RULE OF LAW BEING AN EXAMPLE FOR OUR CHILDREN

By: Dan Clements

I was reading an article the other day by Andrew Ward of Financial times, where he referenced Norma De Lao, president of Siouxland Inidad Latina a local Hispanic community group, warns that any clampdown on illegal immigrants would result in persecution of all Latinos. She says her family, which has been in the US legally since the 1920s, has already been affected by recent tightening of immigration laws. Her brother nearly lost his job at a meat-packing company where he has worked for 25 years because of a typographical error in his Social Security records.

Ms De Lao argues that Hispanics - both legal and undocumented - have been good for Iowa. "Most of the growth in rural Iowa is coming from Hispanics," she says. "These towns were dying. We are the people filling jobs, opening businesses, creating wealth and having children."

I’m all for legal immigration, my forefathers were from Ireland and England. They came here legally through Ellis Island. They waited their turn to come here and make a life for themselves and their posterity. They just didn’t come here to take jobs other wouldn’t do, they came here and created something for themselves, a way of life in the melting pot of America. On my mother side of the family they were farmers, on my dad’s side of the family they where farmers and labor for American industry.

The one thing I learned from them was the RULE OF LAW. My mom and dad taught me to obey and respect the law, and when I broke the law there was consequences to be paid. There was no grey area with my folks. There was no ends justifies the means. You follow the law or you are punished by the law.

Ms De Lao would have us believe that the Hispanics that are coming into this country illegally, are good for the economy. I don’t care what your race is; if you are here legally you are good for this country and economy. If you are here illegally, you are not only bad for this economy; you are tearing down the moral fabric of this country.

Let me explain the last part of my statement. When we tell our children its ok the break the law, as long as you are benefiting from it and you supposedly are not hurting anyone else, it show everyone every where that it is ok to break the law as long as the ends justify the means. If a person robs a bank to pay for a medical procedure, its ok using Ms De Lao’s reasoning. If someone stole from the illegal immigrants because they needed what they had, to survive or live better, it would be ok wouldn’t it? Is this what we want to be teaching our children? Is this a life lesson we want our children to learn?

When we fail to follow the rule of law, then anarchy reins, and everyone can do what they think is right in their sight. In this society we have the rule of law and most of America wants it enforced. We don’t want to see this country slip into anarchy, we want this country to become great again, and this will not happen so long as the rule of law is not followed.

We need a border fence and a military presence on our southern border. We need politicians to follow and enforce the law. We need politicians to follow and enforce the Constitution of the United States and stop following foreign law when it comes to our sovereignty and security.

Let’s be careful about the life lessons we teach our children. I taught my children to follow the rule of law. Will you teach your children the same?

Dan Clements is the host of BACK TO BASIC, and frequent contributor to this blog and others.