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A Nation of Fools
By Peary Perry
I’m
beginning to see this country as a giant
boat out on a stormy sea. The waves are
surging over the sides and the bottom of our
vessel has a hole in it, we’re rapidly
filling up with water. There are a number of
us with buckets frantically bailing as fast
as we can so we will survive. There are an
equal number sitting on the seats and
benches and doing nothing. Some are waiting
for us to be rescued by ‘the government’ and
others are sitting by muttering to
themselves that ‘bailing isn’t my job.’ They
boarded this vessel as passengers and will
not lend a hand in trying to keep it afloat.
It makes no difference to them if we sink or
not, they are adamant in their decision that
bailing is simply someone else’s job, not
theirs.
This wonderful country of ours is a
homogeneous mix of peoples and cultures from
the entire world. We are not defined by a
one type of person. If you go to other
countries you may see one predominant class,
one type of person, but not so in America.
There are so many varieties; it’s hard to
describe what an American looks like. As
someone once said years ago… ‘We are a
Duke’s mixture.’ Indeed we are. This is our
strength as well as our weakness.
As Americans, we seem to have lost our way
in our efforts to be ‘fair’ to all parties.
We seem to have gone overboard (no pun
intended) trying to protect the rights of
all minorities at the expense of the
majority. For example, no single source in
this country seems to be able to tell us how
many illegal aliens we have living in this
country at this time. The numbers range from
15 million to 45 million individuals. Every
day we are subjected to arguments pro and
con as to why these people should be forced
to go back to their country of origin or be
allowed to stay here. The argument for me is
simple. If you entered this country
illegally, then you are breaking the law.
Why is this so difficult for so many people
to understand?
In addition to this and to add insult to
injury the United States Census Bureau is
considering including the illegal immigrants
in the upcoming census of 2010. No one so
far has been able to explain to me the
purpose of this activity. Why are we doing
this? At the same time we are embarking upon
this Quixotic mission, hundreds of reports
have been generated telling us how much it
costs to support this illegal population
with medical, social and criminal justice
systems. All of us have been told that we
have a segment of our population (35-50 %?)
who do not pay taxes of any sort and are
living off of the largesse of those of us
who are paying.
How much longer can we do this and survive?
How long can or will those who are ‘bailing’
our national boat continue to do so? In the
news this week is an article telling us that
the state of California is already in the
red only ten weeks after they passed their
budget. The problem as described was a
‘shortfall’ in tax collections. The state
says they may have to ‘borrow’ more funds in
the near future. Borrow from who? I suppose
they borrow from other sources which have
excess funds at this moment in time. Those
would be the people in the boat who are
still bailing.
Let’s assume it gets down to just you and me
bailing and all of the others are sitting
around looking at us like calves looking at
a new gate. How much longer are you going to
continue to support all of those in the boat
who aren’t bailing?
How much longer am I? How long before our
boat sinks?
Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com
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