What part of the word "illegal" don't I understand?
I don't understand the part about why coming to America should be illegal.
Or why joining family members here should be illegal.
I don't understand why we make it illegal for people to work, why we take people begging for work at the meagerest of pay, and say, Nope, we still won't give you a job, not even at that wage.
No, I don't understand that.
I don't understand the part about making it wrong to want to be an American. If they've dreamed of becoming Americans, and if being an American is a good thing, why shouldn't we let their dreams come true?
I don't understand the part about there not being enough of America to go around. There isn't enough room for them in America? No, I don't understand that. We've taken quite a few people in, and no one's spilled out yet.
I don't understand the part about making them wait years before they can come here. I don't understand why we see the need to send them on paper trails once they get here. I don't understand why we think it necessary to make it such a complicated mess.
I don't understand the part about making it so expensive, why we have to exact such a toll from those who are poor.
Yes, and I don't understand why those who came and made it through the maze insist that it is only right, since they had to go through it, that everyone else should have to go through it, too. Why should it be an affront to those who have gone through a bad system that the system should be fixed?
I don't understand the part about how they ruin our economy. I don't know that any economy has ever suffered because of people who want to work. I don't understand how if they are buying gas from us, and groceries from us, and entertainment from us while they are here, how that's going to hurt our economy.
Just the same, I don't understand how we get mad at them for sending money home to their wives and children. We would begrudge them from supporting their families?
No, I don't understand that.
I don't understand why we say they are taking jobs from us, but we never complain about taking jobs from each other. We've always had to compete for jobs, but if we have to compete against them, somehow that isn't fair.
I don't understand why it would be so wrong to make it so they could pay taxes. We complain about them working under-the-table, but won't let it be any other way. Shouldn't we let them pay taxes like everyone else?
I don't understand how some of us don't even to want to live among them. What kind of pride is that?
I don't understand how they're all criminals. Seems to me, most of them are just decent, poor people.
I don't understand how we expect that there should not be some of them who are criminals. We raise criminals here. We have criminals among those who were born here. Why do we suppose there will not be some among them who are criminals?
I don't understand why we judge the many by the few, why if one of them commits a murder, or a rape, or a robbery, we label them all as murders, and rapists, and robbers.
I don't understand why that shouldn't be called slander.
I don't understand how they are terrorists. In the long stream of those who have come, how many terroristic acts have they committed?
What part of the word "illegal" don't I understand? I don't understand why it should be illegal for them to live and breathe on American soil, to walk down the aisles of our churches and grocery stores, and to just exist here. Live, breathe, and exist -- are those criminal acts?
I don't understand how our helping them is going to hurt us.
They are just ordinary people as long as they are on one side of the border, but if they walk across a line in the sand, it makes them evil. I don't understand that.
I don't understand why we still call them "aliens." That word has changed. Using that verbiage today makes it sound like they are from another planet.
I don't understand how they are destroying our nation.
Oh, and I don't understand how they are destroying our rule of law. Someone walks into the country without your invitation, and suddenly your whole legal system falls apart, maybe? Is that it?
I don't understand the part about them being an invasion. The word conjures up a foreign force invading to conquer. A bunch of poor people walking our way -- very few of them even having guns -- and we speak of an invasion?
I don't understand how amnesty is a whole lot different than forgiveness. They came without our permission, and we don't want to forgive them for that?
I don't understand the part about not wanting to give them a path to citizenship.
I don't understand how the one crime that should never be forgiven is coming to America.
I don't understand why, in America, that should be called justice.
No forgiveness for them? I don't understand the part about how we are so compassionate. You really think so?
I don't understand how this doesn't have something to do with an awful lot of pride on our part, and a show of contempt for those who are humble.
I don't understand the part about singing, "This land is my land, this land is your land," when what we really mean is, "This land is only my land, this land ain't your land. I'm too selfish to ever share."
I don't understand the part about having a welcome sign at our country's entrance, saying, Give us your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, but when they arrive, we tell them to get their tails out of here and seek their refuge somewhere else.
I don't understand how it is suppose to be patriotic to turn these people away.
I don't understand how it is that one of the reasons we went to war in the Revolution was that King George was restricting immigration, yet now, in our day, restricting them from coming is all just and proper.
I don't understand how one of the freedoms this nation once enjoyed was the freedom to come here, but now it is not.
I don't understand how this should be considered a freedom lost.
I don't understand how locking people out has anything to do with freedom.
The neighborly thing to do, would be to let them in. I don't understand -- as much as anything -- why we can't just be good neighbors and let them in.
What part of the word "illegal" don't I understand? I don't understand one word of it. There's pretty much nothing I understand. Basically, I probably ought to be sent back to school on this one. What's the name of the textbook I should study -- Twenty-million Reasons for Not Loving the Immigrant?
I don't understand why we don't just take the advice of Paul McCartney and Wings: "Somebody's knocking at the door. Somebody's ringing the bell. Do me a favor, and open the door, and let 'em in."
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