Just Build a Fence

A current topic creating unrest in and between parties (aside from educations, firearms, religion, women's rights, civil rights, voter ID, foreign affairs, and almost every other topic that could possibly incite an argument, seemingly just for the sake of arguing these days) is immigration policy.

Now, amid the debate is amnesty and probationary citizenship for the 11 some-odd million less-than-legal residents of the good ol' U.S. of A, but that's not my focus here right now.  Of course, it could be, looking at the minimal wages and "cost effective" workforce illegal aliens allow business owners, or the sudden, enormous, influx of income tax dollars should these people magically appear on the books, or, heck, even bring up Lady Liberty, welcoming in any and all in search of a better life.

But no.  Let's talk instead about a fence.  Many voices out there are calling for a fence to go up along our southern border; low-tech, a simple "good fences make good neighbors" situation.  Preceding this call for a Berl- excuse me, "American" Wall, are assertions that some of us belong here, and others, who've emerged victorious though weathered, beleaguered, and tired through legal venue, who deserve to be here.  All well and good I suppose, but my question is, just because some of us were born here means we deserve the freedoms and opportunities heralded across the land?

I mean, off the top of my head, birthright has been a fact of life for thousands of years.  Kings and nobles had a birthright.  Origins of birth brought about the slave trade, civil inequality on both ethnicity and gender, and Paris Hilton's 15 seconds of fame.  If America is the "Land of Opportunity", a place where if you work hard and play your hand right, life turns out well for you.  Personal responsibility and accountability are #1, right?  Well millions of people work hard every day, but find the inability to break free from the bonds of systemic poverty.  Why?  Because they weren't born to the right parents?  Some people will always be fighting for the same rights and privileges as their neighbors because they happened to have been born a woman (the average pay disparity is still about 77 cents to a dollar last I read)?  Doesn't sound fair, does it?

And now there's an argument that says, "we deserve this because we just happen to have been born to American citizens".  From my experience, once people begin feeling they "deserve" something, especially something they never had to personally work for, they begin declaring who else "deserves" it.

In a Stanford study, groups of three students were asked to discuss a list of contentious social issues.  One member was randomly assigned to a position of higher power and asked to evaluate the other students' input.  After thirty minutes, the experimenter came in with a plate of five cookies - the more "powerful" students were more likely to take a second cookie, chew with their mouths open, and get crumbs of their faces and the table (Sutton; The No Asshole Rule, 2007).  The "powerful" student wasn't placed in a higher position for any particular reason, there was no merit system, no avenue by which the students were assigned, yet even over thirty minutes evaluating other students the student in the higher position actually began to see him/herself over the others.

 So if some of us "deserve" to live here, just because we happen to have been born here (again, through no actual effort of our own), where could the potential slippery slope end?  I sometimes wonder if our rights and privileges had to be earned by each and every person from New York to LA.  What if, when we turn 18, everyone had top take the citizenship test?  What if , on the provision we pass, we would be afforded the ability to vote, receive benefits, run for office, etc.?

Perhaps that may also help turn the focus on our destitute school systems...

Radical notion?  Undoubtedly.  But why would such a provision be voted down almost unanimously?  Because there's people out there who've "earned" these privileges...?