'Good fences make good neighbours'
~ Robert Frost, Mending Wall
Nike's famous advertising campaign instructed us to "Just do it."
With the proposed immigration legislation quite rightly gone down in flames, American citizens are telling Congress, in no uncertain terms, "Just build it." They mean the fence between Mexico and the U.S.A., which has been promised but has not been forthcoming.
I doubt the government ever had the slightest intention of building the fence--until now, maybe.
One caller to a radio talk show stated that, in this showdown between politicians and the public, "America won." I like his description of the outcome. The clueless congressional egomaniacs went home for the Memorial Day break (why do they always get seven or eight more days off than regular working voters?), and they all got an earful from their constituents.
Angry voters mean your cushy congressional job is gone next election. And nothing has made voters angrier than this terribly conceived legislation. People were vocal. Many people I know who have never called or written a politician before, did so to express their fury over this bill. While I have written to legislators in the past, I have never done so as prolifically as I did this time. I e-mailed four senators and wrote letters to another two before hearing the good news that the bill had failed.
Congress couldn't avoid receiving the message that Americans don't want to hear about Z visas until current laws are enforced and the promised fence is built.
America won. Senators and congressmen would be well advised to pay attention. Don't sit too long on the fence; get busy working on a decent immigration bill that respects United States citizens first.
