Happy Stupid American Day

Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Stupid American Day. On May 1, millions of people will take to the streets demanding amnesty and automatic citizenship for all ILLEGAL immigrants living in the United States. Did you get that? ILLEGAL immigrants. Say it with me - ILLEGAL.

Seriously – I don’t have a problem with immigration. I would just like there to be some kind of process in place where the laws are enforced, the criminal element is kept out, and the people who truly want to come here and be law abiding productive citizens can get in. Is that really too much to ask?

Why do I call it Stupid American Day? Simple - decades of border chaos with both Republicans and Democrats shutting their eyes, covering their ears and saying, "LA! LA! LA! LA!" at the top of their lungs has brought us to this point. Nothing has been done because politicians have been too busy playing politics.

The American people are generous. We've opened our arms to the rest of the world but we are the only industrialized nation that does not enforce its own immigration laws. As a nation, we bend over backwards to protect the rights of others but do little to protect ourselves – our citizens and our way of life - and that is dangerously stupid. You think you could walk into France and demand all the rights and privileges of a French citizen? Good luck with that - let me know how Jacque treats you.

Bumper sticker political rhetoric will not solve our immigration problem. It takes guts to pass the laws to fix the problem and then courage to follow through with enforcement.

So Happy Stupid American Day everyone! If things go badly tomorrow, we only have ourselves to blame.

UPDATE: MAY 1

Stupid American beating a dead horse

Des Moines survived it's Day Without Immigrants (a.k.a. Stupid American Day). My only inconvenience was the vending machine at work wasn’t restocked – not that I really needed the animal crackers. I made due with the tiny pretzels.

To borrow some terminology from the Des Moines Register:

A rose to all the immigrants who did not succumb to cheap, political grandstanding and went to work and school as usual today.

A thistle to the local news media who made this look like a strictly Hispanic issue. Not once did I see an interview on television or in the paper about the other immigrant populations living in Des Moines (Bosnian, Eastern European, Vietnamese or Sudanese to name a view). How do they feel about immigration, especially if they came here legally?

Another thistle to all local and national media for blurring the lines between legal and illegal immigration, and making it sound like if you are against illegal immigration you are a racist.