Columnist / Commentary

Thursday, September 20, 2007
Lou Agnese, MATT Board Member, writes

Posted ByAdam J. Segalat03:00 PM |  Leave a Comment |  Print |  |  Send mail

Last weekend, the San Antonio Express-News published a terrific column on immigration by MATT Board Member Lou Agnese, the president of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

Commentary: Nothing to fear from consensus on immigration

By Lou Agnese

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
- Nobel laureate Marie Curie

The immigration debate has been defined by one word: fear. It has driven the incendiary remarks uttered by well-known TV and radio personalities, which oft times border on bigotry, and the sincere, if misinformed, comments from both sides of the political aisle.

Fear that terrorists will be allowed into our country, fear that Americans will lose jobs to immigrants, fear that immigration will cripple our economy and infrastructure.

Fear has led some people to suggest our immigration problems can be solved through the mass deportation of the estimated 12 million people who are here illegally; that’s the equivalent of deporting every man, woman and child in Pennsylvania.


 
   
Comments
hispano  said...
The bitter truth is that America is a nation of laws but some are them are stupid or flat out cruel. The popular myth is that the 1964 civil rights bill, and the torrent of voting rights laws, affirmative action rulings, state and federal court decisions, and anti-discrimination lawsuits, over the years swept all segregation laws into history's dustbin. They didn't. Three years after the 1964 civil rights bill ostensibly made legal segregation illegal, Southern cities tried to sneak laws onto the books upholding segregation. Sarasota, Florida, for instance, passed a city ordinance that authorized the police to arrest interracial bathers from the city's beaches. Though the Supreme Court outlawed miscegenation laws in dozens of states, some states kept the laws on the books for decades after. It took a voter referendum in Alabama in 2000 to repeal the state's anti-interracial marriage law. Let's not forget Slavery laws...
October 30 , 2007 06:10:44 PM

miss_irene  said...
And long-dead miscegenation laws have exactly what to do with the complete and utter lack of respect that Mexicans and other illegals show for our national sovereignty?
October 30 , 2007 10:10:23 PM

bajayadayada  said...
"Mexicanization of America that is already taking place in California; the encroachment of the Spanish language into our every day life..." -Ultima. Me das lástima. Lest you forget the Americanization of Mexicans began in 1848 when, as always, the U.S. stole the southwest with guns and greenbacks.
December 31 , 2007 07:12:10 AM

youcanthandlethetruth  said...
LOL!!! The special interest groups always like to use words like Fear, hate mongers, intollerance etc when people don't agree with them. It's the only tactic they have when they can't support their cause with FACTS. It's NOT about fear. It's about BREAKING THE LAW!!!!!!!!! When are you pro-criminals going go grasp that fact? I don't FEAR illegals, I despise them for their criminal acts and their continued THEFT from this country. Treat them like the criminals that they are and stop giving them special treatment.
July 23 , 2008 02:07:17 PM



 

 
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