Fellow Citizens,

Here are my thoughts on Immigration & the Welfare State. Immigration ought to be overseen by the government of the United States of America, but the filtering criteria need to be overhauled. Our country has been a destination for immigrants since before its birth on July 4, 1776. To shut our doors now would be hypocritical and wrong. To open them, though, to just anybody, regardless of his/her intentions, abilities, and expectations, is equally wrong. When is it OK to stop a would-be immigrant at the border and turn him/ her away?

Well, let's consider the "Rules of the Game" here in the USA. They are, or ought to be, quite simple and clear. We play a societal game called Capitalism. Here are the basic rules: 1) Live and let live 2) Pay your own way 3) Treat others fairly 4) Defend your life, liberty, and property 5) Be the best you can be 6) Do not initiate force against others. Several of these rules could be rolled into one ... perhaps all of them could. That single rule is often referred to as the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Should we welcome a man or woman into our wonderful "promised land" who expects handouts, who demands handouts? Do we hope for more "citizens" who will be practicing deception, fraud, or terror? Do we have plenty of surplus resources that we are just hoping to give away to the next thousand or hundred thousand newcomers (e.g. free lunch, free school, free medical care, etc.)?

Hell no! We should go out of our way to warn all newcomers - immigrants or mere visitors - that we will not tolerate foul play. We should open our arms to good people, and we should load our rifles and sharpen our knives at the hint of bad people. This is simplistic, but you get my point.

Building a giant wall is probably a gigantic waste of money and energy. We will appear foolish. We will be fools if we follow through with this folly. There is an easier way to make our point to those who would risk their lives and travel hundreds and thousands of miles to get here. The first step is honesty; the second step is consistency; the third step is justice.

We are presently sending mixed signals: "Welcome to the USA! Come have your babies, and we will feed them and send them to school - - - on us! We have an abundance of services that hard-working and over-taxed Americans have paid for that we would like to give to you - for free!"

Then, we simultaneously signal: "HALT! Do not come here ... unless you fit this nebulous, ever-changing, whimsical, arbitrary list of criteria. Do you come from Kosovo? Do you come from Cuba, and are a political victim? Do you come from Mexico, and are you willing to work your butt off ... temporarily? Do you come from China, and are willing to leverage your soul for our propaganda machine against your former government? Do you have connections?! If not, GO AWAY!"

I say, let's dissolve our socialist programs. Let's dissolve the Welfare State. Let's stop the crazy and irrational game of pretending that we can afford to give away our wealth to strangers while alienating our very own flesh and blood. By the way, there are a lot of people here in the USA, supposedly our "fellow citizens," who are lazy and worthless bums. I believe we should stop the gravy train for these leeches as well. Is it silly of me to recommend that we just load these SOBs on a catapult and fling them across our border? That would be unfair to Mexico and Canada. Hey wait ... the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would make nice, easy targets.

I say, let's simplify our laws to reflect the basic, time-tested rules mentioned above. You get to stay and play with us if you pay your own way (and your dependent children's, of course). You ought to go to jail (or be shipped out) if you expect to live on OUR money, OUR sweat, OUR blood.

As these bums land in the ocean, far beyond the surf, I say, "Good riddance!"