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Americana Journal News Commentary Wisdom

I Cheer for Immigrants

Recently my wife was reading the book Imagine, How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012).   One evening she read to me from it some startling statistics concerning the contributions of immigrants to our American economy.

Immigrants contribute profoundly!

“According to the latest figures from the U. S. Patent office, immigrants invent patents at double the rate of non- immigrants, which is why a 1 percent increase in immigrants with college degrees leads to a 15% rise in patent production.  In recent years, immigrant inventors have contributed to more than a quarter of all U. S. global patent applications.   These new citizens also start companies at an accelerated pace, cofounding 52% of Silicon Valley firms since 1995.  We all benefit when those with good ideas are allowed to freely move about (p. 240).” 

Why are so few green cards available?

These facts heightened my passion as an advocate for immigrants.   Yet, even though we know these things, the wait for green cards is years.  Why?  Meanwhile cities like Detroit bulldoze housing for lack of citizens; while cities like Buffalo, Utica, and Syracuse struggle to rebuild their centers slowly with a trickle of immigrants.    We are depriving ourselves by our restrictive immigration policies.  

A Proverb

A Biblical Proverb reads, “A king’s glory lies in having many subjects; if the prince’s people are few, it is his ruin” (Proverbs 14:28 CJB).   The lesson is common sense.  A nation of ghost towns (or gray-haired towns) like many Northeast cities and small towns are slowly becoming cannot be strong and prosperous.   I call on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand of New York to introduce legislation to greatly increase, maybe even double the green card quotas of our country over the next few years.   Such an action would immediately bolster our declining Northeastern population.    Besides, only when legal immigration is more easily accessible will illegal immigration cease to be an issue.

 

 

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News Commentary

Senate vote is very misguided

http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/01/10548839-senate-defeats-limit-on-birth-control-coverage

It is very sad that the religious freedom of our country has become a partisan issue.  Somehow the spin artists have tried to make it a women’s issue rather than a religious freedom issue.   This is not about women’s rights; it is about religious liberty and freedom of expression of conscience for everyone.  I cannot believe that the U. S. Senate Democrats are too blinded by politics to see this.    I believe that Cardinal Dolan has expressed the issue well in this quote:

Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.

Recent actions by the Administration have attempted to reduce this free exercise to a “privilege” arbitrarily granted by the government as a mere exemption from an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.

In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our “first freedom” and respect for it must be broad and inclusive—not narrow and exclusive. Catholics and other people of faith and good will are not second class citizens. And it is not for the government to decide which of our ministries is “religious enough” to warrant religious freedom protection.

This is not just about contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization—although all should recognize the injustices involved in making them part of a universal mandated health care program. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.

From the letter by Cardinal Dolan to the Catholic Bishops dated Feb. 22, 2012

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News Commentary

The Budget Cutting Debate

http://blog.sojo.net/2011/02/24/this-is-not-fiscal-conservatism-its-just-politics/

http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?fmId=51779945

It is revealing to observe the budget cutting debates.   As Jim Wallis of Sojourners rightly affirms, “A budget is a moral document.”   So budget cutting reveals moral priorities.  Where leaders are willing to cut and where they are not willing to cut is indicative of what interests they are willing to sacrifice and what they are seeking to protect. 

As a citizen and a pastor, I am very concerned about this process for many reasons.  Some are just common sense, some are very Scriptural, and some may be my own politics too.   I read a recent thought-provoking editorial by Jim Wallis of Sojourners.  For those of you who are looking for a Christian voice that is very concerned about the poor, this organization may be your choice. I am adding them to my blog roll.   After reading Jim’s comments, I decided to make some of my own budget debate observations.

My Observations 

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News Commentary

The DREAM ACT should have passed

I’m very sad that the DREAM Act was turned back.  Our nation has been known for hospitality to immigrants.  The least we can do is give hospitality to children of immigrants.  It is Biblical to treat strangers living among us as native-born (Lev. 19:34).  
In the case of children of immigrants it cannot be a question of amnesty.  For it to be a question of amnesty, they have to have done something wrong, which they have not. 
I am one conservative Republican who will be putting pressure on the new Congress to fix the current travesty of justice which the DREAM act would have started to address.
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News Commentary

I’m praying DADT is not overturned

The Capitol

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/17/senate-faces-historic-vote-military-gay-ban/

 

Today I am praying for the US Senate that they will not overturn DADT.   The reasons I am against repeal are:

1.  It is not good for humans to approve or give formal recognition to what God does not approve.   The Bible has warned that there will come a time when humans are so out of touch with God’s perspective that they call wrong right (Isaiah 5:20).

2.  I fear repealing DADT will create in the military a kind of sanctuary for gays.  The military’s itinerant lifestyle is suited to single men and unfortunately accommodates promiscuity in either sexual orientation. 

3.  Gays in positions of leadership will have the possibility of a subtle improper kind of influence like sexual harassment in a workplace, but will be able to claim discrimination if they are accused of using it.    And when a straight leader corrects a gay subordinate he/she will likely be accused of sexual harassment.

For those of you wondering, yes, I am a veteran–US Navy Officer of the Line, active duty 1971-1974.

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News Commentary

Lame Duck Senate Strategy

The Capitol

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/01/5559969-gop-to-block-all-bills-until-tax-cuts-are-addressed

I am a registered Republican who often votes Conservative.  And I agree with Harry Reid!  The Republicans didn’t learn anything from the last election.   I bet I’m not the only Republican the Senate leadership is disappointing by this latest shenanigan.

  1. It is debt the voters were worried about even more than taxes.  Every thinking person realizes that sooner or later somebody is going to have to pay more taxes to get our nation out of debt.  Nobody wants to do it.  Nobody wants to pay the dentist either, but we do.  I agree with the Democrats.   Restore a larger share of contributions from the wealthier people.  It’s what every businessperson knows. The largest share of business comes from the largest contracts.
  2. The Republicans will lose face with the voters by obstructing things that need to pass.  They are shooting themselves in the foot; they are their own worst PR nightmare. The arms treaty is needed.  By seeming to hold it up, the Republicans will appear to be endangering our national security and edging the doomsday clock closer to midnight.  They will earn the label “obstructionist” for no good reason.
  3. If the Republicans were really smart, their first act, instead of a political bullying attempt, would have been to seek common ground with Democrats by coming together to pass the DREAM act as a bipartisan signal.  Americans would have been shocked but very pleased at a new tactic in Washington.   Both parties want the political hay that is to be made among Hispanic voters.   Unfortunately neither seems to really care about the real life people they should have helped long ago.  The welfare of the children of immigrants is just another political football.

The long and short of it is that we need new leadership in the House and Senate!  We need men and women that seek a centrist way rather than dwelling at the extremes as we have seen; that take a coalescing road rather than the rank partisan one we have watched them travel, that find a way of building upon the past and creating something greater rather repeating the childish “tear-down-their-castle-so-we-can-build-ours” game.