It may be good journalism to call out someone for blatantly false or hypocritical speech and it may be patriotic to heckle during a campaign speech but in the American tradition protocol demands that the office of President be accorded a modicum of respect during a policy pronouncement. But, having noted that, Obama did not allow valid and on point questions by reporters during his Rose Garden Speech including several from Neil Munro, a reporter for the conservative website Daily Caller from which when finished, Obama turned and walked away, a clear indication that he couldn’t stand any heat.

When a President is intent on scoring political points with a special interest group, as Obama did in the Rose Garden on June 15th, he is fair game. In the speech he announced that certain illegal immigrants who were under the age of sixteen when their parents brought them into the United States illegally and who are presently under the age of thirty would be granted limited immunity from deportation if they were willing to serve in the military or go to college. (And one hopes that they wouldn’t become student loan defaulters like those who owe taxpayers nearly a trillion dollars.) As for full length term of military service honorably completed, that has possibilities.

My father was a legal immigrant who came to this country nearly one hundred years ago. Once here he worked in the steel mills of Akron and Canton, Ohio. After an aborted attempt at suicide fed protracted homesickness, loneliness, despondency and self-gratification and overindulgence he was drawn to a series of nightly meetings that culminated in his spiritual transformation, the renewing of his mind; he was born again. He soon went to the little town of Wilmore, Kentucky where he eventually graduated from Asbury Academy, Asbury College and Asbury Seminary.

In a speech at Oyster Bay, Long Island (April 1917) Teddy Roosevelt said,

“We are fighting in the quarrel of civilization against barbarism, of liberty against tyranny. Germany has become a menace to the whole world. She is the most dangerous enemy of liberty now existing.”

So along with hundreds of thousands of others who put a hold on life then in many cases gave it, Dad responded to the call for volunteers, interrupting college to join the Army for service in France during WWI, which if he survived would be awarded US Citizenship. He served in the infamous trenches from the spring of 1917 to the summer of 1918 and as a result of various combat actions against the Germans he received the US Army Distinguished Service Cross, French Croix de Guerre and Italian War Cross. Although he was victim of a gas attack Dad did survive; and the nation kept its promise of citizenship. He completed college and seminary (paid his own way and no “student loans”) then went on to become a minister and missionary, a sacred vocation to which he was single minded, faithfully spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the end of his life.

Illegal immigrants drain resources from taxpayers and other deserving citizens. In these essays we have repeatedly stated that the US unemployment problem would be solved if illegal immigrants were not taking jobs that American citizens would otherwise fill. That statement remains valid and has nothing to do with whether or not illegal immigrants are here only because “they just want to make a living to support their families.” We’ve seen, heard, and read every possible argument. The nonsense that illegal immigrants take only jobs that citizens will not perform is hogwash: they take work wherever they can find it: from harvesting and cleaning to brick laying, construction and flooring installation; from student to laboratory technician; and, from councilman to President.

In a recent dialogue with a legal immigrant from South Wales he reflected fondly on his homeland while carefully making the point that he had no interest in returning there to live. I asked, “Now that you are here are you going to try to change our way of life and our laws to conform to what you experienced back home?” “No,” he shot back, “I waited a long time to come here for opportunity (not a handout) and freedom.”

Dad, millions of legal immigrants and the immigrant from South Wales get it; how about you Mr. Obama? Ah, but of course, amnesty, back door or otherwise is a component of “fundamentally changing America,” right?


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