Not Against the Pro-Illegal Immigration Rally

This is the first thing I wrote here on the illegals. Four years and one week ago. Relevant now because of the fifty thousand who had a party in the streets of Los Angeles, yesterday. So very many American flags. It could fill the hearts of all the patriots with pride. How them people must looooove this country. Land of Opportunity. Stand beside her, and guide her. I mean, they swim across that Canal of the Americas, trying to get here. Sixty Minutes tells us about how many drown, doing it. Little girls, murdered by America. Shouldn't there be a bridge? A bikeway? Seems inhuman, the way we are, with our borders. Unamerican.

Too bad their own country is such a toilet. Too bad their own country has an armed southern border. Too bad America is so bad. I mean good. Well, bad and good. They just want our things, without us, cuz our stuff is good, but we're bad. Uh huh. Mm hmm. And in that spirit, of how bad I am, cuz I'm for borders and walls and discrimination between citizens and invaders, well, there's this, from all those years ago. How things have changed. Or not.

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I’m not angry. Really. I’m not. Not angry. At all. Now, why don’t you believe me? Because I’m not angry. It’s not anger.

And I’m not racist. Really. I’m not. Not racist. At all. Now, why don’t you believe me? Because I’m not racist. It’s not racism.

Tonight, tens of thousands of, um, people are crowded about the Los Angeles City Hall, protesting pending legislation in Congress. The law would criminalize those who assist the, um, people who enter this country unlawfully. There are, apparently, at least some tens of thousands of, um, people who believe that it should be legal to assist law-breakers, and that it should be legal to enter this country illegally. And these ... people are protesting.

It is the right of every citizen of the United States to petition the government for redress of grievances. Surely a protest is a form of petition. And even if some number, large or not, of protesters are not citizens of the country they presently occupy, it is still entirely fitting that the free expression of opinion be allowed. That they hoot, and chant, and shout and disport themselves, and wave the flags of alien nations, and carry banners and signs that call racist those who would have the laws, of the country they currently occupy, obeyed – well, offensive speech (for so this would be categorized) is lawful. That they don't have the ... I won't say intelligence ... I won't say honesty ... that they don't have the clarity of expression to call it what it is - illegal immigration, well, perhaps there is a political purpose, in this inaccuracy. And political purpose, lawfully pursued, is the right of every citizen of the United States - and of our guests.

That they come to this country and are free to express their opinions, brings honor to us. We are glorified, when compared to, say, the countries from which they are fled - countries of economic oppression and rampant corruption - countries of poverty and backwardness - countries they don’t want to be in, as proven by their presence here. They have fled like Lot from Sodom, from the Third World to the First, and are comfortable enough here to loudly voice their political opinions, about what they think our laws should be. They have transformed themselves, with the crossing of a border, from peasants into participants in the greatest political enterprise ever undertaken by mankind.

All who cross our borders and lawfully petition for the right, may be citizens of this land. We are the envy of the world, and even our enemies would join us if they dared. We are not a race, not an ethnicity, not the children of some necessary heritage. We do not call ourselves, say, la raza - "the race" - imagine people who call themselves "the race" calling others "racist" ... but there is no need to imagine it. We, however, are not a race, and to say otherwise would diminish us. Our heritage is the birthright of everyone who would cherish liberty as we do - that balance of rights and duties. We come from every habitable continent, and we join together to build something that endures, to defend something that is worthy, and to make and enforce laws that are just and necessary. How beautiful and fine. How blessed we are, and how noble, to share our blessings. God has smiled on our shores, and we must be thankful for it.

Ingratitude is an ugly thing. Flouting our law is an ugly thing. Calling decent people racists is an ugly thing. How shameful, to call what is lovely by an ugly name. But not every people is a great people, and no race is great. Perhaps, if they stay long enough, they too will, each of them, individually, take on some of our greatness. Perhaps they will learn gratitude. Perhaps they will thank God for their blessings, rather than curse their hosts with curses.

So, no. I am not angry. I am proud. They make themselves small, by calling us names – but we are great enough to bear the insult. They reveal themselves to be hypocrites, by entering unlawfully but demanding the law’s full protection – but we begrudge the freedom of no man, and understand their burning ambition. They show themselves to be ingrates, by spitting on our laws and then exploiting our tolerance. But we are not who we are, that we might receive gratitude.

All who obey our laws are welcome. Come, and be a blessing to us, as we are to you. But obey our laws.


J