It's About Illegal Immigration Again

It’s About Illegal Immigration – What Else?

In the past day or so, I heard Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado being interviewed on CNN about the subject of (mainly Mexican) immigration reform.

He, and others, argue that Americans would be willing to take the jobs that illegal immigrants are taking if they could be paid higher salaries. And that, of course, leads to further consideration of the personal greed of those who employ them at slave wages just because they can.

It is my suggestion that the empasis on keeping illegals out should be preceded by laws requiring employers to pay a living wage to their employees regardless of who they are and where they came from. Then, the employers should be allowed to choose whom they please. If they choose Americans and Americans apply for the jobs, so be it. If immigrants do not make the grade, they will be forced to go elsewhere, including their nations of origin.

There is a much larger problem here, however, and that is that human population has already gone well beyond the carrying capacity of this earth. We have to start thinking of the Earth, not just this country, as one nation. How American it is, unfortunately, for Tancredo, like so many others, to show no compassion for the masses of people wandering over this world looking for a means to keep themselves and their families alive.

I might, no must, add that the religious hysteria currently sweeping over this and other countries, with its emphasis on keeping everyone, even those not yet born, and those who want above all to die, and lack of education are most responsible for what lies ahead.

I am including, once again, the first article I ever wrote, on over-population. If you have read it before, I hope you will read it again. If you have not read it, please do. And in both cases, please read it to the very end, where you will find my final solution, which is taking place as I write.

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Overpopulation Solutions as I See Them

It is both encouraging and alarming that there are so many letters and articles these days about overpopulation—encouraging because of growing awareness of the problem, and alarming to realize that it may already be too late, that human beings are breeding themselves to extinction and taking the rest of the world’s creatures with us.

War, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence, mental illness, and hatred between groups and nations are not discrete problems. Overpopulation is the BIG problem. It is worldwide, and it is a web in which we are all enmeshed.

Let’s start with some irrefutable facts:

1. The earth is of unchanging size.
2. The earth’s resources are finite, and rapidly being depleted, especially by the developed and developing nations, the United States leading the pack.
3. Human beings, like all creatures, do not live forever. We die at different ages from different causes—some old, some young, some ill, some healthy—but we will all die.

Envision two cows in a corral with barely enough food to keep one alive. Obviously, one will die. Almost certainly both will eat some of the food, so both will die.

Some humans live in big corrals with plenty of food for the body, the mind, and the soul. But millions are living in tiny corrals with little or nothing to sustain them. And as the numbers of each increase, they draw ever closer to each other. Folks, it just ain’t gonna work.

There is only one possible solution. Humans will have to start dying faster than they are being born. Following are my suggestions for partial solutions, written for this nation, but imperative in some form for all:

1. In the future the number ofchildren per family should be limited to one for all those on public support and two for all others, irrespective of religious belief or personal wealth, and it should be strictly enforced. Birth contnrol should range all the way from abstinence to abortion and sterilization. The method should be the prerogative of the woman, and it should be fully funded by the government for those who cannot afford it.

2. The Hippocratic Oath (first do no harm) should be rethought, both for the benefit of the people involved and for their caregivers. The evolution of scientific knowledge with regard to prolonging life can frequently result in more harm than good.

3. Babies born with no chance for any quality of life should be allowed to die mercifully at birth, at the request of their parents, and with their consent.

4. All adults should be made aware of and sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or similar legal document) stating how they should be cared for in case of catastrophic injury or illness. In the case of children, or adults who have left no instructions and are beyond the ability to do so, their families or their surrogates should be allowed to make the decision for them, rather than having them drag on forever unable to make the decision for themselves.

5. Suicide should be relieved of its stigma, and the humane means of accomplishing it made available to those who want to choose that course for any reason, physical, mental, or emotional.

And then, of course, there is the final solution, of unending war, pestilence, starvation, and violence of every sort, marching over the face of the earth as I write—the option-of-choice of the compassionate religious right.

6/16/07
ARW