One great thing about blogging is that you get sucked into the world of bloggers, and there is some pretty smart and interesting stuff out there. Via the comment log on David Murray's "Shades of Gray" (listed in the links column to the right, containing excellent nouns and verbs lined up in a pleasing and interesting order), today I found a new (to me) blog: http://terrierista.typepad.com. A little on the cranky/rant side, but who am I to quibble? This is a smart communicator with some interesting things to say.
And I was completely on board until I landed on June 29: Peggy Noonan on the real immigration issue
It's not that it isn't smart and cranky (and the combination is unbeatable). And I get it that it's really just a snapshot of an opinion, and I, of all people, understand that an opinion is an elusive, opalescent squid of a thing, shifting on all axes as the light hits it from different angles and the surrounding territory becomes more, or less, dangerous. Nonetheless, my thinking on the post grew to a dimension grander than a mere comment on her posting, thus it became your PFIFB treat 'o the day, here. So, go visit Jane's June 29 posting entitled Peggy Noonan on the real immigration issue and then skootch back here for my modest blah-blah-blahg on the matter.
Hello! Back so soon? We missed you. BTW, I speak from the inside here: I am, actually, a "new immigrant." Okay, seven years, and from Canada so I barely count, but given the ridiculous delay immigration services seems to encounter getting through my thorough and LEGAL paperwork, I think I qualify for a hefty indulgence handicap.
So... Jane/Peggy: maybe one influencing factor in new immigrants "... failing to let go of the old country and commit" is the example they see/hear in good 'ol red-blooded 'Maricans on TV, print media, and the break room down the hall. Terrierista, forget the B.S. mongers on your TV (great posting, by the way). You don't have to travel far down many corporate corridors to hear the President (and Congress, Senate, State governors and all the city halls and parking meter maids in between) derided, chided, mocked, mourned, lampooned, babooned and in every way shredded and disrespected, all before the last straggler wanders in to the meeting.
Yes, it is the cherished American right to do so. It's one of the foundations of what makes this country great and sends young men to wars they don't understand. And yes, it is evidence of democracy and the right to despise whoever you darn well please, in action. But I must say, for those of us wandering in from the outside, checking out the seating options and menu before sitting down to a costly meal at an unknown restaurant, it can be confusing. We are lead, by example, to believe that the option "not to commit" is inherently part of the American dream.
But if the right exists for a vile foreigner--albeit, no doubt let in without a proper reflection by authorities on the implications to the American heritage and Way--to take on none other than Jane "Terrierista" AND Peggy Noonan in one measly blahg, and this before the green card is granted, then I say, God bless the internet.
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