Let us say you have a big party with a guest list of seven hundred special invitees. You live in a big house with s sprawling property and have the means to afford such an event. For weeks you plan and prepare the music, the food, the attire and the people whom you would like to attend. On the night of the party, the three hundred guests arrive and you are at ease because you made the preparations for seven hundred. There is enough of everything to go around. Their are enough tables and silverware set out, the amount of food needed has been proportioned and there is space enough for everyone on the dance floor to get their groove on.
Now let us say that you are one popular cat and many hear of your party beyond those who have been invited to invite. In fact, hundreds more covet entrance to your special party, which if given free entrance, would soon overwhelm the dance floor, the required food portions, the mount of tables and silverware needed and overall space to make it an enjoyable party. Given that you are empathetic, at the last minute a few of your guests cajole and pressure you a bit to invite a total of one hundred more. Now you have to scramble and make preparations for one hundred more beyond your current capacity. Your budget allocation has to increase exponentially. The company helping you with the party prepping tells you that they are maxed out with the regular tables and silverware you have for the seven hundred and the best they can offer are make-shift tables and plastic cutlery. The guests who asked you to invite a total of one hundred more are dear friends and you want to be generous though it is now taxing you a bit. You say, ‘what the hell’ and you tell the party prep company to roll out the make-shift tables and plastic cutlery. The food staff hustles to multiple supermarkets to do the best they can under the last-minute time constraints.
On the night of the party, the seven hundred special guests, plus the one hundred more arrive. Suddenly you realize that it is crowded. Their is but little room on the dance floor and people you do not know and do not you begin to get a bit rowdy. At one point in the night a fight breaks out near the punch bowl and someone knocks over a table. It is unseemly, but you have security staff and they take care of the situation promptly and you direct the music band to play on. As the evening wears on, you realize that fifty more people past the extra one hundred somehow managed to show up and join the party. They are not wearing the dress code and are sitting on the tables of the invitees whom are dancing or having a good time. Your staff approaches and tells you that there is no more food. Your security staff also informs you that another fight broke out and that someone was caught stealing inside your home. You notice that some of the extra people who crashed the party are mocking some of the personally invited guests. Your stress level rises and you think about how it was supposed to be a pleasant evening.
At the end of the night you sit exhausted and bewildered wondering how things got out of hand and are irked that one hundred and fifty people managed to enter the party completely stretching your budget.
Immigration and the United States of America
We are a land of immigrants, just ask the native americans. Diversity has strengthened our land and we are truly, one from many. My paternal ancestor sailed from England in the late 1600s, landing in Jamestown and from their settled in Hingham, Massachusetts and across the country to Southern California where I was born. My maternal ancestors were the captains on two of the three ships that made the maiden voyage to the ‘new world’ with Christopher Columbus, the Alonso Pinzon brothers. On both sides, my family immigrated to the western hemisphere and established roots that have been deepening for more than five hundred years. I wholly recognize how the growth of America has come about and welcome the different kinds of ethnicities, religions and creeds that make up the United States. Likewise, because we are the ‘land of the free,’ I see how so many more yearn to step ashore and partake in the American way of life which gives opportunity and liberty on a scale not experienced in most other countries across the land. Simply put, the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth for many reasons. We rock.
Immigration will always be a part of our collective heritage. Even so, I ask a few pertinent questions which beg answering by reasonable minds:- Is it smart and logical to allow massive amounts of people to ‘crash’ the party overnight, pulling our resources and changing the culture in such short time?
- Is it not obvious that bringing in within our borders a great multitude of people will change the culture we have faster than we can comprehend?
- When a political party loosens the restraints and practically invites waves of people to physically enter the country, are they not buying their votes through purchased loyalty?
- Americans on a whole have been tremendously empathetic to the plight of the peoples of the world. Does that mean that we have to be manipulated into being told we are suddenly not caring if some of us have an issue with allowing drove of people in within a short time duration?
- Is it not true that if we allow our nation to be overrun in short time by a tremendous amount of new immigrants that these will soon have children and our country will become a completely different country socially and politically?
- How many of these immigrants have high school degrees?
- Is it not so that uneducated minds are easier to control politically and be influenced?
All these questions are rhetorical and answer themselves. Yet most of the established media outlets seem to be of one mind in pushing one particular political party agenda. Change is good, but rapid change in terms of immigration into the United States will leave the special party of liberty open to be taken hostage by people who are not assimilated into our principles and way of life and in turn, these same newly arrived people being a purchase political wave that transfixes our cherished United States of American traditions, principles and culture.
Slow The Flow, Strengthen the Border
Reasonable Americans need to join the social media by signing up to different platforms to bring their voices forward. Democracy in action should not just be exercised at the voting booth, but on a daily basis through social media channels, such as You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Your little voice actually matters. These channels fan out your thoughts. One person can be influential far beyond their comprehension.
This is a new era where democracy moves fast on a daily basis. It is indeed, a ‘battle of ideas’ and our way of life is up for grabs. Being only a spectator and watching it unfold on television is not a display of democracy, but an illusion that you are part of something that is alive. No. The time is ripe for more voices to join the stream of democracy. There is no reason why we cannot voice our opinions and be pro-active members of the American ideal. Rather than be consumers of information then, we can be outputs of it as well. It is time to pay attention, question everything and bring your voice from the inside out in a respectable way that adds to the flow of ideas in our land. Not doing so is the same as relegating the direction of our country to a select few. If you consider how the media is openly and unashamedly saying they mostly push one political parties agenda then you may hopefully realize that it is a variety of opinions and ideas that make us continue to thrive as a whole nation. Do you not think that sitting back and allowing yourself to be influenced by the same news outlets also influences your thought process? Think different. Think for yourself. Empower your thought and reasoning by flexing your voice online. Start small. It is okay. Add your drops of thought on a constant basis to the stream of ideas. Do not give up. Keep going forward. Let no one make you feel as if what you have to say does not matter.
In terms of immigration control and flow, it is reasonable then to stem the borders smartly. Talking about how to go about doing that is part of the process. Feeling free to share ideas, though they may not be the winning ideas is democracy in action. So it is that it is okay to talk of erecting a wall. It is not blasphemy to talk of it. As a people, we are talking with each other to see what is the best way forward. Be it a physical wall or an assortment of strategies to strengthen the border and limit the flow of people it is alright to share this in discourse. What is wrong is to attack people’s character for having the bravado to correctly bring their voices forward. Grappling with ideas is one thing, undercutting people as a rule who share ideas is another. I fathom that this is a central underhanded strategy that hobbles many people from adding their voices to the democratic stream. It is a way to control the flow of information that is brought forward to the table of democracy and it is wrong.
Raising the diversity of voices that speak out can help us understand how to best move forward. It so is that the littlest voices sometimes can come up with the best ideas if allowed the opportunity.
In conclusion, our nation is like that party with the original guest list, plus the one hundred that were added. It is needful to have able-minded stewards who manage with unbiased interest the welfare of the attendees to ensure that the resources are plentiful for all and that the original intent and spirit of the party is maintained. After all, as was said, we ARE one from many and this places the USA in a league of its own amongst the nations of the world.
Go forth and add your voice.
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