Children paying for the sins of their parents

I happened to be listening to CBC's As It Happens tonight while I was making my dinner. I like the human interest stories; it makes for educational listening while I am puttering.

Well, I did not like what I heard tonight. In fact, this clip (starting at about 20:36) made me angry. The guest was state senator for Arizona, Mr. Ron Gould.

He just sponsored legislation proposing that anchor babies are not US citizens and should be deported, along with their parents. He wants the ACLU to get mad, sue, and hopefully take this to the Supreme Court.

I have a few problems with what Mr. Gould had to say.

First of all, those kids did not ask to be born in the United States. How can sending them back to a country that they do not know, may not speak the language serve any purpose except to frighten, dis-enfranchise and possibly alienate children (!) that are probably perfectly aware of how precarious life is? They are children.

Second of all, those horrible illegal aliens that so thoughtfully got pregnant and had those babies (and this isn't right, not by a long shot) work shitty jobs, pay dis-proportionate taxes (because they don't file income tax returns), go without health care (and that's a whole other discussion), and accept deplorable working conditions because they do not dare protest.

Thirdly, the cost of educating these children is a straw-man argument. A whopping... what was it, $9,200 to educate a child that will grow up, get a job, and pay taxes for the rest of hir life. Yup, that's a rotten return on investment (also, $9,200 to educate a child? No wonder your teachers are living in poverty).

Lastly, you, Mr. Fuckwad (oops, I mean Gould), don't like brown people. You are a racist. You may say that you aren't going to be baited into a race argument, but by avoiding the question in such a hostile manner, you are indeed showing yourself to be racist. We all know the white people coming down from Canada "for the weather" are not who you are really interested in. It's those brown people from Mexico, cleaning your hotel rooms, driving your taxis, building your houses that are the real problem you hope to solve. Solve what, I don't know. Seems to me that they are doing the jobs that you aren't desperate enough to do.

Mr. Fuckwad (oops, I mean Gould), it's people like you that gives The United States of America a bad name. You, and elected officials like you, consider yourselves the leader of the free world, whatever that is. Do me a favour. Stay home, stop bossing the rest of the planet around, and keep your racism to yourself.