Analysis for Critical Thinkers

First, Arizona passes a law that allows police officers to enforce existing federal immigration laws. Then, the Obama administration complains that Arizona is being racist for enforcing a law that the federal Big Governmnet has apparently chosen to ignore. Then, the U.S. Big Government Attorney General publicly condemns the Arizona law and later admits that he never read the law. The big issue of the law, the critics claim, is that it would “profile” people, which they claim isn’t “fair”.

Facing the mood of most Amercian citizens that beleve that we should 1)actually enforce our laws – including immigration laws and 2) do something about stopping illegal immigration, what does the Obama administration do in order to not look weak on stopping illegal immigation?

Send in troops! The Obama administration plans to order 1,200 National Guard Troops to the U.S. Mexican border. This is another example of a potentially good idea by the Obama camp that is rendered ineffective due to the “catch” involved. Sending in more troops into Afghanistan was a good idea – rendered ineffective by giving the enemy a date of withdrawal.

Sending in troops to help guard the border sounds good to the millions of Americans who are in favor of securing our borders and enforcing our existing immigration laws. Hooray! The headline sounds great because the implication is that maybe it will stem the tide of illegal immigrants entering our country. But of course, further thought brings us to realize that a President who opposes Arizona’s enforcement of immigration laws would not likely send in troops to help enforce our immigration laws. An administration whose very own Attorney General is seeking legal grounds to stop the Arizona law would not be expected to send in troops to help stop illegal immigration. But it sounds good at first glance to the majority who support Arizona.

So what will the troops be doing? It turns out, they will NOT be helping to keep illegals from entering illegally. This was a bait and switch. Enforcing immigration laws at the Mexican border, the Obama team claims, would be “profiling” Mexicans. The troops are being sent to “stop the flow of illegal guns and drugs into the United States.”

Nice. This is surely something that sounds desirable. But how does that work? Do you put up a sign (bilingual of course) that simply says “surrender all illegal guns and drugs here”? Or do you search people? Who do you search though? You can’t search Mexicans – or Mexican-looking people – that would be “profiling”. And what if it turns out that the person does not possess illegal contraband but still wants to enter our country illegally? Do you let him?

This sounds like it may wind up working just like airport security – Ensure ineffectiveness through poltical correctness. Maybe in an attempt to not “profile” people based on their ethnicity, they will have procedures where they, in fact, wind up profiling people based on their ethnicity. Maybe each day, they will have to document how many non-hispanic-looking elderly white ladies and how many wheelchair bound American tourist nuns were searched for illegal guns and drugs so that everything is “fair”. Will they provide free legal counsel to any offended Mexicans who just wanted to enter illegally wthout any drugs or guns? If you do find contraband, do you then provide free lawyers to challenge the U.S. on various search and seizure procedures? What do you do if you discover that most people entering our country from Mexico turn out to be mostly Mexicans? Do you hide the data, come up with a cover story, let them in, say something about George Bush, or simply abandon the whole program? Do you ask the Mexican government for their approval before doing anything?

Unfortunately, this idea of sending troops to the U.S./Mexican border is just another politically correct attempt to make a political statement. By having headlines such as these, it will seem like the Big Government Obama administration is “doing something” and hopefully satisfy its critics while at the same time, be ineffective in fighting illegal immigration and therefore satisfy its supporters.

One thing about life experience — you don’t appreciate how important it is unless and until you have it yourself. Even if you have it though, I realize that it may likely be different than mine.

It is life experience — which includes your education, upbringing, morals, values, human interactions and experiences in general — that shapes your opinions and views that you have on current events. As I grow older and have more and more experiences and view more and more of human nature, I realize that my analysis and opinions have a wider and wider pool of observations to draw from.

When I talk to certain people about current topics, I am often initially amazed about how they could possibly draw a particular conclusion or make a particular observation based on the points under discussion. I then realize that they have not had certain experiences that I have had and perhaps not had the time that I had over the years to reflect and analyze an issue. Without making any value judgement on who may have the “better” life experience, suffice to say that it is probably different to mine.

When talking to young people who have much less life experience than I do, I remember the fact that I too was once in their position. I would like to think though that when I was younger, I knew that I didn’t have the life experience of my elders — but in actuality, I probably didn’t appreciate it that much.

What is disturbing though is the difference between simple ignorance and arrogance. It is okay to not know something because you have never learned it or never experienced it. But it is another thing if you simply reject out of hand certain truths that another person has observed.

It is true that the older I get the more I learn how much there is that I do not know. But that is not the end of the story. I continue to learn more and more each day too. This adds to my life experience and further shapes my viewpoints.

You can’t fault someone for simply being innocently ignorant. But it is important to leave aside the arrogance of thinking that you’ve got everything all figured out.