I keep thinking about the Washington Post article I read last week regarding additional states considering or passing anti-immigration laws similar to the law passed in Arizona. According to the article, "Lawmakers in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, which have already taken steps against illegal immigration, say that Arizona-style measures have a realistic chance of passing when their legislatures reconvene in 2011." At least 17 other state are considering similar legislation also.
The article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2010/07/07/GR2010070705388.html?sid=ST2010070703034
I am beginning to wonder if this is how our grand experiment starts to unravel. Bear with me for a second.
A. Depending on your viewpoint, our central government is or appears to be ineffective.
B. Groups begin to demonstrate against what they perceive as the ineffectiveness of the central government--think Tea Party.
C. Groups begin to talk about the need to do away with or make major changes in the central government--think Tea Party.
D. States begin to pass laws that contravene federal laws--think Arizon's SB1070.
E. The central government takes on the states in federal court to overturn the laws in D--think ongoing federal lawsuit against Arizona's SB1070, which is supposed to take effect on July 29, 2010.
F. There are more demonstrations by the groups in B above but now National Guard units are nationalized to put down the demonstrations–riots break out.
G. One or more states decide to withdraw from the union and requires that its citizens no longer obey federal laws or submit tax payments, etc. to the federal government and orders state National Guard units to stand down or not mobilize when order to by the federal government--think back to 1861 secessions.
H. Regular Army forces are brought in.
I. Groups begin to “man up” openly carrying weapons that our laws have permitted. Some hothead takes a potshot at a group of soldiers--think Fort Sumpter April 12-13,1861.
J. Civil War??????
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Blog restart
I had given up on my blog, but have decided to make another stab at it. This blog will be how I feel about things and may or may not be very factual. It is not necessarily my goal to do anything that will be earth shattering or actually accomplish anything. At my age that is not as necessary as it once was. I have been a poster on other blogs and what I have mostly seen is a great deal of hate and puffery on the part of many folks. There is one website, www.bvbl.net, run by a guy by the name of Greg Letiecq, one of the founders of Help Save Manassas, that looks like it is authored by either Adolph Hitler or Joseph Goebbles. He hates everything that is not white and is presently advertising those old fashioned racist lawn jockies but his look like President Obama. He says he is thinking about adding one featuring a local congressional representative, Gerry Connolly, who is white, so that he won't be accused of racism.
Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors is so overcome with his own self importance that he has decided to tell the state legislature how to run the commonwealth and is trying to convince Virginians that we need to pass a law similar to the train wreck that Arizona has passed. He, Letiecq and a supervisor by the name of John Stirrup were responsible for the semi-failed anti-immigration resolution that set Prince William County race relations back perhaps 100 years and drove legal and illegal immigrants out of the county. Result--folks walked off and left homes, the housing market in the county crashed and Prince William County has had the worst foreclosure rate in the state. Stewart's present plans call for egging on the federal government by working to pass an Arizona type law and begging the federal government to sue Virginia. Just the thing the state needs when we are already facing hard times.
My two cents worth for July 12, 2010.
Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors is so overcome with his own self importance that he has decided to tell the state legislature how to run the commonwealth and is trying to convince Virginians that we need to pass a law similar to the train wreck that Arizona has passed. He, Letiecq and a supervisor by the name of John Stirrup were responsible for the semi-failed anti-immigration resolution that set Prince William County race relations back perhaps 100 years and drove legal and illegal immigrants out of the county. Result--folks walked off and left homes, the housing market in the county crashed and Prince William County has had the worst foreclosure rate in the state. Stewart's present plans call for egging on the federal government by working to pass an Arizona type law and begging the federal government to sue Virginia. Just the thing the state needs when we are already facing hard times.
My two cents worth for July 12, 2010.
Friday, April 9, 2010
The People We Never See
I recently read an article in The Washington Post about a man named Eugene Allen. You probably never heard of him, but Mr. Allen died on March 31 of this year. I don't knw what month he was born, but the year was 1919, so he was either 91 or on the shady side 90.
The reason you may have never heard of Mr. Allen is that he was a butler, a very special butler. He waited on presidents, heads of state and a cast of thousands of dignitaries in his 50+ years in the White House. Near the end of his career, first lady Nancy Reagan invited him to attend a White House dinner along with his wife Helene. Such an invitation had never been offered before. Mr. Allen and his wife ate dinner with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and danced under the beautiful White House chandeliers.
Mr. Allen watched the parade of history that passed through the White House and the one thing he and his wife wanted to do before they left this world that had hardly noticed them was to vote for the new presidential nominee, Barack Obama. But before this could happen, Mrs. Allen died. However, Mr. Allen was one of the faceless millions who went to the polls to cast their vote for our first black president. His long service was remembered with a premier invitation to the inauguration.
Mr. Allen was laid to rest in the clothes that he often wore in the White House while waiting on all those dignitaries--a grey evening suit, a White House pin on his lapel and a pair of snow white gloves on his hands.
As I read this article, I thought of all the people we never see, but who make our lives so much richer through the menial and sometimes difficult and dangerous work they do. You and I see them every day--the people who clean the malls we visit, the man who picks up and empties your trash can a couple of times a week, the electricians who are out in the storm replacing the transformer that went out down the street, the people who clean the rest rooms is so many places and the people who stock the shelves in the grocery store.
These folks are everywhere and no where. They are invisible to most of us.
I never see the person (don't know if that person is male or female) who delivers my newspaper. And I make the payment on the internet--when I was a youngster delivering the paper, we knocked on doors and collected the payment for the paper. What about the meter reader who used to come by and read your water and electric meters? Now they dirve by and read it electronically.
After I retired from the Navy, I worked at a university. The university faculty did a lot of scientific research and were sure the universe revolved around them. They complained about the administrative folks, the char force and the folks that worked on the loading dock. I used to remind them that without these folks, they would not get anything done--they wouldn't get paid, they wouldn't have funds, they wouldn't have supplies, they wouldn't be able to get into any of their spaces for all the junk they left laying around, and the lights, heat and water wouldn't work.
The next time you see one of these invisible people, try to find the time to thank them for the job they do. You will be surprised at the smiles you will generate.
My two cents worth.
The reason you may have never heard of Mr. Allen is that he was a butler, a very special butler. He waited on presidents, heads of state and a cast of thousands of dignitaries in his 50+ years in the White House. Near the end of his career, first lady Nancy Reagan invited him to attend a White House dinner along with his wife Helene. Such an invitation had never been offered before. Mr. Allen and his wife ate dinner with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and danced under the beautiful White House chandeliers.
Mr. Allen watched the parade of history that passed through the White House and the one thing he and his wife wanted to do before they left this world that had hardly noticed them was to vote for the new presidential nominee, Barack Obama. But before this could happen, Mrs. Allen died. However, Mr. Allen was one of the faceless millions who went to the polls to cast their vote for our first black president. His long service was remembered with a premier invitation to the inauguration.
Mr. Allen was laid to rest in the clothes that he often wore in the White House while waiting on all those dignitaries--a grey evening suit, a White House pin on his lapel and a pair of snow white gloves on his hands.
As I read this article, I thought of all the people we never see, but who make our lives so much richer through the menial and sometimes difficult and dangerous work they do. You and I see them every day--the people who clean the malls we visit, the man who picks up and empties your trash can a couple of times a week, the electricians who are out in the storm replacing the transformer that went out down the street, the people who clean the rest rooms is so many places and the people who stock the shelves in the grocery store.
These folks are everywhere and no where. They are invisible to most of us.
I never see the person (don't know if that person is male or female) who delivers my newspaper. And I make the payment on the internet--when I was a youngster delivering the paper, we knocked on doors and collected the payment for the paper. What about the meter reader who used to come by and read your water and electric meters? Now they dirve by and read it electronically.
After I retired from the Navy, I worked at a university. The university faculty did a lot of scientific research and were sure the universe revolved around them. They complained about the administrative folks, the char force and the folks that worked on the loading dock. I used to remind them that without these folks, they would not get anything done--they wouldn't get paid, they wouldn't have funds, they wouldn't have supplies, they wouldn't be able to get into any of their spaces for all the junk they left laying around, and the lights, heat and water wouldn't work.
The next time you see one of these invisible people, try to find the time to thank them for the job they do. You will be surprised at the smiles you will generate.
My two cents worth.
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