The EXEGETIST: A Library Of Independent Political Thought. By: Jack H. Dawsey

Arizona Immigration Law: A Dumb Thing

By: Jack Dawsey

Have you been following the new Arizona state law on immigration?  It supposedly is predicated on the federal law.  Critics say it’s a dumb thing.  What say you?

For your information, I understand there is a provision in the law requiring public workers to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement of illegal immigrants, applying for benefits i.e., “legal” benefits for their American-born children -benefits to which their illegal immigrant parents aren’t entitled.  Isn’t that a bit of an oxymoron or a case of putting a mother between a rock and a hard place?  For example, take Maria, an illegal immigrant mother living in Arizona.  She goes to a government office to make application for her children’s legal benefits provided for them from the state-run Medicaid program.  Hearing of the new state law requiring public workers to alert government officials of illegal immigrants applying for their children’s benefits, Maria is fearful.  When the public worker asks for identification, Maria runs.  Sadly, without government assistance, Maria has no way to treat her 3-year old daughter’s liver problem of Hepatitis, (a contagion disease to the rest of the community), or her 7-year old son’s bronchial asthma or Tuberculosis.  Because of the law, Maria is reluctant to take her children to a hospital emergency room too.   [By the way, in the opinion of this writer, an enacted law, state or federal, ought to have a moral base and not enacted purely on partisan political politics]. 

Doubtless, the new immigration law has a terrifying effect, not only in Arizona but I suspect here in North Carolina and elsewhere.  In all probability, the law will lead our Mexican immigrants to agonize over whether or not to attend school, or church, or report to their respective job.  And too, it’s likely to lead them to fear our local police because driving while brown may have the same de facto crime as driving while black.  The law may become a basis for the police to stop motorists on any pretense to check their status.

I read on the Internet where the author of the new Arizona Immigration Law, Republican State Sen. Russell Pearce is happy about the law causing immigrant’s misery.  According to an article that I read, he has a hard time having compassion for criminals, and it’s about time people started being afraid… 

Apparently, Pearce is a strong believer in the misinformation disseminated by political operatives over the Internet, contending illegal immigrants improperly receive public benefits.  Or, he thrives on the misery of others.  His law, instead of addressing the crux of the matter, actually sets up a public worker to commit a crime by failing to report the “appearance” of an illegal immigrant.  I’m told the law allows citizens to sue public agencies when they believe immigrants are receiving improper state benefits.  The Arizona law has potential for a fiasco to this whole country, including Sampson County.

I would like to ask Sen. Pearce if he believes the sick, “legal” American children –although anchors of Maria- are criminals.  I would like to ask him if he believes the primary purpose of civil law is to strike constant fear in the hearts and minds of Americans, black, brown, white or yellow.  If that’s his conclusion, and that we should live in a community of fear, I suggest he amend his law to require all men to grow a small hair-line mustache, and learn anew the phrase: “seig-heil!”   

This Arizona Law will put “all of us” on the slippery slope of madness.  Is that what we want from our representatives?

The failures of Republican and Democrat Congresses alike, dating back to the 1970’s, is the single, causative factor giving birth to 24-karat ding-a-ling laws like the 2010 Arizona Immigration Law.  The failure of our Congress is causing irresponsible law-making in our state assemblies.  www.theexegetist.com

Weak Dollar Raises Talk of Alternative World Currency

 By: Jack Dawsey

About a year ago in the Sampson Sun, I predicted the possibilities the U.S. dollar could be, (and I underscore the word could), be replaced with another currency.  At the time, I mentioned that it could be replaced by the Amero, i.e., a combination and merging of the American dollar, and the Mexican peso, and the Canadian maple leaf.  Since that article, just about every day seems to bring more bad news for the dollar.

There’s been steady erosion in the greenback’s value.  It’s down 16% according to some experts in just the last 6-months.  That’s down 16% in “your” money -not down 16% in the values on Wall Street where daily manipulations occur with the blessings of the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. Congress (composed of democrats and republicans).

Depending on whom you believe, the dollar’s real value is hovering near its 52-week low, and represents either the market’s devastating verdict on the Obama Administration, or the foolish rediscover of newly emboldened Wall-Street investors.  Maybe it’s a bit of both, but the beat goes on.

The dollar devaluation is now making Chinese officials nervous. They are taking a bath in losses on their enormous U.S. Treasury holdings, now paying a whopping .001 percent.  It’s been reported that foreign bankers are talking of promoting an alternative global currency, such as the euro, or the yuan or a new medium of exchange designed by the International Monetary Fund.

Not long ago the USA Today, a national newspaper, compared the following year-to-date changes in the value of the dollar against various other foreign currencies.  They published for example, that the dollar has fallen and weakened a negative -20.8% against the Canadian dollar, and weakened a negative -14.0% against the English pound.  It has fallen a negative -7.6% against the European euro, and a negative -5.0% against the Indian rupee.  And guess what?  It has even weakened a negative -6.8% against the S. Korean won.  Yes, that’s correct, South Korea.

Do you remember that country?  Did you know that some 50,000 plus young American soldiers lost their lives in Korea from 1951-1953? 

When my 17-year old Marine Corps brother, now deceased, was there in 1952 he lost the use of his thumb.  Moreover, as a result of fighting the North Korean and Chinese insurgents, he incurred a mental breakdown that he lived with for the next 45-years -with little assistance from the Veteran Administration.

He said that in 1952 South Korea didn’t have a pot to pee in, nor a window to throw it out.  Yet today, their currency is equal and rivals the American dollar.

Hum!!!!  Let me see.  Consider this: Since the Korean War, we have elected five republican presidents and five democrat presidents, and appointed one republican, Gerald R. Ford.  Nonetheless, our nation is deeper in debt than ever before and we’re losing the fight against foreign currencies.  Is there something wrong with this picture?

Still, and flying in the face of the last 60-years of American history, some voices on the far right wing of our political spectrum, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. and the half-term governor of Alaska and nut-case Newt from Georgia are crying: anti-American conspiracy!  Or worse, “lock and load” your guns.  They blame the Obama Administration, apparently a political convenience.    

I wonder if the enormous U.S. debt that started 30-years ago and has continued through both democrat and republican administrations had anything to do to weaken the dollar?  I wonder if trying to fight two wars at the same time, on a U.S. Congress credit card has anything to do with a worthless dollar?  I’ll defer to the reader to figure that out.

By the way, vote Republican or Democrat in the May Primary.  When you do, listen carefully for a certain, pop-culture song while in the voting booth.  Your ears may hear Sonny and Cher singing their 1968 blockbuster hit: “And the beat goes on…”        www.theexegetist.com