Roy Exum
Well over half of 100,000 illegal immigrants who come across the Mexican border this year fully believe they will be given aid and government benefits. The majority of these who make the extremely risky trip are not Mexicans but people who are fleeing from primarily Central America, despite public-service ads in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala that warn them this is not the case.
The presidential promises you now hear from the 2016 candidates are full of holes, smoke and mirrors.
When you figure out how to deport an estimated 120 million unwelcome visitors, I can hardly wait to hear how any human being can actually pull off such a trick. You think ‘The Trail of Tears’ was bad; watch this!
The reason I bring this up is because a humanitarian group, Human Rights First, wants our country to take in 100,000 from Syria alone next year after the biggest refugee crisis to hit Europe since World War II. Get this: That’s as many who are coming across, under or through the Rio Grande via Mexico. Obviously, these refugees are going to require massive amounts of U.S. aid and welfare while the illegals are booking on the fact they will soon be able to trade votes for benefits.
My goodness, America is also in a crisis. I agree we can’t ignore the 100,000 refugees and, yes, I think it is our Christian duty to help the weakest among us. That established, put me down as saying no illegal resident in the United States – or a legal refugee who will most assuredly spend the rest of their lives on American soil – should get a penny until every adult becomes a viable employee in a government-run work camp like Franklin Roosevelt created after the Depression.
The road that goes up Lookout Mountain was built by the Works Progress Administration during the “New Deal.” In the 1930s, millions of Americans were paid lesser wages than normal workers but earned a check. That’s what built the Tennessee Valley Authority, that’s how we could now repair roads all across America, and that's what keeps people off the public dole. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working for what you get in return.
To me there is a big difference between an illegal immigrant and a refugee. “Illegal” means not legal, but “refugee” means our nation took people in who were driven from their homes and lands by war-mongers they could no longer fight. If we are going to inherit them, put them to work and let them earn the right to live here. If not, back on the ship they go to whatever country they first left. A boat ticket is cheaper than a year of free food, medicine, housing, cable TV and – for goodness sake --- a cell phone.
Welfare is out of control. Do you know that a full 80 percent of babies born at Erlanger Hospital are covered by Medicare? Do you know where Medicare dollars come from? America can’t afford to continue to tax people who work to support people who don’t work. It is the simplest math.
We need a realistic presidential candidate whose main platform would be to harshly trim the welfare rolls. If kids do not graduate from high school, they are ineligible for welfare until they do. If a high school graduate does not have a job within three months, make him see a Marine recruiter or off to the work camp they go. No more handouts. Time and time again I have heard where the Army has literally changed a kid’s life. Israel requires two years of government service. They have far fewer headaches with welfare than we do.
If a guy joins the Army and has a conscientious objection to warfare, teach him to change truck tires at Fort Sill. If a girl is a single-mother with a child, she goes to camp where we have a nursery to keep the child while she earns the money to care for both of them. If a guy joins the Crips or Blood Dragons in work camp, he is immediately sent to prison. What’s so hard about this?
This year the government has announced there will be no cost-of-living increase to those who paid into Social Security. Will the same thing happen to our welfare dollars where no one pays in, especially when the single mother has a second child out of wedlock? Can we decrease the salaries of those in Congress? Our armed forces only got a 1.3 percent raise. I’m telling you this – if a presidential candidate wants votes, take on welfare and the way it is fleecing America.
Now this: You never saw this obituary on Chattanoogan.com and, because it is about a refugee, you wouldn’t have read it if you did. Now, take a moment to read what this obituary said on Oct. 21:
* * *
Kabura Medeste passed away on October 18, 2015.
Her birthday, as recorded by the UN, was January 1, 1941. There is no way to know when she was born. She fled her homeland of Burundi sometime in 1972, during the civil conflict at that time. She lived most of her life in a refugee camp in Tanzania. She gave birth to three sons, though only one son (Dieudonne) is still alive and now living in Burundi. She was never able to reunite with her son, and she was never able to meet her grandchildren, though this was her greatest and only desire.
She came to the United States in 2008. She did not fit in here, and her health issues kept her from being able to be self-sufficient. She was violently assaulted in her apartment in Chattanooga, where she lived alone. Because of the language barrier, proper charges were not able to be pressed against the perpetrator. The case is ongoing.
Following her assault, Medeste developed a seizure disorder and nearly passed away later in 2008. At that point, she was placed in a nursing home. She lived from that point under the great care of the staff at Laurelbrook Nursing Home. She was well cared for and participated in many social activities. Though no one could speak her language, she learned quite a bit of English and she and the staff found a way to communicate.
Medeste was well loved. She will be missed terribly by her friends at Laurelbrook.
She lived a very difficult life, and is now experiencing the joy of the kingdom of her Lord, which she professed longing for during her time here on this earth.
A graveside service will be held at Tyner Cemetery at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Pastor J.R. Caines of East Ridge Presbyterian Church will be officiating.
* * *
We are a civilized nation, right? The land of the free and the home of the brave. We as a people should have done better than this. And it actually happened here.
There is a non-profit that helps refugees here known as the Bridge Refuge Services of Chattanooga. To learn more go to www.bridgerefugeeschatt.org.
royexum@aol.com