Being Born Free

IF THE REPUBLICANS don't want birthright citizenship in the constitution, OK fine, remove it. Its that simple. But for God's sake, for the sake of sheer, simple sanity, do not try to argue that it isn't there in the first place, in the fourthtneth amendment,loud andclear because it damned well is. Nor, through some incoherent convoluted thought process or line of reasoning can one sanely argue that it does not apply to the newborn of undocumented immigrants illegally in the country. The constitution says nothing about legal or illegal immigrants. But the fourteenth amendment is clear as a bell, like most of the constutiion, (if not the second amendment). Its like when William the Conqueror set foot on English soil in 1066, planted his banner in the ground, and declared that henceforth any human being who sets foot on English soil is and shall forever remain free, unenslaved. Crystal clear,as Tom Cruise once cinematically said. The thirteenth, fourtheenth, and fifteenth amendments were all inspired by the victorious Union after the Civil War. Slavery would be abolished forever, and the former confederacy would be punished, severely. Hell, repeal all three of them. Just cut to the chase, as they say, and remove it. Removal would have to be in the form of another constitutional amendment, like reealing prohibition, approved by no fewer by thirt eight of the nifty fifty united states. Why not make it retroactive, grandfathering out of the country by applying to anybody illegally residing in the U.S., and thus proceed to deport twelve or thirteen million people, however many there really are, no matter how long they've been in America or how productively. So far, the Trump administration seems to be finding and deporting people living illegally or on expired Visa or barbed wire scars in the U.S. at a slow snail's pace, afew dozen here, a few dozen there. At the current rate of removal, the U. S. of A. will be one hundred percent immigrant free and perhaps even pure lilly white Protestant Christian heterosexual at about the same time that the sun goes nova, making it all irrelevant, all that racist energy consumed in a solar flare. Nearly every nation in the western hemisphere, right on down to the tip of South America, has some form of birthright citizenship. European countries tend to place limitations, qualifications,restrictions on it, but, they have it. A friend of mine loves to visit France. He goes there,stays until they make him leave,and then returns when they let him return, usually in ninety day chuncks of calendar. To move there permanently he will have to jump through many more hoops and over many more hurdles. Trump and the MAGA mob would have the United States go from one extreme to another. A middle ground approach, like Europe, would be much better. When in doubt, imitate Europe. The unavoidable reality is that the U.S. badly needs all the illegal immigrants it has now, and then some. It in fact needs many more, paperwork or no paperwork. With a dip of the pen, or a few dozen pens, Trump could instantly legalize them, like Ronald Reagan did, to his eternal credit. Send us your young healthy hungry, looking for work! We have unfilled jobs in America! My mother,who was born in nineteen twenty, told me that she has no idea how women can afford to have children in the twenty first century. The answer, of course, is that they indeed cannot, but still do, because although its a tough job,somebody's gotta do it,as we say. We all benefit from new life, and should do what we can as a society to help mothers and children. I thank goodness that all those young folks are working, helping to pay for my social security. By the time the SS fund runs out of money I'll probably be dead anyway, and,in any event,my best guess is that they'll cut benefits for the new recipients and pretty much leave us old time recipients alone, accustomed to a certain lifestyle. The math involved in solving the SS impending crisis is actually rather simple. Raising future eligilibity age,cutting benefits just a bit ,and so forth. When FDR started Social Security in 1935, mymother was a teenager who hated both Roosevelt and socialism. She lived to nearly ninety four, and received her SS check for nearly thirty years. She got her money back,and then some,contrary to her dire expectations of getting cheated. I was tempted to ask her late in her life how she thought that damned socialist Roosevelt had treated her in her final retirement years in the twenty first century, but, to my credit, had the decency not to. She would have had no answer. Now I benefit personally from Roosevelt's socialism, and he is my hero, as he should be. I've been on Social Security for eight years, and I hope and trust that it will not die before I do.

Going To Church, and Liking It

THIS SUNDAY PAST I attended services at the little brick Presbyterian church in the country, for the same reason as always:I got a free ride, and we went out to lunch at a nice restaurant afterwards. To me those reasons are as good as any. One a month they intend to have a guest minister, because the regular guy, a dear frined of mine,wants to take a week off each month, partly due to his age, eighty three. That sort of solves my problem for me. Once amonth, henceforth,on Sundays when the fill in minister is holding forth at the little Presbyterian church, I'll sneak off to the big city for a Sunday morning with my beloved Unitarians. That ought to be enough to keep me satisfied; I am,at heart, a Uniterian pantheist, not a Christian. No offense intended to the substitute pastor, and I told himso, but this solution llows me to keep my participation in both the Presbyterian and the Unitarian churches going full steam ahead. The irony of how strange it is for a lifelong unbeliever like myself to be choosing between two churches because he likes both is not lost on me, I assure you. I firmly believe that I could trapse happily into any house of worship of any religious faith anywhere in the world, and gain from it. Gain from it spiritually, intellectually, socially, among other ways. Unlike Geroge Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both refrained from the communion ritual because they thought it was symbolic cannibalism, I go with the "when in Rome" approach, even though I agree with Washington and Jefferson. This Sunday we had, I believe, nine people in the church, inclduing the pastor and organ player; I always hope to reach double digits in attendnce. Part Presbyterian, part Unitarian, part agnostic, part atheist, I'm amixed breed, aspiritual mutt. "My religiosity consists of humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in nature", to paraphrase Einstein. You can be a votary of any religion on Earth, any of the more than four thousand organized religions, and be a Unitarian. Whereas the hindu faith embraces and encompasses all other religions, the Unitarian Universalist Church (UUC) likewise encircls them all, including Hinduism, merely by embracing them. See how easy it is? Einstein suggested that it would be a good idea if every man on Earth of military service age refused to serve in the military, so that all national military organizations cease to exist. Perhaps, in a similar mass movement, we could all, despite our disparate religious affiliations, declare oooourselves to be children of the universe, living beings of the creation of the grreat eternal creator, what Einstin variously called "the old eternal genius who built the universe", and "the ancient one". Einstein proclaimed himself to be a follower of Baruch Spinoza, a pantheist. These religious philosophies which elevate human beings to the status of Gods appeal to me, eogtisticlly. I enjoyed, for instance, listening to "Ramtha", some years ago, the lady from Seattle,J.Z. Knight,"hosting" the spirit from ancient India, giving lectures, seminars, books, movies,the works. I assume she made good money doing that, and for all I know, still does it. I'm sure I would be, were I she. I listened to quite a bit of her recorded lectures, and found them interesting. She certainly has a way of making you feel good about yourself, and maybe that was the secret of her success. Now, I hear, gurus are a dime a dozen,just like they were in Jesus's time. So, who knows?