You'll forgive me if I am growing a tad annoyed with this constant need to defend a title that 99.9% of people don't really do anything to achieve. We were lucky enough to be born here.
I would like to know what exactly do you mean when you say "a title that 99.9% of people don't really do anything to achieve". Further more I would also like to understand what you meant when you said "We were lucky enough to be born here".
You seem to think that the US somehow was, all this time, a great nation that created itself without the help of any humans and that somehow all of us just happen to be born here and enjoy some or most of the great things this country has to offer. Let's get one thing straight here Baker, I work hard, I work a minimum of 40 hours a week, at times I have worked 60. Day in and day out, I have paid my taxes, paid my bills, obeyed the laws, contributed to charity and have made sure my kids have a good enough education to make them better people so we can have a chance to have a better future. Compared to how other countries in the world are, yes I do consider myself lucky to have been born in this great nation, but I will not allow anyone (including you) to tell me that I somehow do not deserve to call myself an American. I may not have signed up for the Armed Forces and may not have put my life on the line to defend the freedoms we enjoy in this country, but I have no problem pointing out that is was my sweat and blood and the sweat and blood of many of those who did not sign up for the Armed Forces and put their lives on the line that paid for those uniforms, boots, training and some of the most powerful weapons ever created. It was people like me that made it possible for this country to be what it is today, even if it's not at it's greatest at the moment it's still one of the best. I am an American, whether I was born here, immigrated here and became a citizen or came on a ship from an exploding planet and the yellow sun gave me super powers. Everything I do I do it for my country and for my family.
I have mixed feelings about immigration, and I don't think anyone has a decent answer that both works ethically and would work in reality.
But, I don't think anything is served by all this worrying about what names and titles people use. If we want to be taken seriously about immigration we need to stop all this junk about how our culture is under attack, etc., and just deal with the basic fact of immigration; why it doesn't work, what can make it work.
If there was a single solution that it was both ethical and worked in reality, this would be a perfect world. I would think that by now everyone in this country would know that sometimes sacrifices have to be made and that you can't always have your cake and eat it too. I consider it stupid to allow a problem to grow simply because a solution that would satify everyone 100% can not be achieved. How can one punish a person for a crime if the punishment is seen as harsh? Hello!!! I thought the point of the punishment was to be harsh to prove a point to stop criminals from repeating themselves. You can't put someone behind bars with the intentions of taking away all the things a free man would be able to enjoy in a free country only to have all of those comforts be brought to them inside the jail.
You may not think the name thing is important, but as i have said before not everyone thinks democracy is good, not everyone thinks womens rights are good, not everyone thinks vanilla icecream is good. It is what it is; a drunk driver is not a not sober enough driver, a prostitute is not an off camera porn star and an illegal immigrant is not and undocumented American. In this world names can mean the differnec between going to jail or being able to sue, between going to jail or getting paid legally, being a criminal or just not having any documents at the moment.
If I just happen to lose my documents (birth certificate, social security card and license) due to, say, a fire, a flood or a home invasion and a a INS officer just happens to stop me because I look hispanic (since I am). Would that make me an illegal immigrant or an undocumented American? How can I prove to him I am a citizen before I get taken away?
It isn't the 'building a wall' thing that really annoys people, it is what that wall stands for. We look down our noses at the French for all their cultural protectionist crap. Can't we just come to some conclusion about how to protect our borders and create a fair immigration system without all this nitpicking about words ideals?
Sure we could, in a perfect world. But again we are not perfect. OK let's see if this makes sense to you. Imagine you lived on an island with 1000 people and your island has a eco system that could maintain 3000 people for thousands of years. Outside of this island are 20 islands where 1000 people on each living but their eco systems can only maintain 600 people. Sure the first island would be nice enough to allow others from the other 20 islands to come over since they have more than enough for themselves, but they have an immigration process that only allows to have some many people over at any given time to avoid exceeding the limit of the eco system and to keep out unwanted people who could abuse the system. But imagine if they would just let everyone in without a care. Imagine all those 400 people from each of the 20 islands that exceed the limit of their island's eco system and are staving were to all move to that first island because they all think there is enough since they have more thn they need but do not consider that others from the other islands may go there as well. That would be 8000 immigrants moving to an island that only had 1000 people and could only sustain 3000 people. What do you think will happen to the people on that island?
Now imagine making it easier for immigrants from Mexico to cross into the US because we just want to be fair and share what we have. Imagine all those who think they could do better in the US cause we have a system that helps those who can't help themselves unlike their country. Imagine having possibly 3 times as many immigrants crossing the border in less than a year looking to benefit from that which those who were born here and have worked hard to earn a living or those who endured the long process, paid thousands of dollars and have been scrutinized over and over just to make sure they are really commited who have also worked hard to make a living; or even worse take the jobs from those who have them now just because they are willing to work for less since less is still a lot more than they had before. In my opinion that will be the end of our society. Something I am not willing to accept or allow.
