Listen first to this presentation, then click here to read the original post here then see the comments below. I have been having a polite and respectful discussion about the building of walls around countries. This discussion was started as a comment sent to me by a brother in the faith.
Comment 1.
Anthony here. Been a while.
Hope you and family are having a fruitful Lent. Interesting comments on your post. I suspect we are on different political ends but I wanted to make sure. My Lenten work is to not have quick opinions about others without at least 10 exchanges of ideas. People are complex and ideas are complicated. I need to give people more time to express themselves and vice versa.
1) Do you see the problem that Trump is trying to decrease with a wall?
That is the most important question before anything else can proceed in a potential discussion.
I realize you are probably very busy and may or may not have time to start a discussion but I was interested in seeing the viewpoints on a fellow Catholic who may have different political views.
God bless you and your work.
Sincerely, Anthony.
Response 1.
Anthony:
Glad to hear from you. This email was a good way to open Lent. Now I know that most of those on my list are still alive, and that's a good thing. It beats sending an email asking for a "Test response." I hope that you and your family are well.
The answer to your question, "Do I know the problem that he wants to solve?" is yes, because he has said it.
My opinion is that walls only exacerbate human problems, but they are great solutions in the control of water flows.
I will not forget you during Lent.
Paul
Comment 2.
The reason I wanted to make sure we see the same problem is because only then can we discuss the urgency and severity of the solution proposed.
Do you see the illegal immigration problem as I present it below? Here is information garnished from several websites and edited by me.
The main problem with illegal migrants is lost jobs, depreciated wages, stolen taxpayer resources, and increased numbers of crimes and domestic terrorism. Each of these problems harms Americans in many ways.
Illegal migrants force taxpayers to pay for their education, their healthcare needs, increased infrastructure to handle their presence in our land, and increased costs in our courts and prisons.
Illegal migrants fill our emergency rooms, classrooms, and courthouses and demanding that we speak their language and provide free interpreters for them.
Illegal migrants use food stamps and welfare to benefit their families ahead of US citizens.
Some illegal migrants steal American identities and engage in document fraud.
Illegal migrants come from lawless third world countries where the gangs rule, not laws or Constitutions or elected officials. Many of them retain that "rape and pillage" mentality once they enter the US, and to make the problem worse, our own government shows illegal immigrants that they can violate our laws and get away with it! That is why many illegals also drive drunk, burglarize homes and cars, molest children, join violent gangs, deal drugs, etc. They know that the US Government will turn a blind eye or only slap them on the wrist if they are caught, or if they become wanted for a serious crime, they can simply escape justice forever by returning to their home nation.
Terrorists are among the illegal migrants coming into America from the Mexican border.
A few illegal migrants are members of gangs like MS-13 and the Mexican Mafia.
The 9/11 hijackers were violating their student visas and here illegally.
Illegal migrants are voting in US elections stealing votes from Americans.
All of these actions dilute and weaken the American culture that makes America what it is. That is why I refer to such people as illegal migrants and not illegal immigrants --- we cannot even say they want to be part of America. They don't want to assimilate and learn how to abide by laws and learn English. Immigrants are invested and respectful of the new nation they move to. Migrants are not.
Protecting America from illegal migration is not about hating immigrants. It is about loving the people already in America by keeping them save. It is about being fair and just to those already here.
The Catholic Church and its excessive focus on social justice is misguided I believe. Jesus was not an illegal migrant. I am positive that Mother Mary and St. Joseph respected the laws and customs of Egypt when they legally migrated there for protection from Herod.
If we see the problem as above, we can work on what the solution is. We can discuss Trump's zero-sum game tactics in the future.
Sincerely,
Anthony
PS: Cognitive dissonance is an intrapsychic phenomenon --- it occurs when a person has beliefs that conflict with each other and lead to actions that are not consistent with one of those beliefs and thus result in discomfort. Your use of the term is out of place. I doubt Trump has any discomfort doing what he is doing. Our view of what he is doing may not agree with what we belief but that is not cognitive dissonance more than it is just disagreement.
Response 2...Based on Krauthammer YouTube presentation as well as your comment
Interesting position. I am against walls because they are a radicalizing catalyst for those who live on both sides. In the end, wars, or better accords make them come down or the gates swing open never to close again. The gates then become social gathering locales and positive energy is rekindled on both sides, but only after a long time of discomfiting internal and external strife.
Your example of the Holy Family taking refuge in Egypt is pertinent here because Egypt had no wall, and still does not.
On the theological and spiritual side we have the salvation story through the centuries that is a long exhortation toward openness and care...naturally tempered with a dose of discrimination and war.
Krauthammer skirts the issue. The wall is a material barrier that is doomed to crumble. The real wall is in the will of the governed and the governing.
The governing have no will to follow the laws that they pass. They failed to enforce Simpson-Mazzoli and they ignore over-stayers of visas. (I'm sure that any family with immigrants in the house knows how this works.) I enforced Simpson-Mazzoli from my office as Human Resources Director. My intransigence before the law made hundreds of people unhappy.
The governed are unhappy about the influx and blame many social ills on the migration activity.. The truth is that the movement over the border has made room for the "legals" to get the higher paying, less strenuous employment while the interlopers take the work that the "legals" really don't want to do anyway.
A look at history through some of the early pages of Scripture reveals that when things would get rough in the Euphrates/Tigris/Canaan area, the migrants went to Egypt. There they found themselves where the Egyptians did not want to be...the Nile Delta region. Father Abraham was likely a part of this migration. (Google "Hyksos.")
As you know, even that turned bad after a while, just like everything else human.
I have no quarrel with border control. I have the quarrel with the lack of will to exercise it in a human and humane way. That excludes walls. I have a quarrel with the governing "class" who accepts millions of legalized bribe dollars (campaign contributions) in exchange for turning away from the existing law and then placing the blame on the "illegals" who did not break the law in absolute fashion...they took/take advantage of the venality of the system.
I suppose that it is unnecessary for me to mention that Jordan, Italy, Germany and Sweden to mention but a few seem to be refuges whose resources are strained but who are comforting those who need it most.
I close my opinion by noting that I am aware that in any wave of refuge seekers there is a percentage of "snakes and rats." So, I ask, what else is new? We have that approximate same percentage of humans born in every country that fall into those categories. The only difference is that we have to wait for them to grow into them.
Anthony, I thank you for staying on this topic. I willingly admit that I am a "Catholic globalist." It is out of religious conviction resting on a fairly long life of multiple international experiences. The latest one is two-fold: Annual visits to the Holy Land (with all that entails) and a sincere friendship with the Muslim community in the Riverside area of California, including the Imam of the local mosque. Finally, the visits to the Holy Land show that there is a weakening, slight but tangible, of the discipline imposed with regards to crossings through the Wall. I am confident that this wall too, will crumble someday. All I can say is, "Why waste the time, especially in God's country?"
Followed by, "Find a higher resolve to straighten out our USA situation without a brick and concrete barrier..
God bless you. You made me fight my gouty fingers into doing this without my voice recognition tool.
Peace and joy to you.
Paul
