Why the sudden fixation on Rosa Parks?
The Chronicle, which earlier in the week ran a staff editorial comparing Cindy Sheehan to Rosa Parks, today runs an op-ed by D.C.-area resident Diane Twinam that makes another unfortunate comparison to Rosa Parks:
The trouble is that the law is out of sync with economic and social realities in the United States — especially with the job market. Many of those who decry illegal immigration willfully ignore the economic benefits it provides to much of the society. For most of the 11 million undocumented people in this country, this is the first law they have ever broken — a law that makes no more sense to them than the laws requiring segregated seating on buses made to Rosa Parks.
Her attempt to draw upon Rosa Parks is as silly as the editorial board's earlier attempt. The fact is, Twinam's husband is an illegal alien. That they have a child complicates the matter. But it has nothing to do with the issues or legacy of Rosa Parks.
Incidentally, the op-ed is "olds" that first ran in the Washington Post on Wednesday, so perhaps it inspired the editorial board's own silly reference to Rosa Parks on Friday.
Elsewhere on the editorial page, Councilmember Mark Ellis, who has proposed that HPD's sanctuary policy be terminated, pens an op-ed on the issue of immigration:
Short of throwing out every congressman and state legislator who doesn't seem to get it, we can and should implement policies that at the very least discourage illegal immigrants from calling Texas home. We can do so with effective leadership at the state and local level that accomplishes the following:
• Repeal the sanctuary status granted by cities, including Houston.
• Provide clear legal authority to law enforcement to detain, arrest and prosecute illegals for both state and federal crimes.
• Establish systematic data collection for illegal alien use of public services, including our schools, hospitals and state welfare services.
• Prohibit and/or repeal at the local level the use of matricula consular ID cards.These policies would benefit all including the communities my liberal friends presume to represent. Our hospital district could provide the care for which it was intended — for the poorest of our communities — and do so without constant fear of bankruptcy. Rather than being overwhelmed by a population that consumes dollars in a disproportionate ratio, our schools could concentrate instead on lifting those children who are at greatest risk — those from our inner cities who struggle in less-than-adequate schools. Our communities would be safer, our law enforcement more effective and our jails less crowded. Last but not least, property taxes would stop growing at exponential rates.
We have a federal system that costs billions and fails, and a state and local system that basically says: If you clear our border, welcome home.
The full op-ed is here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 03:40 PM | Print | Comments (3)
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