the law should not be encouraged. Entitlement programs, are part of the infrastructure the government provides for the citizens to make their living. We can debate on which are necessary infrastructures and which are waste of $. But we should not put an end to some of these, just for the sole reason that it will discourage people from breaking the law.

[uncbuck]

I agree, If your here illegally, your out. No exceptions.

[uncbuck]

"I firmly believe that most Mexicans would opt to stay home. "

Naw, it's too hot down there.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I was born here. :-)

[uncbuck]

I didn't think otherwise.

[MHGinTN]

They're paying taxes! That's supporting our society, from one perspective. I don't have an opinion on the number of years though.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I know, just having a little fun tonight.

[error99]

HEY A P
You are back!
I missed your return.
Hope it was as dramatic as your departure...

[B4Ranch]

We need to stop giving the house away, and quit electing politicians who do it. No matter what Party they are with!!

[dixie sass]

I agree, most people would not like to leave the country of their birth. BUT...when they can make more money and/or a better life for themselves and their families elsewhere - well isn't that what our ancestors did? They left the various countries where they were born and had extended families and left it all to come here for a better life. We encouraged it.

Americans have fostered the "Streets Paved with Gold" myth for so long and have for years encouraged people to come here. We, as much as the illegals are a part of the problem. We encourage this "industry" by hiring them to work the farms and orchards, housework, shelling crabs and other miscellaneous and dirty jobs that pay next to nothing and that most Americans won't do.

Moving our industry south isn't going to help us or them, in fact it will be putting people out of work here in the states and where does that leave us - more people on the dole, getting unemployement, etc. Why can't the people in the countries south of us start their own businesses? Learn to help themselves? Isn't there enough incentive offered by their own government? Why must we always be the ones to dole out monies for other countries? They have natural resources, let them utilize them. Let them pay their own way for a change instead of relying on Uncle Sam's supposedly deep pockets. We don't have the money to support every person/country in the world and solve their problems when we have so many problems right here in our own country.

Isn't it time that America started taking care of Americans instead of the world?

[dixie sass]

Hello Stranger. How have you been?

[dixie sass]

WOW!!!!! 65" inch tv!!!!!!!!!!!! Tracy and Hepburn - one of the best pairings that the firm industry ever made. There is only one other person that Katherine Hepburn ever made a movie with that is worth seeing and that is BABY with Cary Grant.

[uncbuck]

A friend of mine came here legally from Ukraine (He's now a citizen). He's been here about 5 years now, and has just recently brought over his fiance. She has a green card and is here legally as well, but she goes to university on the US Gov't. This type of payout is horse***t. She in effect is being paid to come here and go to school.