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The American Revolution

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Our Alt-Right wing political friends are determined to throw 800,000 young people of Hispanic origin out of the only country they really know:  us.  The USA.  They were brought here as children by their parents who came illegally to find work.

And before we go one wall further, building a wall will not stop illegal immigration.  I have been told, on good authority, that it is possible to enter this country from Canada, or by boat, or airplane, or just by looking good and having good-looking papers.  Tunnels under the wall, and ladders over it are just occasional diversions.  The wall is not an effective barrier to immigration:  it is an expensive monument to fear.

By Presidential directive, Barack Obama directed that these young people should be allowed to remain here to go to school, for instance.  But our Alt-Right enthusiasts say that those young people have to go!

800,000 is a lot of people.  But, of course, our total population is about 323,000,000 people.  That is one high school kid hoping to go to college for every 400 of us.  Maybe we would get together by the 400s and improvise a way to keep watch on one of those kids going to and coming from school.  Just to keep us safe, you see.

What insanity!  It isn't about justice, or speaking English, or smoking pot, or not having gotten to this country the way Uncle George and Aunt Mildred did, by having been born in England.  Or maybe Norway:  Norway is OK.  Norwegians have pale skin; some even with blue eyes.  And being Irish or German is OK now:  that was not always the case, but times change, even for Italians.  No, it is about White Supremacy, about brown-skinned people, or Asians, or non-Christians of almost any kind, but especially atheists.  If atheists could just learn to say they are culturally Christian, maybe that would be enough; you know, "I always went to Sunday School and church with my parents, and we exchange Christmas presents and have a tree.

Three hundred and twenty-three million people!  And we think that maybe we should throw those kids out!

Are we insane?  Are we so absurdly afraid?  Do we really think that the great American experiment as a place for all kinds of people to create a nation even better than what our founders thought was possible is wrong?  The stout men who gave their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor to form this nation did not, in fact, give women the right to vote:  that came during my mother's lifetime.  They did not, in fact, think that Black people were equals.  But they did the best they could, in spite of their prejudices and religious scruples.

We can do even better.  And we know we should.  And I believe we will.

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