The Election Is Over

The election is over. It’s time to cut the crap. Let the games begin. And, as you are just beginning to see, they most certainly have. To those who voted for Donald Trump, those who sincerely wanted change, as someone once said, I feel your pain. I, too, want change; but, as I have written in the past, Donald Trump is not the solution to our problem. His way, shock, confusion, upset, and disorder are not what we need. Even now—already, at the very beginning of his administration, you are able to see the truth of what I am saying in real time as the results unfold hourly. Emotionally and intellectually, he is incompetent to be our president. Even his own party doesn’t want him. But Enough! As I said, the election is over! Let us sit back and enjoy our popcorn and cream sodas as we watch the evening news, contemplating the demise of our nation.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com signing off.

Illegal Immigration

Much has been said during the past election campaign about illegal immigration, how illegal immigrants negatively impact our economy by taking jobs from American workers, and the severe burden these immigrants place upon local economies for which they, arguably, do not pay taxes. This problem is said to be so bad that our President Elect, Donald Trump has promised to spend billions of dollars to build a wall along our Mexican border and, American Mexican relations notwithstanding, force Mexico to pay for it. Let’s think about the logic in this.

President Obama told us on national television that approximately forty percent of illegal immigrants were caused by immigrants overstaying their visas; and, even worse, we don’t know who or where they are and can’t track them. In my view, this is so ridiculous it would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. In fact, it’s absurd. We can track a calf with mad cow disease to a corner of a stockyard half way around the country in the mountains of Montana and we can’t track an illegal alien overstaying his visa when we have his passport on file. I wish someone would explain this to me. It seems to me that solving this visa problem would save millions of dollars over the cost of building a multibillion dollar wall and wrecking international relations in the process.

It is my belief that there is or are logical reason(s) for (or behind) this, not the least of which is the eternal struggle of business interests for cheap labor; but, for now, I’ll postpone discussion of that perspective for one more moderate. We do not follow up or track individuals overstaying their visas due to a lack of money. Our Congress is failing to provide the funds necessary to provide sufficient staffing, computer, and data base support to enable the Department of Immigration to enforce the law. We frequently hear of Congress passing a law only to experience the withholding of funding by the losing minority; or, on the other hand, perhaps the lack of funding is the result of the effect of budget sequestration. I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine; but, with today’s technology, I can’t for the life of me, with all this uproar about illegal immigration, understand why we don’t take immediate steps to take immediate control over forty percent of the problem of illegal immigrants—a relatively quick fix, if you will, of a significant part of this alleged national threat.

Why does everything our government does have to be an exercise in frustration? What’s the problem? What are we going to do about it? When? If our real interest is in the good of our country and our people, special interests notwithstanding, why?

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com signing off.

Xenophobia

Xenophobia, a strong antipathy or aversion to strangers or foreigners.

As I recall, it was in Alexis De Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America, published in 1838, in which (to paraphrase) I read that in the beginning there were three civilizations in America. There was the ruling class, the white Caucasians from Europe, the Native Americans whom they murdered, and the Blacks whom they enslaved. Our murder of Native Americans is a subject for another venue for another time.  Slavery has been an institution of man since time in memorial and continues through today—we read about it in the book of Genesis re Joseph in Egypt, thousands of years ago and, here too, another subject for another time; but the chronic mistreatment of our black population over the course of our nation’s history is indisputable. It is an abomination and inexcusable. The very culture of the black people in our country today is the direct result of our neglect and mistreatment over the years, i.e. lack of education, poverty, social morays, etc. We brought this upon ourselves. I do not argue otherwise. I must, also, point out that we have with full knowledge, forethought, and conscious intent, through our elected representatives over the years, molded our nation’s demography as one of multiethnicity, exacerbating the cultural and political differences we are experiencing today.

As we have addressed our racial problems over the years, however, to the extent we have addressed them, we have done so from the myopic perspective of what the white man must do, i.e. changes in white treatment toward blacks—changes in white behaviour. Without any doubt, some, if not many, white attitudes toward blacks must change! Black lives do matter! However, so also do white lives matter. All lives matter. There are those black attitudes toward whites that must change as well. In fact, attitudes must change by all of us toward Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, Indians—all peoples of the world. There is no place in our society or in our world for xenophobia of any kind in any way, shape, or form—all lives matter! Whether you believe in God or not, the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is absolutely imperative if we are to have any peace on earth ever. For that matter, if we are to continue to exist at all.

This is not a matter of opinion. We have no real choice. We must make peace with one another in this country. We must make peace with one another in the world. Hate has been a major motivator of peoples throughout history. We have graduated from weapons of rocks to spears, swords, knives, guns, and on and on to those we have today. Now we have the nuclear bomb. Just over the past one hundred years alone, all other countries notwithstanding, our nation has been involved in one war after another. As to when or where the first nuclear bomb will fall can only be left to the imagination. War is no longer a viable option. On the one hand, nations all over the world are “in debt up to their ears”. Conventional war is unaffordable. On the other, nuclear war is self-destructive. We must make peace with one another, domestically and internationally—black, white, brown, yellow, olive. There is no longer room in our world for xenophobia. We must learn to live with each other at home and abroad. We can choose to live or we will die.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com signing off.