WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS

THE CANADIAN FLAG

This is January 7, 9:00 PM.  I sent out two thoughts yesterday and today I was told by the Voice from the Kitchen that it was time to rest.  So I tried.  I have to admit, we did have some fun together.  We spend so much time doing things for others and for this or that reason that we miss one another even though we share the same living space.
Anyway, here I am and you will read what it is that vibrated inside my gourd today.  
I was listening to the Public Radio Station out of San Diego, California and they were talking to a fellow from the ACLU about the 14th amendment of the US Constitution.  This is the amendment that is said to be the base for the custom of granting citizenship to babies born in the United States, whether or not the mother is legally here.  It was an interesting interrogatory and even though it is not something about which I have extremely strong sentiments, I do have an opinion, and I think about it a lot.
My father was born in Zenon Park, Sakatchewan, Canada.  My mother, here in the USA.  My father's parents were both born here, but went to Canada to take advantage of the homestead act in the third quarter of the 19th century.  My father came back to the States when he was about 9 or 10.  Under the laws of the day he had until he was 18 years old to make a decision as to whether or not he wanted to be a Canadian or an American.  Many things happened in the family, not the least of which was the death of the father, leaving 8 children.  The first born was my father.  He was 15 when his father died.  He never complied with the law that said that he had to make a declaration of citizenship at 18.  This was never a huge problem for him, but it was a nagging little rattle in the back of his mind every time he thought of his dear relatives in Canada. He was always afraid to go to visit them in case he would be arrested and deported, or something.  He did get to go back before he died.  The only thing he heard at the border was, "Welcome to Canada."  On the way back all he heard was, "Welcome to the United States."  He died in peace without that nagging little thing there.


My maternal grandparents were both born in Canada.  The immigrated to the United States and settled in Suncook, New Hampshire.  They learned to speak, read and write English and passed the test for naturalization and to receive voting privileges. 


I was a personnel director for nearly 30 full years in Southern California.  I never knowingly hired a person who was here illegally.  I fired every single person that I found in the company who was here illegally.  Let me tell you that there were many...MANY.  In 1986 a law was passed called the Simpson/Mazzoli act.  It prohibited (and still does) the hiring of people who are in the country illegally.  The penalty for being caught is $10,000 per day that the person remains on the payroll. One again, no company that I ever worked for in this amount of time has ever been in danger of being caught.  Of course, I have since come to know that no company was ever in danger of being caught because our government that brags that we are a country of laws, never enforced the Simpson/Mazzoli act.  


It is my considered opinion that if anyone gets deported, it should be our do-nothing, bribery driven government.


As for the 14th amendment, I don't really care what anyone does or doesn't do about it because immigration in this country is a word that no one understands, for or against.  As offspring of an immigrant, I am proud that I am a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, stubborn, jackass minded individual who will get along with illegal aliens from any planet in the galaxy.  It's the idiot politicians whom I can't stand.