Opinion Editorials, October 2010

American Political Philosophy:

Analysis of Immigration Issue

By Charles Mercieca

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, October 8, 2010

 
            One of the major problems people are caught up in lies with the nation’s politicians who seem to act with no principles in general. They often abound in mysterious contradictions. As the Romans used to say: Aliud est theoria, aliud est practica – one thing is theory, another thing is practice. In this respect the Italians have a proverb which runs as follows: Tra il dire e il fare c’e’ in mezzo il mare – between saying and doing there is in between an ocean.
 
Characteristics of Politicians
 
            At heart all politicians seem to have plenty of things in common. They all seem to be ready to do anything to be elected and to remain in the office they may hold. In this regard, in both their words and actions they tend to say and do anything that is rather expedient, even if, in the long range, it were to be, most assuredly, a detriment to the people that put them in office. If they like something, they tend to bring out all the positive and constructive aspects of it and they tend to exaggerate enormously.
 
            On the other hand, if they happen to dislike something, they tend to bring out all the negative and destructive aspects imaginable. There seems to be no sense of balance or equilibrium. Their real concern is to make people, to the best they can, to see things the way they want them to see them by all means. To this end, they often resort to manipulation and distortion of facts and events. The best way to evaluate politicians is to explore how they stand on vital issues.
 
            Needless to say, the American traditional saying – money talks – says it all. Most American politicians had their election financed by big corporations whose job afterwards was to control such political figures with iron fist. This explains why so many politicians tend to defend the products of big corporations, no matter how deadly and detrimental to human life they may prove to be. Among the most abused elements are those related to the indefinite manufacture of weapons and the perpetual waging of wars.
 
            In this study we are going to concentrate on one major issue, which has caught the news media attention on virtually a daily basis. It deals with the problem of the so called “illegal” immigration. Over the years, tens of thousands of Mexicans crossed the border and entered the United States without any legal documents. Today, the number of Mexicans that live in the USA without proper documentation amounts to quite a few millions. These Mexicans have been a financial asset to those that employed them.
 
Sacrifices of Illegal Immigrants
 
            They virtually all worked for less than a minimum wage, thus saving tens of millions of dollars to both the US industries that employed them and also to those in the American private sector. Their intention of coming to the United States was not the exploitation of the US economy but to serve, even at the cost of great sacrifice, the entire American nation as needed with as little money as possible. The US President Barack Obama did not hesitate to recognize the contributions that the involved Mexicans made to this great nation.
 
            In fact, this American President has been contemplating very seriously to give these so called illegal immigrants an amnesty, especially in recognition for all their positive and constructive work, which saved the US billions of dollars over the years, as explained earlier. Of course, these so called illegal immigrants had tens of thousands of children born and raised in the US which is the only country they ever knew, not to mention the great number of grandchildren. In the moral sphere, it is not appropriate to punish hard workers retroactively.



            When Americans enter illegally another country, whose purpose is to destroy the infrastructure of cities, along with the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of innocent people, most US politicians tend to view such an event as a necessity! Not only so, but Americans who were responsible for their negative and destructive actions, are viewed by the US government as patriots and heroes! There must be something intrinsically wrong in the American political philosophy of our times.
 
It is better for people to enter a country illegally when all they do is positive and constructive than to enter a country illegally and all they do is negative and destructive. As ascetical writers have told us many times, in our actions we should reveal love and concern for all people. The Master Teacher of Nazareth warned us saying: “Do to others as you would like others to do to you.” The illegal immigrants in the US proved to be very beneficial to the entire nation. We cannot close our eyes to this sacrosanct fact. We are morally obligated to thank them for their hard work and reward them with general amnesty.
 
            We all know the story of the Pharisees. They accused the Master Teacher of Nazareth of violating the Sabbath because He performed humanitarian work such as healing the sick. This Master Teacher called the Pharisees hypocrites and compared them to tombs… clean from the outside but stinking from the inside. Most US politicians want to punish our illegal immigrants, in spite of the good contributions they made. Ironically, such politicians support the sales of weapons to anyone that pays the right price, along with the promotion of wars!
 
Source of Economic Collapse
 
            We learn from a recorded history of 6,000 years that every big power collapsed because it disintegrated its economy by fighting needless wars. Those in the USA that are destroying the American economy are not the illegal immigrants but those in the government who are constantly putting billions of dollars on weapons and wars. It has been calculated that if the USA were to close 50% of its 746 military bases it has around the world, there would be enough money to solve virtually all the economic problems this great nation is facing.
 
            The American military has become the albatross of the United States. Not only it is alienating many nations with its presence everywhere but it is instigating retaliations each time the US military destroys the infrastructure of cities, kills thousands of innocent people, forces many to become refugees, and increases the number of orphans. Pope Pius XII was perfectly right when he said to both Great Britain and Germany on the eve of World War II that “in a war everyone is a loser and no one a winner.”
 
            Germany lost the war and its economy collapsed. On the other hand, Great Britain won the war and its economy equally collapsed. The fact that the US is resorting increasingly to tactics of threats and fear shows that it has virtually reached the point of paranoia. Higher laws, such as the divine positive law and the natural law, are disregarded for all practical purposes. The teachings of the Master Teacher of Nazareth have become fully meaningless and ignored fully by all means.
 
One of the most conspicuous was when Jesus said to Peter: “Put the sword away for he who kills by the sword will die by the sword.” And to show that he was not bluffing, He added saying: “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” Jesus has condemned violence of any kind with persistence. Needless to say, He condemned retaliation when He stated clearly “to turn the other cheek when slapped on one cheek” instead of hitting back. If there is one element in the world that constantly defies God’s laws is the way the military is handed by respective governments.
 
We are referring here to God’s commandments: “You should not kill” for only God is the author of life, and also, “You should not destroy the property of others,” who all happen to be God’s children. Another one of God’s laws says clearly: “You should not tell lies.” Unfortunately, we learn from history that many leading government officials lie to their people systematically. They try to hide their ulterior motives in anything they do negatively and destructively with such words as “national defense and security.”
 
Role of Political Expediency
 
Such phrases and other similar ones are used in an effort to keep completely shut or sealed the mouths of both the civilian population and the news media reporters. When some humanitarian organizations visited young children in both Iraq and Gaza strip they asked them the question: “What would you like to do when you grow up?” To their surprise and without hesitation some 80% of these little children said unanimously: “Killing Americans!” When these children later try to achieve their goal, the US will view them as terrorists!
 
When asked “why” they wanted to kill Americans, they all gave, one by one, more or less the same answer: “Because Americans killed my father and now I have no father; they killed my mother and now I have no mother; they killed my relatives and friends and now I feel desperate and lonely.” Within the supernatural context, is this not really ironic? We are referring here to the American political philosophy that views those who contribute to our earthly community beneficial and constructive work as bad, vicious and that need to be punished simply because they go by the name of “illegal immigrants.”
 
At the same time, this same American political philosophy refers to those who destroy the infrastructure of cities and kill thousands of innocent people, as our “heroes who risked their lives to safeguard the democracy and freedom of the American nation!” This is fully incomprehensive when the United States views itself as a predominantly Christian nation. How can a nation that views Jesus as its Lord and Master, as the Son of God dares to trash into the garbage anything He says that is not viewed as politically expedient?
 
            When Nelson Mandela became the President of South Africa, the whole world was expecting him to take some revenge against the Whites that put him in jail for 27 years. Instead, Mandela won the hearts of the world when he said: “Let bygones be bygones. We are all South Africans. We need to work together and move the country forward.” We need to learn from Mandela and say: “Let bygones be bygones. Our so called illegal immigrants made US corporations and families richer as explained earlier. It would be fair to give them amnesty.”
 
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President
International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

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