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juliaoceania -> RE: If the bottom line is illegality ... (9/7/2006 7:11:29 PM)
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Leave it to you to write a thread that has been on my mind off and on all day, so I am returning to it to post a thing or two...smiles.
First of all you mentioned the Civil Rights Movement and how people recognized that just because it is a law does not mean it is a good one....
I would like to expand on this concept....
In Nazi Germany people disobeyed laws and helped Jews even though they could have been sent to camps themselves and disappeared. We call these people heroes today, the German government saw them as traitors. (White Rose Society is a "must google" for anyone that would like to know more about courageous Germans)
We had slavery in this country and today most people recognize that the institution of slavery was immoral. People took many risks to help slaves escape to freedom. They broke the law to do so. Part of the argument for continuing slavery was that economically speaking it was a way of life for the South. I would say that this was not a good justification to continue the practice.
So I wonder if what I am reading on these threads that are anti-immigration maybe viewed in the future. I see the justification that "these people" hurt us economically, so that means it is ok to deny them medical care, charity with food stamps, and to deny their kids an education because they do not have green cards. I cannot help but wonder if in 50 years some record of threads on the internet such as this one will record the differing voices of our time. Perhaps our grandkids will think us small minded, ignorant barbarians that just didn't know better because "times were different", of course there were a few of us that tried to be humane, but many more were just "products of their time". At least that is the way I hope it plays out.
There was a law proposed in California that passed, but was deemed unconstitutional called Proposition 187, which sought to deny medical care and education to illegals. It scapegoated Mexicans as the root of the problem with our state and since we had someone "out there" to blame, we did not have to look at our own contributions (or lack thereof) to our problems. It reminds me very much of what happened to the Jews as far as scapegoating troubles within our country at the feet of people who do not have much to fight back with.
Corporations will always look for ways to cut their bottom line with wages, whether they hire an illegal, or they send your tech job to India. It seems rather small minded to scapegoat like this. It is also inhumane to think about not tending to sick people because our government just will not pay for it...
I am hoping that in the future these sorts of issues will be a no-brainer.. someone needs medical care, an education, or a meal... give it to them.. especially if they are a child. I think in the future this will be a basic concept like children should not work in factories and we should not have slaves.. never mind the fact that the shoes we wear were probably made my child slaves... perhaps I am a dreamer.
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