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In 1961, John F Kennedy said “And so my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Profound words in a time of change and turmoil in our country. Being a decorated serviceman he had asked this question of himself and he had answered it numerous times before his untimely death.
In the decades that followed, the words that he passed on for eternity have become lost on more and more people. The mindset of the majority of people is that the country owes them everything and it is not their responsibility to reciprocate in any way other than to pay their taxes. They do not volunteer, voice their opinions, or even vote. They just sit back, complacent, waiting for the other guy to do it and complain when things don’t change. If you don’t say something about a problem you see, whether it is in the government or at your local school, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
I applaud any person or group who at least stands up and speaks their mind or picks up a pen and writes down their complaints. Just lately, here in my hometown, there is a debate raging about a future real estate development at the entrance to our city. A group of citizens formed a group called the Temple City Neighborhood Alliance or TCNA. They not only had yard signs made and distributed, but they also have a full blown web site
http://www.tcna.info to support their views and get the word out about their concerns about the proposed development.
It doesn’t make any difference if I agree with their position or not, that is not the point. I do admire their tenacity and their willingness to stand up for what they believe in. It is something that I think more of us are going to have to do when faced with problems.
Usually the biggest problems stem from government cutbacks on many of the programs that the majority of us are concerned about. One that I am most concerned about is the massive influx of illegal aliens that are financially chocking our country. While not all states are as impacted by this situation as we here in California, still, it is a nationwide problem.
Anybody who lives in Southern California can attest to the fact that we are being overrun, not only at our land borders, but at our ports as well. Once here, illegals are quickly educated by those who are already here as to the ways to siphon money out of the government systems in place. Once false identification is obtained, welfare and food stamps are just around the corner and then let the financial suck-o-thon begin. I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of financially supporting people who entered this country illegally.
With the border patrol being one of the many government agencies that is woefully understaffed, the situation is not getting any better, if anything it is getting worse. So what have the other governments in the states in our neck of the woods done. They have limped along doing what they can, which is not much. But, if you look in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico, everyday people, not the government, have started a volunteer program which they call the “Minutemen.” The Minutemen are a group of citizens who voluntarily patrol the borders looking for people attempting to come into the United States illegally.
The Minutemen organization has been around for quite a while. In addition to the states I already mentioned, it has chapters in Washington, Vermont, Missouri, and Montana. These are volunteers who feel strongly enough about illegal aliens entering our country that they spend hours at a time watching our borders for illegals trying to get in. I don’t know why California doesn’t have a chapter. It may be that in addition to our Southern border we also have such a large coastline, which is also considered vulnerable, that there just are not enough volunteers to patrol all of our State.
And yet, we should have a chapter here and place them at the hot spots. We may not have full coverage but it can only help. Let them loose on the Southern border and at the ports in Long Beach and San Pedro. We continually hear about freight containers full of illegal aliens living in squalor and waiting to be sold into indentured servitude. Because if we don’t do something about it soon it is only going to get worse. The over-crowding we will experience in the future will make us feel like we are now living in the countryside.
In addition to the volunteer Minutemen there is a new group of volunteers who have a related agenda. You may have seen them on the news lately. I don’t know why, but for some reason they have been getting a lot of press lately. Maybe because people like me think they are providing a great service. So here’s some more press for you guys, they are called “We Hire Aliens.”
Now don’t be confused, the group doesn’t hire aliens, they expose companies that do, on their web site
http://www.wehirealiens.com. These guys cruise around to places where the illegal alien day workers hang out and take pictures of people, in their company trucks, hiring them. Then they post the pictures along with all of that company’s information on their web site and ask you not to patronize the caught companies. If immigration was on top of things they would be going by these spots on a daily basis, but I guess that would be too easy.
We Hire Aliens is of the belief that the reason the illegal aliens come here is for jobs, which is true. By exposing and reporting the companies to the authorities, they hope to turn the tide of jobs that are available, thereby removing the reason for coming here in the first place. It makes sense to me and I hope to God it works. They also ask for your submissions, photographic or written, to be sent to their web site. So grab your cameras folks and join the fight.
While they only address the alien problem coming from the South and not from the East, at least it’s a start. A start in the right direction and maybe others will follow by their example. We Hire Aliens and The Minutemen are doing something about a problem that has completely run away from the grasp of our government. The illegal immigration problem is completely out of control and is putting an ever-growing financial burden on our country and state and has to be stopped by whatever means necessary. If our government can’t take care of the problem, then our citizens should at least be given the chance.
I don’t know if either one of these groups were inspired by JFK’s call, but I am glad that they answered it nonetheless.
The Shrub Speaks: I appreciate Lieutenant General Michel Maisonneuve. She's in the Canadian Air Force. She's NATO Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Chief of Staff. Norfolk, Virginia, Oct. 28, 2005
B.D.’s Response: I don’t even know how to respond to this Dubya. Michel is a man.
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