Posts by PaulS:
Immigration?
March 19th, 2010Every once in a while, but especially around tax time I get a “joke” email showing 4 Hispanic guys sitting on some steps. The caption reminds me to pay my taxes; there are 21 million illegal aliens depending on me! Very funny, I take it in the spirit it was sent, just fooling around, but with a grain truth. But the reality is this: The number of illegal immigrants living in the United States dropped to 10.8 million in 2009 from 11.6 million in 2008, marking the second consecutive year of decline and the sharpest decrease in at least three decades, according to a report this week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That’s about ½ the number in the joke email. Talk about an issue with pro’s and con’s, this is it. I won’t get into it except to say that for every reason to limit illegal’s there’s another good that comes out of having them here. For a quick synopsis see this website:
www.balancedpolitics.org/immigration.htm.
One of my machinist trade magazines took a poll asking shop owners what they’d do if they found out that their best worker was an illegal. There were 3 responses. The 1st two were somewhat thought out, with a bit of detail, they said they’d do their best to make that employee “legal”. The 3rd response was all in capitol letters, he’d “REPORT HIM, TIE HIM UP UNTIL THE IMMIGRATION GOT THERE, AND THEN FIRE HIS ASS!!!!!!” I ask, in the long run, which option would really be best for the country? Is this really the best way to grow our country?
Paul Singley
89 Saddleworth Way
Middleboro
psingley@amimachining.com
Override anger and government spending
March 19th, 2010Back when I was a kid in the Navy I was stationed on a ship in the Middle East (USS LaSalle). Several of us young guys were taken in by a Navy family who was stationed on the base. They were a surrogate family for us. Ernie, the head of the family was a lifer who had his wife and 3 kids living with him off base. He and his wife were pretty close to being my parent’s age and I had a great deal of respect for them, as I did for my parents. As the years went by the family moved to Massachusetts and both of our families grew close. My parents spent a lot of time with them, holidays, birthdays, vacations…My father was a WW2 vet and Ernie was Vietnam Era vet so they had a lot in common. One of the main things they spent their time doing was complaining about everything government, particularly taxes. I never spent any real time listening to these two old guys. I had day to day issues to think about and I had no use for political talk.
.
When Ernie was discharged after his 20 years he used the GI Bill. The government paid for him to go to college full time and he became professor on Middle East studies. Growing up in the generation he did he smoked, as did his wife, as did my father. Years go on; both he and my father get sick with lung disease. Ernie had many complications, several of which required operations which cost over $70,000. The government paid for this care. Soon after this he was so sick he wound up in the nursing home. Again, the government paid the bill. And still he smoked. Until the day he died he still smoked, and was in total denial that it was smoking that did him in. And his wife still smoked after…
.
What I’m trying to get to is that what we had were 2 old guys in denial about where the money was coming from to take care of them while they abused themselves. They were SO ANGRY with the government that they couldn’t be thankful for the good things the government did for them, for the schooling for them and their kids, the HUGE health care bills that they wracked up due to their poor life styles. As time went on they were more and more angry… My father’s pet peeve was the SPACE PROGRAM. Never mind the myriad of inventions spawned by it. Their taxes dollars were being wasted.
.
I see this in the angry letters to the editor about the town override for the schools. Yes, there’s abuse of our tax dollars, but be thankful for all that we get from our government. You may be angry, but don’t take your anger out on the kids. The greatest expansion that this country ever had was post WW2 when the government paid for the GI’s to go back to school. These were the golden days of our country, no other nation could compete. Some of the greatest technical minds of the world immigrated to this country, many from our enemy, Germany. No other nation could compete with our technologies. Slowly but surely other countries followed our governments lead and made primary and secondary schooling priorities; they could see that the only way they could compete with the US was to invest in their kids. As time went on we rested on our laurels while much of the rest of the world caught up technologically and in some areas surpassed us.
.
If our country is to stay in the position it’s in it’s going to be our kids keeping it there. To hold back on funding their education is being short sighted. The future is our kids. They have to be able to compete with their peers from other countries. I fear for them, they’re up against some very tough competition. Don’t let your anger for the government get in the way of doing right by our kids.
.
Paul Singley
.
89 Saddleworth Way
.
Middleboro, Ma.
Recent Comments