March 12, 2007

A bastard kind of generosity.

Go here to see what illegal immigration means to Americans who live in Cochise County, Ariz.: slide show.

This is no big deal to many Americans. What would be a sure sign of neurosis on a personal level -- letting strangers into your house -- is somehow not a problem on the level of the community or the nation.

Thomas Payne had this important and relevant observation to make in 1777:
There is a bastard kind of generosity, which, by being extended to all men, is as fatal to society, on one hand, as the want of true generosity is on the other. A lax manner of administering justice, falsely termed moderation, has a tendency both to dispirit public virtue, and promote the growth of public evils. [1]
When we open our borders to all humanity we exhibit just this bastard generosity . . . but at the expense of our own good order and safety. This slideshow shows how people actually have to live with illegal immigrants. Too many of their fellow countrymen not so directly and unpleasantly affected hide behind their cheap generosity and ignore the realities.

Sean Hannity today said on his radio program that the chief of the L.A. Police Department, I believe it was, talked to broadcasters recently. He said there are 40,000 gang members in L.A. and 9,000 officers in the L.A.P.D. Many of those gang members are illegal immigrants. Another grim reality.

We as a nation have allowed this to happen and in the process have rejected the most fundamental duty of citizenship -- defense of the realm.

We haven't begun to pay the full price of this betrayal of our neighbors and our children.

Notes
[1] "The Crisis. Number III" in Common Sense, Rights of Man, And Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine . Signet Classics, 2003, p. 81.

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