Saturday, May 15, 2010

Illegal Immigration

Like so many others, I was really peeved at Suzan Hebson and the Township High School District 113 Board of Education for denying the Highland Park High School girls basketball team a chance to compete in tournament held in Arizona. What petty posturing I thought. Until I read this article in the Chicago Tribune which includes the following quote from assistant superintendant Suzan Hebson:

"Since undocumented students may be participating on any of our extracurricular teams, we need to ensure that all of our students can travel safely, especially in the United States."

I am perplexed and my anger is growing. Ms. Hebson's concern evinces her clear understanding that undocumented students is a euphemism for illegal alien!

Why does that understanding not extend to the notion that illegal aliens are at risk no matter where they go in the US precisely because they are, well, ... you know it's coming ... ILLEGAL!

Illinois Township High School District 113 is embracing the notion of and providing sanctuary to illegal aliens and they apparently they don't care who knows.

There are an estimated 20 million illegal aliens in the US which means our politicians have been ignoring this problem for way too long. We need to address the issue now.

In the meantime, if you are like me and inclined to let the Township High School District 113 Board of Education and Ms. Hebson know how you feel, send them an email. Please be polite, but let them know that their decisions have consequences.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Arizona Immigration Law Reasonable - NY Times

OK, so I am a bit concerned that I agree with the New York Times when they declared the recent Arizona immigration law reasonable in their article entitled Why Arizona Drew a Line.

If everyone would simply Read the BILL, I think there would be considerably less confusion and considerably more support.

Perhaps President Obama might support the law, although based upon his appearance at the Correspondence Dinner I seriously doubt it. How can you poke fun at something that has caused such controversy, especially when you are the one that has failed and failed miserably to take action???

Here's Governor Brewer's recent ad telling President Obama that no one's laughing now.

I know, several other presidents have failed to close the borders as well. I am ticked at them too! But Obama is in office and clearly he doesn't think this is such an important issue.

I am not yet of the opinion that we should consider something like Operation Wetback, which was one of the three times in the history of the US that the federal government actually decided that there were too many illegal aliens in the country and went about deporting them! Although, if circumstances continue to deteriorate, if jobs become so scarce, then we may have to consider doing something!!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Seniority Trumps Competence

New York city schools like many others across our country are bracing for spending cuts. Given their current economic situation, they need to do this to keep from sliding into an economic abyss. But necessity and union rules should not abrogate reason. Cuts should be made with an eye towards the consequences.

Sadly, such is not the case in New York city where layoffs are going to cause the loss of some talented, caring, competent teachers. They will be laid-off because some other teachers who are less competent, less caring and less capable will stay simply because they have more seniority. This is so because the teacher's union who thinks that the most important consideration when deciding who should stay and who should go is who has the most seniority. Competence does not enter into the equation at all!!

Parents should not let this happen!