By Chris Barts
We live in a nation others envy. Our freedoms are guaranteed more than anyone else's, and we are also the richest group of people ever in both wealth and culture. And we have historically been happy to share it. But the ideals must be met with reality.
Perhaps the biggest threat to our stability is people who refuse to work. We can support those who are temporarily unable to work. We can even support a few unlucky ones who will never be able to work. But we cannot support those who refuse to contribute to society. Those people clog the welfare rolls with drug addictions and too many kids who will grow up thinking welfare is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle.
Sadly, large portions of those who chronically refuse to work are people who came here from other countries. They think that America is a land of milk and honey where money flows like water. They go to public schools and take resources they will, by and large, never give back. They go to hospitals and take up precious beds and medicine, not to mention the time and effort of trained professionals. They, the victims of their own ignorance, use drugs, tying up law enforcement with needless cases and hospitals with people in and out of emergency rooms who take expensive medicine and time. We cannot jam our borders open for all to enter.
Don't mistake this article for racist rhetoric, though. Our nation was founded upon immigrants, refugees, dissidents, and other people who had worn out their welcome somewhere else. I am aware that illegal immigrants can contribute to society, but in fact a dismal percentage of them do. We have immigration laws for a reason. We need to defend ourselves against people who will not contribute to our society.
We need to enforce our existing laws against illegal entry into this country much better than we have been. We don't need to, and shouldn't, close our borders completely, but illegal entry is the first step on the road for too many of those who refuse to contribute and are perfectly happy tying up funds that should go elsewhere.
In too many ways, our nation resembles the Rome of ancient times. We have the highest standard of living seen yet, a stable government that looks out for its people, a booming trade industry, a huge effect on the rest of the world, and high culture that will be emulated and admired for thousands of years to come. We also have people on the outside that want to come in and share the benefits but refuse to share the work. That was one of the things that led to the fall of the Roman Empire.
America is in the position, and has been for the past fifty years, to change the world. Our technology is used, our culture is emulated and admired, and our way of life is envied. We are the world's meeting place, market place, and discussion area. It would do the planet a world of bad if we went down because of bankrupt ideals.
