A Nation of Immigrants

Of course we are a nation of immigrants, and look what those immigrants did to the indigenous inhabitants.  Do you want the next wave of immigrants to do that to us?  Okay, our specific ancestors came relatively late, after the damage had been done, so "predecessors" might be a better word for the people who screwed over the Indians than "ancestors".  Either way, it all happened before we were born, so it's not our fault and we shouldn't be punished for it.

I thought I made it clear that I do not get my political opinions from Donald Trump.  I have been concerned about illegal immigration for as long as I can remember, and the first time I ever heard of Trump was when he got divorced from his first wife.  I didn't care about Trump's divorce, but it was in the news so much that I couldn't help but notice it.  In those days, if anybody had told me that Trump would become President of the United States some day, I would have been surprised, and I was really surprised when he eventually did.  I have said before that I don't like Trump's personality, but I do like some, but not all, of the things he has tried to do.  I have also said before that I am more concerned about issues than I am about personalities.  One of my old stories explains that, and I will dig it up and post it when I get time, maybe this weekend.

In the old days, I was concerned about illegal immigration because I have long believed that a law should either be enforced or repealed.  Keeping an unenforced law on the books just breeds disrespect for the law in general.  I think I got that idea from one of my elementary school teachers.  Now I am more concerned about the sheer number of illegals pouring into this country every day.  As I said in my last post, the caravans are only the tip of the iceberg.  I read somewhere, probably in National Geographic, that there are now more refugees on the road worldwide than any time since World War II.  I don't blame the refugees, they are just trying to survive as best they can, but the present system for dealing with them is inadequate.  We have talked about Ellis Island before.  They were able to process their immigrants in an orderly fashion because it's an island, which is probably why the facility was located where it was.  Shiploads of immigrants had to wait at anchor and be admitted one at a time.  I don't know how they could duplicate that situation today, but they need to find a better way of controlling the influx than they now have.

I think the prefabricated barriers they have been installing along the border are replacements of existing fencing, so they wouldn't count towards building Trump's wall.  They do need to do something about those long stretches of border that are under fenced and under guarded.  They are mostly in remote desert or mountain terrain that must have been adequate to discourage illegal crossing in the past, but not anymore.

The car in the picture than Uncle Ken posted seems to be the same color as my old Ford was when it was new, but mine was far from new when I bought it.  You had to wax your car in those days to keep it looking like that, and mine had not been waxed in a long time, maybe never.  That car was 11 years old, which was considered a clunker in those days.  You could pick up a car like that for $50 in Chicago at the time, but I paid $250 for that one, so I figured it would be more economical to drive it home than to try to sell it.  It got me home all right, but it only lasted a few months after that.  It became really hard to start, and our mechanic neighbor said that the engine was shot, no compression left.  I sold it to a guy for $25 dollars.  He had one just like it that ran and he wanted mine for parts.
I seem to remember that he had to tow it home.