Reply #101: I really appreciate your generosity. Even when I reread 'em I still feel I'm falling short.

[TahitiNut]

I've seen so much shit-flinging idiocy on this particular topic, that I'm beginning to doubt that any ethical and equitable progress can be made in this area. I despair that we're further abandoning our sovereignty and entitlement to democratic self-governance in dealing the multitude of seductions on this single complex issue.

One of the examples of shit-flinging is the allegation that there's some alleged bigotry in referring these people as "illegal aliens" - as though that term somehow dehumanizes them or indicates some kind of hatred for them. Almost nothing could be further from the truth. I have traveled somewhat extensively to other countries (as an ALIEN) and met people everywhere whom I've mutually loved and respected. Including Tahiti. I show that respect by complying with their laws the best I know how. I expect the same in return. People I love and respect have broken the law - and that did not stop me from loving and respecting them. I don't have to hate someone to say they're breaking the law and disrespecting my nation by ignoring its laws. Hell, I even felt respect and deep compassion for the wounded NVA (teen-aged) soldiers we captured back on February 24, 1969. I never stooped to dehumanizing them, no matter how seductive it might have been to do so. At the same time, I knew they were trying to kill me and I was trying to kill them. The utter insanity of war is something I've known. To have people claim that I'm somehow dehumanizing someone by referring to them as an 'illegal alien' is a kind of hostility and insanity that leads to wars - a mentality that reason can only rarely touch.

Nobody should be above the law - but EVERY citizen should take part in forming our laws and complying with them. Abandoning both participation in forming those laws and enforcing and complying with them is the DEATH of democratic self-governance. Without national sovereignty there is nothing upon which to base such self-governance. Nothing. That nihilism is a detestable social attitude. It's sociopathic, imho.