Protecting Our Borders, Our Jobs, and Our Lives"
Posted by Cole Gunther
Saturday, September 20, 2003
Editor's Note: This will introduce a new writer for our site, Cole Gunther of Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Gunther is a former professor at the University of Missouri who enjoys writing and researching in the area of business, media, and public affairs.
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The Arizona Republic and the Tucson Citizen have been covering Arizona's struggle to deal with illegal immigration. They report a storm of protest swirling around the Border Security and Immigration Act recently introduced in the U.S. Congress by Arizona Representatives Flake and Kolbe and Senator John McCain.
Commentary by the Tucson Citizen tells us the Arizona GOP leadership is ''split'' on border policy. It seems the various parties to Arizona's ''desert storm'' see different dangers concerning illegal aliens and our ailing economy.
So, what is the greatest danger facing America today? Weapons, drugs, and terrorists crossing our porous borders? The weak economy? Political battles over the war in Iraq?
All of these problems are among the greatest dangers we face. However, the deadliest danger to American survival today is our failure to recognize and act on consensus when we have it.
Recently CNN conducted a poll to clarify more specifically what people are talking about when they discuss ''the economy.'' Are they talking about the stock market, jobs, or what? Well over 80 percent of CNN's respondents said ''the economy'' means jobs and employment. Other polls show more than 80 percent of Americans want more and better border security. These numbers suggest that while our leaders may be split on the issues, the people are not. All over the political landscape, we have consensus about American survival.
The American Conservative Union is the oldest conservative political groups in America. And they want increases in ''the number of Border Patrol officers to effectively safeguard our nation's borders.'' On the other side of the political spectrum, state Democratic leaders in Michigan want more federal funding for U.S.-Canadian border security.
Across the U.S., Republican and Democratic state legislators are backing away from offshore outsourcing of state government contracts, as well they should. In another good move, legislators also are backing away from contracting to companies that employ foreign citizens brought to the U.S. on H-1B and other non-immigrant visas. Moving in the same direction, the AFL/CIO has recently demanded limits on the number of non-immigrant visas for foreign workers.
Everybody agrees that America needs more jobs--now. Riots were reported last June in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where unemployment is reportedly 40%. It is a sure bet that the rioters would concur with the course the AFL/CIO is taking.
Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, has been quoted as saying that we need ''to develop incentives to prevent increasing outsourcing of economic activity from the U.S. to other countries.'' Wisely, Kissinger was addressing the big picture of our survival as a nation. What could be more dangerous than continuing to outsource the manufacturing of critical defense technology offshore?
Addressing another piece of the survival picture, comments by Tom Ridge illuminate the massive danger posed by foreign and domestic access to our infrastructures by workers with loyalties to other countries. He has said, ''Terrorists can sit at one computer connected to one network and can create worldwide havoc -- [they] don't necessarily need [a] bomb or explosives to cripple a sector of the economy, or shutdown a power grid.'' Offshore outsourcing means that more and more computers in Bangalore, Beijing, Riyadh, or elsewhere will be connected to American infrastructures through corporate networks and the Internet.
Not long after Mr. Ridge's comments, infrastructure experts participated in a ''Digital Pearl Harbor'' experiment designed to study the possibility of simultaneous terrorist attacks. A large majority of participants in the Digital Pearl Harbor study agreed that a coordinated attack on multiple infrastructures in America was ''likely in the next two years.''
While defending America, our troops are dying daily inside the porous borders of Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, our leaders refuse to close and defend our porous borders here at home. In support of our troops, this unendurable hypocrisy by our leaders must be opposed by all Americans. And most Americans do oppose the hypocrisy.
Groups that study population and economic sustainability have said for years that America is on the path to self destruction. The American people agree that we are facing unrelenting attacks on many fronts.
The war in Iraq, offshore outsourcing, non-immigrant visas, porous national borders, illegal and out-of-control immigration, the struggling economy, and terrorist attacks all over the globe are all pieces of one big ugly picture. It would be helpful if our mainstream media would do a better job of portraying the big picture by emphasizing the consensus that citizens have about these problems.
The right view of the big picture is being delivered online every day in many ways. In weblogs, letters to the editor, e-mail to talk show hosts, chat sessions, website postings and op-eds, people advocate pro-American increases in homeland security and protection for the jobs we have left.
Fearing that we will soon become just one more third-rate, Third World country, Americans are demanding swifter, more effective action. In local communities around the country, millions of Americans have joined the chorus of consensus. In massive numbers, they have written, e-mailed, called and met with congressional representatives and senators . . . demanding action over and over and over again.
Our Congress and leaders must implement comprehensive policies to simultaneously protect our borders, our jobs, and our lives. The American people need action--now!
Cole Gunther receives e-mail at:
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