Border control is on the front page. This is not about legal immigration. America just tied its all-time record for new immigration. This is about the thousands of people trying to enter the USA, illegally, from her Southern border, with the hearty approval of the Progressives/Democrats who seem to no longer believe in borders, or the rule of law. Canada is not far behind with Justin Trudeau’s call to welcome illegal immigrants from the USA.
Children on the caravan
Statements like this elicit angry feedback.
“If making it easy to be an illegal alien isn’t enough, how about offering a reward for being an illegal immigrant? No sane country would do that, right? Guess again. If you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give birth to a child, we reward that child with U.S. citizenship and guarantee a full access to all public and social services this society provides. And that’s a lot of services.
“Is it any wonder that two-thirds of the babies born at taxpayer expense at country-run hospitals in Los Angeles are born to illegal alien mothers?”
Trump, you say? No. Democrat Harry Reid in 1993.
Time to stop attacking white people;who according to the Left are the cause of every problem, today, for are they not privileged and oppressive? White people in America and Canada are the descendants of white people from all over the world; millions of whom came to the New World to escape grinding poverty and murder. Waves of European immigrants arrived in the 19th and early 20th century and often worked for the gift of citizenship-taking on farms and working for very low wages; no social benefits. America and Canada were not populated as they are today. Canada and America, over time, opened their borders to people of all races, colours, creeds, religions and sexual orientations. It was no easy task to break the bigotry.
Jewish refugee children
Ukrainian children starving
The early refugees and immigrants arrived by boat, to just a few reception areas. They came from the British Isles, Eastern Europe (Russians, Polish and Ukrainians), Western Europe and Scandinavia. From Germany, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia and Portugal. At the time of the 1971 Census, 28.3% of immigrants were born in the United Kingdom and 51.4% were born in another European country.
There were far more restraints on immigration, then, than now. In Canada, the biggest port of call was Halifax. My father arrived at the age of 13 from Russia following one of their many pogroms. In America, it was Ellis Island. But arriving at the port did not mean automatic entry. There was vetting of one’s papers. Tricky for those who arrived from ravaged Europe during WWII. Refugee status was denied if one were very ill, perhaps with tuberculosis, or disabled. Despite the left waxing poetic over refugees of decades gone by, it was not easy to gain access to the West.
Today, people of every race, colour, creed and sexual orientation have the right to ask to come to our sovereign countries; unlike the past century. But now there are thousands of points of entry. One can enter Canada and America from all over the world; by plane and boat and then move around by car and rail.Or walk. Millions are coming in to countries that are far more populated than 100 years ago. A country will fail if it cannot support its citizens. A country cannot support its people if there is no proper census which cannot take place when undocumented people slip into the country. And, sadly, we live in a world of Islamic terrorism. That is today’s enemy of the West. And Islamists can fly in from anywhere. Often to more friendly countries like Argentina, which welcomed Nazis, too. And once here in the Western hemisphere there is no problem for terrorists to gain entry. They are well trained and as we learned 9/11, they know to say the right things to get into our countries.
We want ever so much to believe “love, love, love; all you need is love.” It sounds so lovely and so easy. No, sadly, love is not enough. Respect for the other is paramount and that requires the acceptance that all people are born with equal intrinsic value. ALL people. And for far too many around the world, today, in far too many countries, that ethic is not at play. It must be taught from birth. Empathy is acquired, not innate. Paul Bloom has written extensively on this topic. We are by nature, selfish.
Inviting people into Western countries who have been raised, bathed and swaddled in other ethical systems, like the ideology of Islam which clearly states that Muslims are superior to others, and the Hindu culture which believes in a caste system; that is one is born into one’s place, there is no merit; will conflict with our culture. Two diametrically opposed cultures cannot co-exist. One of the cultures must give way to the other. Tolerating the intolerable does not lead to unity. It is difficult enough to co-exist with people who look different. Think how long we have worked at that. And then treating women and gays as equals-all born with equal intrinsic value is for far too many, unacceptable.
We, blessed to live in the West, still struggle with the ethical teaching of all are born with equal intrinsic value.
Western culture will not survive if overrun by those who cannot live with freedom, and that is no easy task.
Keep in mind that freedom around the world is on the decline, despite the hopes of the Arab spring, Turkey, even Venezuela. The west must protect the freedoms for which millions died to defend. According to the Freedom House report:
Democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades in 2017 as its basic tenets—including guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law—came under attack around the world.
Seventy-one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains. This marked the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.
The late great columnist, George Jonas wrote.
“Don’t let Western civilization—the best and most humane form of civilization developed by mankind—perish by default.”
I end with the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
“A free society is a moral achievement. Without a shared morality, a strong identity based on memory and narrative, without training in character, self-restraint, and the ability to defer the gratification of instinct, civilization will eventually suffer a decline, as did Athens, Rome, and Italy of the Renaissance.” (p 28 Numbers: The Wilderness Years)
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
