Reflecting on the State of the Union Address

After nearly a week of thinking about what our president said in his State of the Union Address, the following passage stuck in my mind...

"It is time for an immigration policy that permits temporary guest workers to fill jobs Americans will not take, that rejects amnesty, that tells us who is entering and leaving our country and that closes the border to drug dealers and terrorists."

I have a problem with this part of the speech and here's why!

1. There are jobs in this country that Americans won't take because they're able to receive benefits for NOT taking those kinds of jobs. Our other social programs are creating jobs for immigrants...rather than our citizens.

2. This program will only tell us who is entering or leaving our country if the other several thousand miles of border are sealed by fences, landmines, large hairy, mean German Shepherds, Dobermans, or Rottweillers and EVERYONE entering this country actually comes through an approved point of entry. The problem of illegal immigration isn't one we find in San Diego/Tijuana, Tucson/Nogales, El Paso/Juarez and the other large and small border crossing points. It's in those deep valleys that run from south to north in our Southwestern States. It's over the high Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista, Arizona...it's in the desolate desert where we share a border with Mexico.

3. See my response above for smugglers of drugs, human misery, or terrorists and their material. Until I see some more details to this program, I'm not really in favor of it at all.

I think that the key to this whole issue is that there are jobs that Americans could be taking "in a pinch" rather than throw in the towel and be satisfied with whatever federal, state and local assistance would come to their doorstep.

While I've never walked a mile in the shoes of someone that lived from paycheck to paycheck...or used food stamps, I have to believe that I've got what it takes to avoid taking handouts, even for short periods of time. I think that you have to practice the way you play. If you're willing to go "half speed" and accept the handouts, then you're starting a bad habit.

See you on the high ground!

MajorDad1984