I’m always looking for great content to comment on. I’m always watching TV listening for idea. I have the radio on, waiting for the snippet that’ll lead to more and more thoughts for posts. I troll through the news media; the big guys.
You know, Fox and The Wall Street Journal. The NY Times and Reuters. The Economist and KOS.
I KILL me! The KOS, as if.
A long time ago I went to grab a soda from our break room at the office and saw an issue of the “Independent Weekly” in the corner. Normally, I pass this by, but they had a cover that grabbed my attention.
In our 2010 Citizen Awards we redefine “citizen”
I grabbed the copy and saved it for future blogging. Tonight I’m cleaning out my stash and have realized the time has come to address the Indy.
Immigration divides America. And it’s always been this way. We’ve rejected the Irish, the Italians, the Eastern Europeans. Everybody.
Today, it is the Latino that is facing the “Need Not Apply” mentality.
So, back to the Indy.
I saw the cover and I had the gut reaction that this is just another Leftist [the magazine IS a Liberal leaning news source] attempt at framing the subject. And I set it aside. As I mentioned above, I’m reading it now and I see that I was wrong.
Granted, they still swipe at the Right:
These days, “citizen” is a loaded word. The crazed “birthers” still contend, despite official documentation to the contrary, that President Barack Obama was once a citizen of Kenya.
But by and large, the article is one where people are discussed, not so much the politics of people.
That’s not how the Indy defines “citizen”—or our Citizen Award winners. We don’t care where they were born. We don’t want to see their papers. We honor these people and groups because they work tirelessly to make the Triangle—and beyond—a more just community.
Here are our 2010 winners, whom we honor for their positive contributions to society. They are citizens of the world.
And really, that’s it. To be a citizen is really, at its heart, a way to identify people who wanna make positive contributions to society.
And THAT is what has me so upset about the immigration debate today.
We should let all people who wanna come here, make a life here, raise a family here and contribute to “here” get here just as fast as they cam and then make ’em a citizen post haste.
Surly, check for criminals, terrorists and carriers of infectious disease. But after that—come on in!
Why does it have to be so hard?