Good Day World!
There are so many ironic things about our society I could write a book on them. But today I want to focus on a current issue that has this country divided: illegal immigrants. Tempers are flaring up. Some people think that we are being invaded.
BACKROUND
More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since October. Most in just the last few months. Since October, more than 52,000 children traveling without an adult were caught entering the United States through Mexico — double the number of the previous year and triple the
About three-fourths of the children are from Central America: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador. The rest are from Mexico.
Families are sending their children to the U.S. to escape crime, gangs and poverty and to reunite with relatives who may already be on American soil.
The surge appears to be rooted in rumors that a change in U.S. immigration policies means any child who crosses the border can stay. (source)
CONTRASTING CURRENT EVENTS WITH A CLASSIC POEM ABOUT IMMIGRATION
Federal immigration authorities have set up a processing center at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport to cope with the surge in unaccompanied children coming to the U.S. from Central America
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightening, and her name
Mother of Exiles.
On Tuesday, three buses full of about 140 migrants were forced to turn around after protesters blocked the road to Murietta, a town of about 103,000 people between Los Angeles and San Diego, and shouted slogans like, “Go Back to Mexico!”
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twice cities frame.
"They're illegal aliens and they should not come here illegally. We have our own children to worry about,” Patrice Lynes told NBC News before a town meeting on the issue Wednesday night. "We want the illegal aliens repatriated to their own country."
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp1” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,
Angry locals in Murrieta, Calif., packed a 750-seat high school gym for a town hall meeting Wednesday night, a day after protesters blocked the streets to prevent the arrival of 140 immigrants from overcrowded Texas facilities.
"Send them back! Send them back!" the crowd shouted at Murrieta officials and federal Border Patrol agents trying to address the meeting, as hundreds of residents stood outside unable to enter the crowded assembly.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
POEM-The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
If you’re like me, there’s no escaping the irony. What happened to the “Great Melting Pot?” Was there ever one? We’re a nation of immigrants with amnesia. We’ve forgotten our roots and have grown into a country full of fear, prejudice, and hate.
Time for me to walk on down the road…
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