Congress has been performing taxpayer-bypass-surgery for a long time. When
legislators at the federal level want something really badly, their
initiatives keep coming back like the proverbial Energizer Bunny,
under first one name then another. If
too much resistance is encountered (or anticipated), state governors
around the country are enticed to help create and pass copycat legislation
so that by the time the federal body manages to come through, similar
bills are all over the place.
That’s how universal mental health screening (under the Marxist-like moniker
“New Freedom Initiative”) got through, despite warnings that it will
morph into a cradle-to-grave political litmus test. That’s how the
No Child Left Behind Act managed to avert the axe, even though it
doesn’t test much of anything and has left our students’ international
standing in math and science fourth from the bottom of the global
barrel. That’s how the disaster known as “comprehensive sex education”
managed to become institutionalized nationwide despite admonitions
from experts and parents concerning its probable ineffectiveness and
normalization of counterproductive behaviors (see the new Health and
Human Services report: “Conprehensive"
Sex Education Inefective and Offensive.
In the latter case, countless pundits over the years have protested explicit
sex education, pointing out that while a unit on the reproductive
system might be appropriate in physiology classes, the rest of the
subject usurped parental prerogatives.
So just how did government get around that argument, or the one
about local control. If I recall correctly, it was “a compelling state
interest” that teen pregnancy and venereal diseases be avoided. So,
now we have epidemic levels of sexual predators, de-stigmatization
of unwed motherhood and, of course, lots and lots of genital herpes,
HPV, ad nauseum, in our faces—from ubiquitous billboards to
television commercials.
It’s one thing when elected officials are treated like celebrities and
are excused from laws and sanctions other citizens must follow—such
as former Washington, DC mayor/councilman-for-eternity Marion Barry,
who now can add a drunk driving arrest to his astounding resume of
abuses while in office. But it is quite another when our representatives
start thumbing their noses at the public on matters of public safety
and national sovereignty.
No means “no” on the current immigration bill. A nation cannot afford
waves of new, much less illegal, immigrants during wartime. A moratorium
on new immigration should have gone into effect immediately following
9/11, and it should have stayed that way until we were out from under
the threat of rogue states on the loose with nukes or until we don’t
have to worry about the possibility of terrorists setting off chemical
or biological weapons on a crowded street—neither of which will likely
occur in any of our lifetimes.
Our reckless and lax approach to crime over the past 30 years has exacerbated
the debate over illegal immigration, allowing thousands of repeat
violent offenders to ravage our neighborhoods and stalk our kids.
Police at the local, county and state levels have had so many roadblocks
enacted against legitimate crime-fighting, that they no longer can
catch any real criminals, and are relegated to handing out $500 fines
for dogs off their leashes and time-consuming seat-belt stops.
The bottom line is that government is way, way out of control and has
grown too big for its collective britches. The immigration bill fiasco
is merely symptomatic of a much greater problem. If legal, American
citizens don’t insist on reigning in this monster soon, illegal aliens
will be the least of our problems.
Beverly Eakman is an Educator, 9 years: 1968-1974, 1979-1981. Specialties: English and Literature.
Science Editor, Technical Writer and Editor-in-Chief of official newspaper, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1974-1979. Technical piece, "David, the Bubble Baby," picked up by popular press and turned into a movie starring John Travolta.
Chief speech writer, National Council for Better Education, 1984-1986; for the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, 1986-1987; for the Voice of America Director, 1987-1989; and for U.S. Department of Justice, Gerald R. Regier, 1991-1993.
Website: BeverlyE.com
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