Your public schools
A bunch of high school students from one of the local public schools got together and wrote a letter to the editor of the San Luis Obispo Tribune. After reading the missive, one wonders what they’re teaching young people today.
We are writing to protest the law that targets illegal immigrants in Arizona. Amnesty International has identified this law as a violation of international human rights. Constitutional scholars have identified this law as a violation of the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution.
Amnesty International has long since lost all credibility when it comes to criticisms of two nations: the United States and Israel. If Arizona’s law is a “violation of international human rights” then just about every country in the world is a bigger violator – especially Mexico.
You have your constitutional scholars, I have mine. Appeals to authority like this hold little weight. (For the record, I think the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures is probably the weakest argument against this law. Opponents are better off putting their money on the supremacy clause.)
Protecting the rights of all human beings is in the best interest of all people. When we target one group for additional harassment, we begin to look like South Africa during apartheid, where black people had to carry papers. When we scapegoat a whole people, we risk looking like Nazi Germany during World War II.
So, the problem with apartheid was that black South Africans had to carry papers? Really? That’s all that was wrong with it? And that whole Holocaust thing was just Jews getting scapegoated. You wonder why they’d make such a big deal about it. Is this what these kids are learning in their history class? Heaven help us.
And it gets better.
Many hardworking, family-oriented, tax-paying immigrants and nonimmigrants are in danger with this law. We can deal with issues of employment, taxation, overcrowding and crime in other ways. Sheriffs in Pima and Pinal counties have expressed that this law is a bad law even from the angle of law enforcement, and they are probably not alone. They say that people who complain that government is too big and taxes are too high need to get ready for both to get much worse with this ill-conceived and unnecessary piece of legislation.
Wanting the government to enforce existing laws = pro-big government? Seriously. This is the supposed ‘gotcha?’ Are these kids wannabe union members? “That’s a nice law you got there. If you want to see it enforced, you’ll have to donate to the local business committee.”
I’d write a letter to the editor of the paper, but they don’t seem to like it when adults pick on kids.
One comment on “Your public schools”
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Apparently from the comments attached to the letter the last two signers are teacher advisers for the school's Amnesty International group. I would not be surprised if they wrote the letter themselves. Unfortunately, it appears grammar is not a top priority at this school given the poor sentence structure (i.e. final sentence: "They say that people who complain that government is too big and taxes are too high need to get ready for both to get much worse with this ill-conceived and unnecessary piece of legislation."
To claim that Arizona is suddenly an apartheid and Nazi state is the height of hyperbole.