From: Michelle Hass Area: Thelema To: Kevin Bold 24 Jan 95 11:54:00 Subject: Radical Religious Right UpdReq 93 Kevin... KB>There was nothing "stealthy" about Republican congressional candidates this KB>time; ** snip! ** I was not talking about the Contact With (On) America here, I was talking about a group called the Christian Coalition which funded certain Republican candidates in several Congressional and Senatorial races. They are a fundraising organization. Since most Americans are (rightfully) suspicious of the Religious Right, the CC connections have been elaborately concealed. The candidates which the CC helped elect spout a populist agenda in public, yet their real agenda is that which groups like the Moral Majority, the Liberty Lobby and so on pushed back in the late 1970s/mid-1980s era vulgari. KB>No one is going to take away your freedom of religion unless YOU let them. Exactly. This is why I'm so concerned. Have you noticed some Reagan era ideas like constitutional amendments to ban abortion and to permit prayer in public schools are resurfacing now in Congress? KB>If Hillary's plan had passed, I would have KB>bled to death while waiting for attention in the emergency room, KB>while Hillary's investment portfolio would have increased its value. So is the current system, where if you aren't working at a company which provides health insurance you might end up dying of a preventable illness like cancer which depends on early detection for cure, any better? My husband works at a job where neither of us gets health insurance. So you have health insurance? Mazel tov. Don't be surprised if you lose it in a cost-cutting move. Ask somebody from Canada sometime: having a flawed National Health is a lot better than not having it. You might have to wait to get a non-cancerous mole removed or a breast reconstructed after a mastectomy, but that's better than what we have now, which is de-facto health care rationing on the basis of ability to pay. And BTW: emergency health care is actually BETTER in Canada now then before health care reform. KB>I have KB>no problem with _legal_ immigrants; Prop. 187 was directed KB>at _illegal_ immigrants. But what I'm speaking of here is the trial-balloon legislation that was bandied about recently for a NATIONAL Prop. 187. It went even further than the California measure and denied federal benefits for legal immigrants, including naturalized citizens. My mother-in-law came here from Berlin, Germany after escaping the Nazis with the British Kinderlift. She is a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. For most of her life she worked for her keep, paying into the Social Security system. If this law passes, her SSI disability payments would be history, and she would be unable to collect Medicare at 65. But the California Prop. 187 will >not< stop illegal immigration. People don't take all the risks to get to El Norte simply for welfare and so on. No, the vast majority of immigrants from Latin America are here to find a better life. Just like the Irish immigrants who came here in the mid-1800s. Just like the Italians and Eastern-European Jews who came here at the turn of the 20th Century era vulgari. In the case of the Jews, they also were fleeing the horrors of the pogroms, where anti-semitic vigilantes killed and raped Jewish people because they were of the mistaken beliefs fanned by the publication of the shameful and racist work of fiction "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." Many times a backlash against immigration comes during a period of economic hardship. Such was the case of the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany. Out of the shambles of the Weimar Republic, the majority of Germans seized on the simple solutions proposed by the Nazis: get rid of non-Germans from Germany, especially Jews and Gypsies. During periods of economic hardship in America, anti-immigrant feeling swelled. Do you remember how shamefully the Chinese who were brought to America during prosperous times to build the railroads were later persecuted by thugs during the later downturn? Well, here's the thing. The Latin American undocumented aliens largely came here during the flush 1980s, when the cheap labor of the undocumented was exploited in construction, in garment work, in agriculture and in domestic work. When the Stock Market crash of 1987 ev happened and the Cold War killed the California defense industry, the climate was ripe for scapegoating. How come I got laid off from my cushy job at Northrop? asks a theoretical person. The demagogues speak, saying, "it's those damn Illegal Aliens... they took your job!" A working-poor or lower middle clase person who despairs of ever having health care benefits looks at the poor Latino immigrant getting MediCal, and gets resentful. Does he correctly place the blame with the Insurance Industry, their lobbyists and "Harry and Louise?" No. He blames the illegals. Finding a scapegoat rather than looking at difficult solutions is a classic way that people react in times of crisis. It's the wrong way to look at things, but it's a classic element of human nature. If you want to see the Immigration problem changed, Prop 187 does NOTHING to change it. There is no provision for added border enforcement. There is no provision for a tamper-proof personal ID card for legal workers. There is no provision for making sure that aliens living legally or illegally in America don't get citizenship for their children by having them here. (That would take a constitutional amendment.) What could help us stop illegal immigration is this: 1.) Streamline the procedures for naturalization of citizens. Make it possible for more, not less, immigrants to go through the system and become taxpaying, productive citizens. 2.) Deploy US TROOPS at both the Mexican and Canadian border. Every other country in both the developed and undeveloped world uses regular army troops to guard their borders. The Mexican border would be Priority One, of course. 3.) Make US aid to prop up the Mexican economy during the current Peso crisis contingent on Mexico beefing up >their< Border enforcement. 4.) Devise a personal ID that is tamperproof, and use existing laws to crack down on ID forgeries. Laser data storage technologies used now for CDs, laserdiscs and CD Roms could be ideal to make an ID card tamperproof...it would have to be scanned with a laser to read the information. EPROM chips would also be a good alternative to add to a theoretical ID. But denying health care? That would be slitting our own throats. I get my Gyn care at a local clinic which was frequented by the Latino community in my neighborhood. I remember the place being chock-a-block most of the time...now it's been VERY EASY to get appointments there. What frightens me is that the clinic does TB management and HIV care... I fear an outbreak of drug resistant TB resulting from the fact that immigrants are now afraid to go to get health care. And this is even though enforcement of most clauses of 187 have been held up in the courts! I dread to think what would happen if 187 gets past the legal challenges and is enforced. Since you too live in Los Angeles, I suggest you get a TB test regularly if you can. I know I will. 93/93 --.\\<-H-- /\ A reckless driver on the Information Superhighway... \./ \,/ --.\\<-H-- Michelle Klein-Hass, writer/provocateur X >< X email: michelle.hass@ledge.com Fidonet: 1:102/943 /'\ /`\ Snailmail: Box 2273, Van Nuys, CA 91404-2273 \/ "There is joy in the setting-out, | "The night is young! There is joy in the journey, | And we have umbrellas There is joy in the goal."--L.90 | in our drinks!" --The Tick Whoa! That .sig, like, sucks or something! Huh huh huh huh huh huh.... * SLMR 2.1a * Alive in the superunknown... 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718