If the dead could speak, William and Faith Kinkel would describe how their 15-year old son Kipland shot them dead in 1998 at their Springfield, OR, home; he in the back of the head and she in the face while climbing a stairway. The following day, Kip was armed with two pistols and a hunting knife but it was a Ruger .22 semi-automatic rifle loaded with 50 rounds of ammunition that killed two students and wounded 25 at Thurston High School.
In the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, 18-year old Eric Harris fired 96 times from a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9mm semi-automatic rifle with thirteen 10-round magazines. Fellow terrorist Dylan Klebold, 17, fired 55 shots from a 9mm Intratec Tec-9 semi-automatic handgun that in total carried one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine. They killed 12 students and a teacher.
The 2007 Virginia Tech shootings by Seung-Hui Cho killed 27 students and 5 instructors with the use of two semi-automatic handguns and an arsenal of 400 rounds of ammunition.
An AK-47 assault rifle converted to automatic caused the March 2006 death of 14-year old Starkesia Reed in Chicago; the following week, another stray bullet from a Tec-9 assault handgun killed 10-year old Siretha White.
An April 4th response to a call of domestic disturbance led to the death of three Pittsburgh police officers by an AK-47 assault rifle used by Richard Poplawskia.
On April 9, three stray bullets from more than 50 rounds fired from two AR-15 semi-automatic rifles killed 8-year old Paris Whitehead-Hamilton. St. Petersburg police Chief Chuck Harmon said, ”Assault weapons are good for one purpose only, and that’s to kill other human beings. They don’t belong on any city street in America.”
"It's almost like we have water pistols going up against these high-powered rifles," said John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. "Our weaponry and our bulletproof vests don't match up to any of those types of weapons.”
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida R. Alexander Acosta stated, “These bullets are very powerful: they go through walls, they go through cars, and if you just spray the general vicinity you’re going to get innocent bystanders. A shooting that might have been an injury previously is now a death.”
Gun rights expert David Kopel suggested Obama would seek new gun laws and become the most anti-gun President in U.S. history. As reported in The Outdoor Wire, a sports on-line publication, manufacturers are months behind on orders for semi-automatic pistols, AR and AK rifles, and anything with high-capacity magazines and that “buyers we've surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation for their rush to purchase firearms – Obama.”
The hint of a revival of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, that expired in 2004, caused the average price of AK-47s to double from $350 last September to more than $700.
Kristen Rand, legislative director of the “Violence Policy Center” stated, “The 1994 law in theory banned AK-47s, MAC-10s, UZIs, AR-15s and other assault weapons. Yet the gun industry easily found ways around the law and most of these weapons are now sold in post-ban models virtually identical to the guns Congress sought to ban in 1994.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently gave a gun lobbyist’s simplistic view that the answer to gun ownership is “enforcing the laws we have now.”
Private, unlicensed gun sales are currently exempt from federal background checks and sales retention requirements, such as purchases at gun shows, some of which are (conveniently?) attributed to robberies of homes, cars or dealer stores.
Surprisingly, only seven states and the District of Columbia require gun owners to report their guns lost or stolen – another reason for the need of national standards.
By some counts, of an estimated 300M guns in the U.S., there are close to 4 million assault weapons. The number of undocumented gun owners and their unregistered guns in this country may surpass the numbers of undocumented immigrant workers. All of the above infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans.
Legislation that would require the licensing and tracking data of all gun sales would make living in America much safer. The wording doesn’t have to infringe upon “the right of the people to bear Arms.”
Gun rights enthusiasts cite the Second Amendent as the right to acquire whatever firearms suit their deadly passions. But what about the precursor to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the inalienable right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To gun-huggers, happiness is a warm gun; they place their liberties above defenseless Americans who are, at any given moment, put in harm’s way of unfriendly fire.
Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. People with guns kill people. People with semi-automatic guns kill a lot more people. Guns with multi-round magazine attachments are not defense weapons. They are assault weapons.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
The Immigration Situation
Imagine a human traffic jam of 12 million illegal immigrants in seemingly endless lines along highways branching from every nook and cranny of America as they’re herded back to their countries of origin. Imagine American patriots bordering a parade route spanning coast to coast, border to border, cheering and holding red, white and blue signs spelling out, “Adios!”
At 7 million strong, 56% of illegal immigrants are from Mexico, another 22% from Latin American countries and the remainder from Asia, Europe and Africa. Whatever the nationality, the demographics of immigration reform will be devastating to many and inconsiderate of the individual. Congress must be more productive with legislation than what resulted from the Senate immigration hearings for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Less than a month after the bill was introduced (May 9) it failed to pass a third test vote (June 7) by a margin of 45 to 50, well below the 60 votes needed.
As presented by then-Senator Obama, an amendment stated that "... parents of U.S. citizens would no longer be counted as immediate families... most parents seeking to join their children and grandchildren in the United States would be denied green cards. The rest of the current family preferences – siblings, adult children, and many parents -- would be eviscerated.” In other words, No way, Jose! your children born on American soil can stay, pero no otra familia! In real words: no family reunification.
Although more than 20% of immigrant children live in poverty, life in the U.S. is better than the destitute living conditions in their home countries. What further hardships would these and other children endure if either or both parents were deported? Through their fears of family separation they’re faith gives them hope that American lawmakers will provide them an equitable means for amnesty.
A Pew Institute Hispanic Center report states that 56% Hispanics are confident that police will treat them fairly. This is far better than 37% blacks. And 46% Hispanics, compared to 38% blacks, believe police won’t use excessive force. This suggests that Hispanics have, to a large degree, reached a comfort zone of maintaining residency in America.
From February 27 through April 4, Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., hosted a cross-country United Families tour to "stop the immigration raids and deportations that are tearing our marriages, families and children apart." Testimonies from immigrants related personal tragedies resulting from worksite enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that terrorize whole communities.
Texas and California were the most visited of the 11-state, 17-city tour. Both states have seen dozens of hospitals close their doors providing services regardless of citizenship, legal status or the ability to pay as required by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985. The numbers of non-paying illegal immigrants are cited as the cause of the closures.
As stated by John Vison, president of the American Immigration Control Foundation, "The child [of the illegal immigrant] is an automatic American citizen, thus entitled to all benefits of American citizens. This gives a certain financial incentive for people coming from other countries illegally to have children here." Such is the reason why pregnant women risk their lives crossing the Rio Grande to enter American hospitals to give birth.
Acknowledging this custom, Joe Riley, CEO of the McAllen Medical Center in Texas, said, “Mothers about to give birth that walk up to the hospital still wet from swimming across the river in actual labor … dirty, wet, cold,” he said. “We have uncompensated care of over $200 million a year.”
There seems to be a large disregard for the millions of American families whose lives have been unjustly disrupted due to lost wages, jobs and medical benefits that put them at danger of indigent status (homelessness) and life-threatening conditions. In many cases, American citizens have lost the means of attaining their inherent share of the American Dream, fast becoming an Impossible Dream.
As dialogue proceeds toward a statement to be delivered by President Obama in May, media will play a large role in providing coverage of the plights of both American citizens and the undocumented workers who have left them fewer job opportunities.
A split screen marathon might be appropriate. On the left, illegal immigrants would speak in broken English telling woeful tales of family separation due to “un-American” practices as expressed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On the right, sons and daughters of American pioneers would counter in real life anger stories of lost jobs and homes. Stuck in the middle, out of viewer sight, would be naturalized Americans who have also been affected by undocumented workers.
Others will have to work out the details of immigration reform while I sit here cross-legged, chanting OM and meditate on the high cost to American taxpayers.
At 7 million strong, 56% of illegal immigrants are from Mexico, another 22% from Latin American countries and the remainder from Asia, Europe and Africa. Whatever the nationality, the demographics of immigration reform will be devastating to many and inconsiderate of the individual. Congress must be more productive with legislation than what resulted from the Senate immigration hearings for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Less than a month after the bill was introduced (May 9) it failed to pass a third test vote (June 7) by a margin of 45 to 50, well below the 60 votes needed.
As presented by then-Senator Obama, an amendment stated that "... parents of U.S. citizens would no longer be counted as immediate families... most parents seeking to join their children and grandchildren in the United States would be denied green cards. The rest of the current family preferences – siblings, adult children, and many parents -- would be eviscerated.” In other words, No way, Jose! your children born on American soil can stay, pero no otra familia! In real words: no family reunification.
Although more than 20% of immigrant children live in poverty, life in the U.S. is better than the destitute living conditions in their home countries. What further hardships would these and other children endure if either or both parents were deported? Through their fears of family separation they’re faith gives them hope that American lawmakers will provide them an equitable means for amnesty.
A Pew Institute Hispanic Center report states that 56% Hispanics are confident that police will treat them fairly. This is far better than 37% blacks. And 46% Hispanics, compared to 38% blacks, believe police won’t use excessive force. This suggests that Hispanics have, to a large degree, reached a comfort zone of maintaining residency in America.
From February 27 through April 4, Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., hosted a cross-country United Families tour to "stop the immigration raids and deportations that are tearing our marriages, families and children apart." Testimonies from immigrants related personal tragedies resulting from worksite enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that terrorize whole communities.
Texas and California were the most visited of the 11-state, 17-city tour. Both states have seen dozens of hospitals close their doors providing services regardless of citizenship, legal status or the ability to pay as required by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985. The numbers of non-paying illegal immigrants are cited as the cause of the closures.
As stated by John Vison, president of the American Immigration Control Foundation, "The child [of the illegal immigrant] is an automatic American citizen, thus entitled to all benefits of American citizens. This gives a certain financial incentive for people coming from other countries illegally to have children here." Such is the reason why pregnant women risk their lives crossing the Rio Grande to enter American hospitals to give birth.
Acknowledging this custom, Joe Riley, CEO of the McAllen Medical Center in Texas, said, “Mothers about to give birth that walk up to the hospital still wet from swimming across the river in actual labor … dirty, wet, cold,” he said. “We have uncompensated care of over $200 million a year.”
There seems to be a large disregard for the millions of American families whose lives have been unjustly disrupted due to lost wages, jobs and medical benefits that put them at danger of indigent status (homelessness) and life-threatening conditions. In many cases, American citizens have lost the means of attaining their inherent share of the American Dream, fast becoming an Impossible Dream.
As dialogue proceeds toward a statement to be delivered by President Obama in May, media will play a large role in providing coverage of the plights of both American citizens and the undocumented workers who have left them fewer job opportunities.
A split screen marathon might be appropriate. On the left, illegal immigrants would speak in broken English telling woeful tales of family separation due to “un-American” practices as expressed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On the right, sons and daughters of American pioneers would counter in real life anger stories of lost jobs and homes. Stuck in the middle, out of viewer sight, would be naturalized Americans who have also been affected by undocumented workers.
Others will have to work out the details of immigration reform while I sit here cross-legged, chanting OM and meditate on the high cost to American taxpayers.
The Immigration Bill
The stories are well-worn tales of heart-rending misfortune and fears of persecution from law enforcements agencies and the many cities and towns that have had to lay down creative laws to give them pause of remaining in neighborhoods. The cries of malfeasance for actions that are of disregard to family values of illegal immigrants are like that of a Mexican jumping bean, spastic in motion, flippant in spirit and yet, after a lifespan of 9 months, another crop populates into action.
Unlike the egg laid inside the bean that goes through a metamorphosis until a harmless moth emerges, immigration reform will be a very costly burden to not only the next generation of American taxpayers but also to present-day working men and women until death do they depart from the liability.
According to the non-profit organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in 2005 the cost to Florida taxpayers amounted to $1.7B annually, a seemingly “cheap” figure when compared to the jump in price to $3.8B in 2008, taking into account the costs of K-12 schooling, health care and incarceration.
Out of fairness, FAIR acknowledges that if the estimated taxes paid by illegal immigrants are taken into account, the cost is reduced to “only” $2.3B. Of course, the organization doesn’t stop there. The report goes into the fact that if the jobs held by illegals had been gainfully earned by American workers taxes paid would be more representative of real-life contributions to the federal budget.
In 2007, the Heritage Foundation estimated the national annual cost was $2.5 trillion.
The Inter-American Development Bank estimated that in 2006 over $3B dollars earned by immigrants in the U.S. found their way to Latin American countries. If that doesn’t bring your patriotic blood pressure to dangerous levels, every Florida household contributes almost $700 per year to sustain the presence of undocumented workers and their families. Damn! As if you thought those reduced payroll taxes given to American workers are a federally sanctioned gift of stimulus dollars, think again. At best, it’s a washout.
The Center for American Progress, in 2005, estimated deportation costs to taxpayers would be as much as $230B over a five-year period, yet here we are 5 years down the dead-end road to immigration reform and the amounts have surely increased. Costs include detention, legal fees and transportation expenses.
On the other side of the deportation issue, FAIR had its own cost estimate of $275B over a five year period to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country. The 2004 assessment includes the cost in American worker jobs, lost taxes and the continuing costs of maintaining non-reimbursement of social services.
The figures suggest deportation would be less costly than the status quo of continuing to be a host country to illegal immigrants. A free-for-all amnesty scenario would be a free-fall of American culture and the economy.
Truly no one really wants families to be split apart for any reason other than death by natural causes. It’s even exemplary that illegal immigrants have the determination and means to seek homeownership but how in the world of justice do they obtain mortgage loans in the first place?
It’s unfathomable that banking institutions can justify loans to any person without a valid Social Security Number. Since many immigrant workers’ jobs are supposedly temporary, there should be a concern that default rates would be higher than that of Americans. I don’t get it.
Eventually American families find themselves either on the street or with temporary residency in tent cities, facing the likelihood that at some point communities will prompt local law enforcement to oust them from their canvas/nylon “homes”.
Solutions to immigration reform might be financial goldmines to certain businesses interests (agriculture, construction) but they remain political landmines to public servants seeking reelection in 2010, then those in 2012, then those in 2014… However discompassionate to both sides of the immigration issue, politicians are decidedly inconsiderate of the American taxpayer to put off ‘til tomorrow what should have begun a decade ago.
Perhaps the U.S. Department of Justice should give the Immigration and Naturalization Service the wherewithal to declare an end to the hide-and-seek games played by undocumented workers and their families.
Agents could scour the countryside, crying out “Olly Olly Oxen Free”!, a phrase going back to the days of yore when a town crier in jolly old England signaled those outside the castle walls to come forth to receive a message from the King, “All Ye, All Ye, Outs in Free!” Alas, “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.” (Sophocles)
Immigration issues remain largely void of racism. As Americans continue to lose jobs, homes and patriotic dignity, there are no guarantees that the two sides of immigration will remain civil. We all got guns, don’t we?
Unlike the egg laid inside the bean that goes through a metamorphosis until a harmless moth emerges, immigration reform will be a very costly burden to not only the next generation of American taxpayers but also to present-day working men and women until death do they depart from the liability.
According to the non-profit organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in 2005 the cost to Florida taxpayers amounted to $1.7B annually, a seemingly “cheap” figure when compared to the jump in price to $3.8B in 2008, taking into account the costs of K-12 schooling, health care and incarceration.
Out of fairness, FAIR acknowledges that if the estimated taxes paid by illegal immigrants are taken into account, the cost is reduced to “only” $2.3B. Of course, the organization doesn’t stop there. The report goes into the fact that if the jobs held by illegals had been gainfully earned by American workers taxes paid would be more representative of real-life contributions to the federal budget.
In 2007, the Heritage Foundation estimated the national annual cost was $2.5 trillion.
The Inter-American Development Bank estimated that in 2006 over $3B dollars earned by immigrants in the U.S. found their way to Latin American countries. If that doesn’t bring your patriotic blood pressure to dangerous levels, every Florida household contributes almost $700 per year to sustain the presence of undocumented workers and their families. Damn! As if you thought those reduced payroll taxes given to American workers are a federally sanctioned gift of stimulus dollars, think again. At best, it’s a washout.
The Center for American Progress, in 2005, estimated deportation costs to taxpayers would be as much as $230B over a five-year period, yet here we are 5 years down the dead-end road to immigration reform and the amounts have surely increased. Costs include detention, legal fees and transportation expenses.
On the other side of the deportation issue, FAIR had its own cost estimate of $275B over a five year period to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country. The 2004 assessment includes the cost in American worker jobs, lost taxes and the continuing costs of maintaining non-reimbursement of social services.
The figures suggest deportation would be less costly than the status quo of continuing to be a host country to illegal immigrants. A free-for-all amnesty scenario would be a free-fall of American culture and the economy.
Truly no one really wants families to be split apart for any reason other than death by natural causes. It’s even exemplary that illegal immigrants have the determination and means to seek homeownership but how in the world of justice do they obtain mortgage loans in the first place?
It’s unfathomable that banking institutions can justify loans to any person without a valid Social Security Number. Since many immigrant workers’ jobs are supposedly temporary, there should be a concern that default rates would be higher than that of Americans. I don’t get it.
Eventually American families find themselves either on the street or with temporary residency in tent cities, facing the likelihood that at some point communities will prompt local law enforcement to oust them from their canvas/nylon “homes”.
Solutions to immigration reform might be financial goldmines to certain businesses interests (agriculture, construction) but they remain political landmines to public servants seeking reelection in 2010, then those in 2012, then those in 2014… However discompassionate to both sides of the immigration issue, politicians are decidedly inconsiderate of the American taxpayer to put off ‘til tomorrow what should have begun a decade ago.
Perhaps the U.S. Department of Justice should give the Immigration and Naturalization Service the wherewithal to declare an end to the hide-and-seek games played by undocumented workers and their families.
Agents could scour the countryside, crying out “Olly Olly Oxen Free”!, a phrase going back to the days of yore when a town crier in jolly old England signaled those outside the castle walls to come forth to receive a message from the King, “All Ye, All Ye, Outs in Free!” Alas, “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.” (Sophocles)
Immigration issues remain largely void of racism. As Americans continue to lose jobs, homes and patriotic dignity, there are no guarantees that the two sides of immigration will remain civil. We all got guns, don’t we?
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