IMMIGRATION REFORM - PATRIOTIC AND LONG OVER DUE

KUDOS TO OUR COURAGEOUS ETHICAL AND HONEST PRESIDENT

If you are my age, you may be very familiar with the lyrics of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. . .

My Country Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty, of Thee I Sing. . .

You may also be familiar with the folksong by Woody Gutherie, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND . . .

This Land is my land, this land is your land, this land was made for you and me. . .

and or course there’s Neal Diamond’s famous  THEY’RE COMING TO AMERICA, the lyrics and a video of which you will find on the links https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2gjh9_coming-to-america_music and http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neildiamond/america.html.

You may wonder what these songs have to do with President Obama’s recent Executive decision to reform our broken immigration laws.  Despite the fact that he has pushed immigration reform as one of his top priorities before he officially took office in 2008, the Republican/Tea Party majority of Congress has refused to make an up or down vote on this bill. 

Here’s the rub – for whom were the lyrics of those famous songs written?  Those are not Native American songs, for this was and is their native homeland.  No, those songs were written for the immigrants who have come to America in hopes of being free from tyrannical dictators, free from pitiful poverty, and the right to worship or not as they wished.

I recently posted a photo that I truly love from TIME.  It is a black and white snapshot of a proud Native American.  The caption reads, SO, YOU’RE AGAINST IMMIGRATION?  SPLENDID!  WHEN DO YOU LEAVE?”  The photo may be found on my Facebook url https://www.facebook.com/ kathleen.perry.94064, shared by https://www.facebook.com/attn/photos/a.196549437047190.41358.160389977329803/774939982541463/?type=1.

I have written about the Manifest Destiny numerous times – the audacity of white Europeans to believe that they have the right to rape, pillage, and conquer any land and her people, most especially if they are of another race, creed and culture.  What is worse, many so called Christian religions supported the invasion of America, the mass murder of millions of Native Americans, and deporting millions of other tribes   

Of course their refusal to pass anything President Obama has put forward for the past six years, beginning with his first inauguration, speaks volumes as to who is really unwilling to pass legislation which the majority of Americans favor.  

After all, President Obama ran on Immigration Reform, Affordable Healthcare (aka Obamacare), Raising the Minimum Wage, Equal Pay for Women, Protecting Women Against Violence, Funding Education, our Military Benefits, Strengthening Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Unemployment Benefits, etc.

Republicans and Tea Baggers campaign on hate, lies, fear and threats.  Their legacy – sending jobs overseas, growing the national debt, sending us into a grave recession, cutting jobs, polluting our planet, gutting food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment and military benefits, denying all eligible citizens the right to vote, perpetrating a war on women and minorities, violating the U.S. Constitution of separation of church and state, taxing the middle class and poor while they escape taxation by setting up profit accounts outside the United States, committing war crimes, violating the Geneva Convention, and so much more. 

Their representation is far from patriotic, and yet several state and national GOP/Tea Party Leaders have decided to sue President Obama for employing his Constitutional use of Executive Power to move forward on issues like Immigration Reform, because the they have refused to do the jobs to which they were elected, albeit from a mere one-third of our national voters.

Thanks to 2/3rds of our populace failing to vote, we will soon have packed houses of Republican/Tea Baggers.  Welcome to Taliban-corrupt corporate rule in oligarchic form.

I am sickened, furious and fearful as to the damage Republicans and Tea Partiers have yet to execute.  Yet, I am even more resolute in my determination to move forward with positive, progressive civil rights advocacy.  We have been pushed back to the ‘50s in terms of civil rights.  It must be our full-time effort to restore, preserve, and advance equality and justice for all.  Make no mistake, this must be done faster than the speed-of-light!

I challenge every educator, liberal, progressive Democrat and Independent to join in these efforts.  A nation divided cannot and will not stand.  We must unite as one, work fast and feverishly to achieve our goals.  We are the patriots of this nation, and just as our founding fathers, we must face our enemies with unrelenting passion, and the conviction that we are on the side of justice.

Stand with me, shoulder-to-shoulder with President Obama as he battles the evils of injustice, prejudice, immorality, corporate corruption and greed, and an ever present racist GOP/Tea Party bent on destroying our democratic union.