Twain - and the Governator

I've talked about my enjoyment of Twain's writings before - his obvious love of his wife was touching and his political, romantic and satirical writings precisely on target. He had a brevity of wit that I cannot help but admire and I wish I had the ability to produce pithy one-liners at anywhere near the same level as he.

For instance....

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

So true. There are many who will step up to the plate when it comes to the possibility of taking a knock in the head but when it comes to standing for what one believes in, we are sadly lacking. Moral courage is difficult for so many. I teach high school, and I find the lack of moral courage to be prevalent even in the smallest matters. Some of my children would rather face almost any punishment than face doing what is right.

Unfortunately, it doesn't get better with age. There are so many examples of lack of moral courage that I cannot really begin to address them. Here is a for instance, though.

Governor Schwarzenegger knows how he came to this country - legally, following the law, working his way through the system, doing the right thing and eventually, becoming a citizen of this great country. He has even risen to public office in California, the most populous state in the Union, where Hispanics make up one-third of the population.

Now, I understand responding to your constituents - certainly, he should do that. However, to pander to them is another story altogether, and to simply not stand for what is morally right is something I really didn't expect from the Governor.

Today, in the Wall Street Journal, the Governor says, "Before 9/11, we gambled that everyone entering our country had good intentions." Now this is a very true statement - and the sentiments that follow are also true - that we can no longer afford to do so, that it effects our safety to do so, that we need stronger borders and that this will mean more agents, etc.

However.

He rejects punishing law breakers. He rejects the idea that those who are in our country illegally should be deported. He rejects this and he rejects that. He believes we should develop a temporary worker program to allow American businesses to hire foreign workers for jobs "American workers will not do" - never mind that it's been shown over and over again that American workers will do the jobs, but that some unethical employers prefer undocumented workers since they do not require taxes be paid, matching social security payments, or even basic safety compliance in hiring. He believes we should be sending money to other countries to bolster their economies so that people in those countries will want to stay home rather than come here.

I'm going to indulge in a colloquialism. "Duh...." It hasn't worked in the last century - why would we expect to think it would work now? And what about the rather stark evidence to the contrary as exhibited in the attacks on our own soil by those we have fed and clothed in the past?

Here's another Twain quote which I have found to be terribly true:

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

I have no wish to see our country bitten again - the past has shown us what a mauling illegal immigrants can inflict upon our country, its citizens and their safety and our economy. It is time to do the right thing and enforce the law - and strengthen it if that's what it takes to make our country strong.

It is most certainly not time to pander to 12 million illegal immigrants who think the law should not apply to them.

Time for the Governator to adhere to another Twain truism.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."