I’m beginning to see this country as a giant boat out on a stormy sea. The waves are surging over the sides and the bottom of our vessel has a hole in it, we’re rapidly filling up with water. There are a number of us with buckets frantically bailing as fast as we can so we will survive. There are an equal number sitting on the seats and benches and doing nothing. Some are waiting for us to be rescued by ‘the government’ and others are sitting by muttering to themselves that ‘bailing isn’t my job.’ They boarded this vessel as passengers and will not lend a hand in trying to keep it afloat. It makes no difference to them if we sink or not, they are adamant in their decision that bailing is simply someone else’s job, not theirs.

This wonderful country of ours is a homogeneous mix of peoples and cultures from the entire world. We are not defined by a one type of person. If you go to other countries you may see one predominant class, one type of person, but not so in America. There are so many varieties; it’s hard to describe what an American looks like. As someone once said years ago… ‘We are a Duke’s mixture.’ Indeed we are. This is our strength as well as our weakness.

As Americans, we seem to have lost our way in our efforts to be ‘fair’ to all parties. We seem to have gone overboard (no pun intended) trying to protect the rights of all minorities at the expense of the majority. For example, no single source in this country seems to be able to tell us how many illegal aliens we have living in this country at this time. The numbers range from 15 million to 45 million individuals. Every day we are subjected to arguments pro and con as to why these people should be forced to go back to their country of origin or be allowed to stay here. The argument for me is simple. If you entered this country illegally, then you are breaking the law. Why is this so difficult for so many people to understand’

In addition to this and to add insult to injury the United States Census Bureau is considering including the illegal immigrants in the upcoming census of 2010. No one so far has been able to explain to me the purpose of this activity. Why are we doing this’At the same time we are embarking upon this Quixotic mission, hundreds of reports have been generated telling us how much it costs to support this illegal population with medical, social and criminal justice systems. All of us have been told that we have a segment of our population (35-50 %’) who do not pay taxes of any sort and are living off of the largesse of those of us who are paying.

How much longer can we do this and survive’How long can or will those who are ‘bailing’ our national boat continue to do so’In the news this week is an article telling us that the state of California is already in the red only ten weeks after they passed their budget. The problem as described was a ‘shortfall’ in tax collections. The state says they may have to ‘borrow’ more funds in the near future. Borrow from who’I suppose they borrow from other sources which have excess funds at this moment in time. Those would be the people in the boat who are still bailing.

Let’s assume it gets down to just you and me bailing and all of the others are sitting around looking at us like calves looking at a new gate. How much longer are you going to continue to support all of those in the boat who aren’t bailing’

How much longer am I’How long before our boat sinks’