Don't be a hater

Recently I received an email with the following subject: THE AMERICAN FLAG COMES SECOND.

Normally I'd ignore something like this as spam, but a friend of mine sent it. It was an article by Michelle Malkin, about a bunch of high school kids in California where, as a protest, they hung the American flag upside down underneath the California flag. According to this site, they were protesting a proposed federal law that would criminalize illegal immigration.

As far as I can tell, the part of the article that I find most offensive was added later, as I can't find it on Ms. Malkin's site.

The offending section goes:

Pass this along to every American citizen in your address books and to every representative in the state and federal government. If you choose to remain uninvolved do not be amazed when you no longer have a nation to call your own nor anything you have worked for left since it will be "redistributed" to the activists while you are so peacefully staying out of the "fray". Check history, it is full of nations/empires that disappeared when its citizens no longer held their core beliefs and values. One person CAN make a difference. One plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one.........

It is essentially accusing anyone who is "...So peacefully staying out of the 'fray'..." Of contributing to what I guess is supposed to be the ultimate downfall of the US. It is attempting to play on people's fears of illegal immigrants.

There are so many things wrong with the above statement I find it difficult to even start tearing it apart.

As I recall, the United States was founded on immigrants. The statute of liberty has the following poem engraved on it:

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-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

One of the wonderful freedoms we have in this country is the freedom of speech. These students were protesting a proposed federal law they felt was wrong. Regardless of whether or not you agree with them, they have the right to protest, just like Ms. Malkin has the right to disagree with them.

Freedom seems to be one of the "core beliefs and values" that the anonymous author wants to ignore, at least for illegal immigrants. Most of us are descended from immigrants (legal or otherwise).

I'm no expert on illegal immigration. However, it seems to me that people do difficult things when they feel the benefit outweighs the cost. Illegal immigrants come here to the US because conditions are so terrible where they are from that living in a van down by the river with 37 other illegal immigrants and working 100 hours a week at 4 different jobs is still better than staying where they were.

That's the "problem." Walls won't stop illegal immigrants. Making illegal immigrants really "illegal" won't stop it either.

I'm inclined to say that anyone who wants to become and American should be given the chance.

Ultimately yes, the forwarded email offends me. It offends me because some anonymous twit is trying to use fear to make me hate a group of human beings that are different from me. It offends me that people buy into this crap. It offends me that while we here in America are fairly well off people around the world starve and don't have proper medical care. It offends me that human beings treat each other so poorly.

Folks, we're all human beings. We're all on this rock together. I know it's cliche, but can't we all just get along? If the student who is hanging the American flag upside-down offends you, fine --say something. Write your congressman, write your local paper, form your own protest, do something --be heard. But don't preach hatred.