Posted on 06/09/2011 7:25:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Reality star and Donald Trump lunch partner Sarah Palin paid a visit to Ellis Island last week, but most of the headlines you read were about Palin flubbing the story of Paul Revere at a previous (campaign?) stop in Boston.
Palin said that during the build-up to the American Revolutionary War against England, Revere’s famous midnight ride "warned ... the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells."
Historians subsequently noted that Revere actually had to remain as quiet as possible, as opposed to making all sorts of noise to warn the Brits that Americans were -- among other things -- armed to the teeth.
But Revere-gate actually obscured a much more obvious problem with Palin bringing her “One Nation” tour to Ellis Island. Does she -- or the Tea Party, or the Republican Party, for that matter -- have anything interesting to say about immigration?
Ever since Annie Moore sailed from Cork into Ellis Island in 1892, Americans have been positively schizophrenic when it comes to immigration.
So, naturally, Palin had plenty of warm and fuzzy things to say about America’s legacy of immigration.
"I was struck by the many visitors from overseas who were drawn to this place, not merely for its aesthetic beauty but also as a symbol for freedom and liberty, " Palin wrote on her website, regarding her visit to Ellis Island.
At Ellis Island itself she acknowledged the "work ethic" and "love of country and freedom" previous generations of immigrants brought to the U.S.
But as Catalina Camia pointed out in USA Today, Palin “drew the line at supporting the DREAM Act, which would create a path to citizenship for some children who were illegally brought to the U.S. if they get an education or serve in the military.”
Palin later said (according to the web site Politico), "The immigrants of the past, they had to literally and figuratively stand in line to become U.S. citizens. I'd like to see that continue. And unfortunately, the DREAM Act kind of usurps that." This is at least as large a distortion of the past as Palin’s flubbing of the Paul Revere story.
What? Immigrants these days never stand in line? Or they’re willing to stand in figurative lines but not literal ones?
It should go without saying that while many past immigrants from Ireland and Italy and Germany and all those other places certainly had all of their paperwork in order, not all of them did.
Plenty of Irish folks -- who came into Castle Garden or Ellis Island or Texas or San Francisco, for that matter -- got very creative when it came to bypassing the authorities.
Some went up to Canada first, before sneaking over the border. Others simply lied.
As hard as it may seem to fathom, yes, there was illegal immigration in the past.
For people like Palin, it also seems hard to fathom that today’s immigrants can, in fact, hold the same hopes and dreams as past immigrants.
Yes, we must be vigilant in our battle against terrorism. Yes, we must enforce all existing immigration laws.
But if Palin is interested in running for higher office, she should have a better plan than simply opposing the DREAM Act.
It might have been interesting if someone had asked Palin, while she was at Ellis Island, her thoughts about the so-called Secure Communities proposal.
This week, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick followed in the footsteps of Illinois Governor (and Irish American) Pat Quinn, as well as Andrew Cuomo of New York, and pulled out of the Secure Communities program, which is overseen by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
As a former governor, it might have been interesting to hear what Palin had to say about this program. Does she support it?
Or, as critics have charged, does it lead to immigrants (undocumented or otherwise) clamming up when they are witnesses to serious crimes?
Massachusetts secretary of public safety and security, Mary Elizabeth Heffernan, said as much in her letter informing ICE that Massachusetts would not be participating in Secure Communities.
“We are reluctant to participate if the program is mandatory and unwilling to participate if it is voluntary,” she wrote.
If Palin really wants to talk about immigration in America, than she’ll need more than nostalgia about a past that never was.
******
Contact “Sidewalks” at tomdeignan@earthlink.net or facebook.com/tomdeignan
Apparently, Tom, didn’t listen to NPR, where a historian backed up Sarah Palin’s Revere tale. Or read the Boston Herald, or the L A Times....;0)
BTW - Tom, the Tea Party is all in favor of LEGAL immigration; HOWEVER, I’m pretty sure the Tea Party frowns on ALL ILLEGAL activity, be it illegal immigration or murder, or armed robbery.
That’s why we love her!
Besides, at this rate, illegals with no ties to the United States are going to start bailing in droves. By the time 2012 rolls around, immigration will be an entirely different issue - mostly just cover for the refusal to lock our borders down.
Propagandists don’t care about the truth. That’s not their MO
I had never known that. It didn’t make my history class. PALIN/RUBIO ‘12!! Bob
Maybe he can check her emails for the WaPo, LAT, or NYT for any other hints about her prior views during her tenure as Alaska’s great Governor, ya think?
Uh, but the “illegal immigrants” from Italy and Ireland didn’t come here to steal SSN’s, get their anchor babies on welfare, get paid under the table so they qualify for EITC, commit crimes, etc. They came here to WORK or they starved. I’m in favor of LEGAL immigration, as are all republicans/conservatives. Only a few complete nuts DON’T. And this author also claims that Revere “had to be quiet”? Now that’s a claim I’ve never heard.
On fourth thought, better bookmark this one for use with PDS trolls still stuck in stupid univision...lol.
Agreed. She should absolutely secure the border and work to remove all invaders.
Wow! A politician who actually takes a stand (correctly) on illegal aliens.
Unfortunately, this existential issue of open borders and amnesty that would change America into a Third World hellhole will not be an issue in this election if a RINO like Romney or Huckabee or Giuliani or Huntsman or that ilk is the candidate.
Of course, the Leftist Extremists just wouldn't be Leftist Extremists if they didn't twist, distort, and deceive with their brainless attacks on anything and everything good and correct.
It is so amazing the energy these vituperous filth expend on someone who is "all washed up." Someone so patently "unelectable." Seems almost... wasteful... (if we could believe them).
BWAAAWWW-HAH-HAH-HAAAAHHH!
8^D
Yeah, God forbid anyone would consider her own words on the subject, right?
/s
Who are these historians who counseled Paul to be very quiet so as not to alert the red coats? He was counseled to whisper, “The redcoats are coming.”
Somebody screwed up because the Brit soldiers heard bells, drums and shots fired. They responded by turning tail and running.
Because libs do not know the truth about anything Sarah smacks them down every time they show their ignorance. Which is every time they open their mouths.
Just wait until the emails are sent out tomorrow. This will be a stupendous backfire for the Nazi/socialist crowd.
More empty blather from someone with no credentials to be talking about something they know nothing about.
Irish Central, Irish Voice newspaper and Irish America Magazine are leftist publications produced in Manhattan. They are as inauthentic as O’bama’s Irish roots. Deighnan is a tool. Those publications endorse abortion and homosexualist “marriage,” thus, they are heretics.
Some borders were drawn, but America was not yet the really nice place to go. There were malarial swamps everywhere; recurring famines; violent tornadoes; wild Indians ~ no stores, no roads, no buildings of conseuquence, and when the hurricanes came people died and were washed away and never found.
Eventually, after a couple of hundred years work America became a place worth coming too ~ a refuge for the displaced or starving. After another hundred years limits were placed on immigration.
It didn't start that way.
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