Indpendence Day

Old Glory is up and flying, people are waiting for the fireworks to start ... but what is Independence Day all about?

For some it’s a chance to convene with family and friends over BBQ and beer. For all it’s a celebration of the independence we enjoy. America the beautiful—we can take in your young and old, rich and poor.

Is this true today? Can we take in the rich and poor, young and old? And why would they want to come here?

After traveling to third world countries, I can understand why people might want to re-settle in this country. Yes, rights is often an obvious reason. But services most of us overlook—from water the garbage pick up—can be equally important in the decision.

Yet it’s not the why, but the how they come that causes such a huge debate.

In Washington our leaders have been poring over the details of this for years: how and where the borders of this country are weak, how to best protect our safety, whether to grant amnesty, whether to set limits ...

Waiting for the pilot car at a road construction site outside of town, I had a chance to chat with one of the men charged with holding an orange sign. Through broken English he told me that the job he was performing at the moment was not worth his time. He added that the highway crew didn’t pay as well as his last job. Then he told me that he lived in Mexico.

I asked if he was a legal citizen. He said yes.

How can we go through life wondering if this man or that woman, perhaps even the child over there is here legally?

The people we elect to Congress seem to have their own confused agenda. For one, they have forgotten the process in which many of our not-so-distant relatives came to America. They give lip service to the understanding that everyone but Native Americans and the early settlers—remember the Mayflower—were forced to navigate a path toward legal citizenship.

The road to America can be long and costly. Congress is making it even longer and more costly for those who want to enter legally and shorter for those who prefer to enter illegally.

So where is the immigration act and reform that Washington has promised for what seems like many, many years? We the people should be demanding that this issue be clarified.

What does this have to do with the Fourth of July? It is part of our heritage to be represented with clarity. It is part of our heritage to welcome immigrants. It is also part of our heritage to ensure that those crossing our borders for work do so legally, with a clear desire to become part of the American mosaic.

Washington today is undermining this tradition.