Where We're Going in 2008 - Part 1 - Immigration

Well, here we are. The final week of 2007. And what a year. The Presidential campaign is in full swing, baseball is either perfectly fine or a total mess depending on who you talk to, the music business is dying or changing or both depending on who you talk to, and the US economy is a mess. That much everyone seems to be able to agree on. It's tough to not do a retrospective. It's pompous and self-righteous, but whatever. Even in this time of divergent interests and seemingly no mass appeal in anything, there are some big issues that will galvanize or split Americans in the coming year, and I'll talk about a few of those this week.

Immigration

It has always struck me as odd that the people most concerned about immigration seem to be the ones with least contact with any immigrants. Iowa's a very nice place. But it's one of the least diverse places in the United States. Should we really be taking cues from their views and making or promoting immigration policy based on their ideas? There are places in this country, like Northern Virginia, where the issue of immigration has cyclically bubbled up and disappeared. Fairfax County has one of the largest populations of immigrants, legal or otherwise, in the country. Depending on who you listen to, it's up to a couple hundred thousand people. Yet our unemployment numbers are consistently among the lowest in the country (around 2 percent). It's clear we need these people coming into our economy. Amnesty is not a strategy, yet neither is mass deportation. Where is the middle ground?

We need to help these people become citizens. Imagine you live in a country where people earn about $300 per year, crime is rampant, and the political situation is often unstable and corrupt. You have a fourth grade education and you grow corn to survive. Someone tells you that if you sit in the back of their cousin's truck for three days and then are willing to walk a couple hundred miles, you can get a job on a farm or a construction site making $15 an hour, what are you going to do? That becomes your primary concern. Further, you come from a society with sporadic record-keeping and minimal law enforcement. You have no personal identification because you were born in a village in the mountains or the rainforest. You learned to drive in one of the village trucks when you were 14. Now you come to the US, a completely different world. Why would someone in this situation think to apply for citizenship, a green card, or anything else? Many laborers are barely literate in their native language, let alone English.

A border wall would cost up to $8 billion. We live in a country where the President risked the economic health of the nation to give people a one-time $300 tax cut. It 1) seems doubtful the project could be completed for $8 billion, 2)seems doubtful that Americans would willingly pay for something like this, and 3)seems doubtful that this would work. I've said it before, with maybe slightly different wording, but if someone is willing to travel 2500 miles in the back of a truck and then walk across desert with $7 to their name just to get here to work, a wall isn't going to stop them. A 50-foot wall wouldn't stop them. With $300 million per year, we could execute immigrant education programs. Teach people English. Tell them why it's a good idea to get a driver's license. Get them to tell their families and friends how to enter the US legally. If we don't start somewhere, it's never going to happen.

There are Presidential candidates who have advocated mass deportations (who now claim this is NOT their policy or that it isn't necessary anyway). Again, who will pay for this? The bottom line is that people are here, will keep coming, and it is in our best interest to make them productive American citizens. When a candidate devises a plan to do this, they will receive my undying support.

A fresh start

Mrs. Original's best friend passed away last Thursday night. It's been a whirlwind of a week. I was in Philadelphia/NJ with them on Thursday, then back to VA on Friday, then back up there from Saturday until yesterday, and now I'm back home. And because I overslept/it snowed, I am sitting at home doing work today. But that's not the point.

Mrs. Original's cousin passed last year - half of the girls in her bridal party are now gone and we're not even 30. It's strange. And it's strange the way this makes you feel as a parent. I can't imagine outliving my children. For any reason. We cried a lot this weekend, her more than me, and we thought a lot. She's still there. I miss her and the youth terribly.

Our friend was such a wonderful person. She was silly, but in a good way. You'd shake your head and wonder what the hell she was thinking sometimes, but you could never get angry with her. You get all talked out after these things happen. I'm sure I'll have more to say at some point, just not now.