It’s time to start teaching the kids of America that "the American dream" is duplicitous, if not a total lie. That’s right, kiddies, this dream has two faces and some really scary teeth. We used to welcome people to our shores to give them a shot at a better life. In fact, wasn’t the U.S. created by immigrants? (Well, at least that’s what they taught us in public school…) But a stinky proposition has been drafted that seems to deny this history, making illegal immigration a federal felony with plans to build a "security wall" along the U.S.’ southern border. The message by H.R. 4437, drafted by F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R – WI – a state that’s much closer to Canada than Mexico but where’s the plan for the Northern security wall?) seems to be: "thanks for working really hard to build our country from Day 1 and for doing so many of the jobs that most American-born Americans refuse to do, but we don’t care that you’re human or have families here and our country is…well, full."
On Saturday, 25 March 06, I was one of anywhere between 500,000 to 1 million people who marched through downtown Los Angeles to tell Sensenbrenner to screw himself and his odious, anti-human, anti-family proposition. (Do a search for the aeriel images of the event around City Hall, where the marchers congregated…)
It might sound cliched, but these are some of Ezra Lazarus’ famous words engraved on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Does Lady Liberty need a new lightbulb?
DINO DINCO
LOS ANGELES
