Archive for July, 2010
Where are you from?
The other day a friend and I were talking about immigration. He immigrated to the United States, is an American citizen but never refers to himself as a something-American, a hyphenated-American; he is just an American. My great-grandfather emigrated from Prussia in 1852. And like my friend, I don’t consider myself a Prussian-American; I am just an American.
Subject or citizen?
“Oh posterity, you will never know how much it cost us to preserve your freedom. I hope that you will make a good use of it.”
- John Adams, second U.S. president
Sanctuary cities and Arizona
Among the limited powers of the federal government are matters of immigration and border security. However, the government seems unable to carry out these constitutional responsibilities, seemingly incapable of doing what the Constitution mandates.
Constitutional coup
” . . . the discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny.”
- Edward Gibbon, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”
