Freedom is not the right of the affluent

 to trample the poor

   Look south to our border, where the poor of Central America and Mexico seek to enter, only to be told by a wealthier people that this country has no room for them, only to be scolded as leaches coming to unrighteously plug into our welfare system.
   The poor become leaches when they beg for help.
   Should we be surprised that some of them will fall into our welfare nets when they come? These are the poor. Poor people end up on charity, often enough. The question is whether we can stomach that. Does it drive us mad to think they will cost us a penny in welfare bills?
   If you offer freedom, you must follow with charity. Or, so it is in this case. The trick is, we are not "offering" them freedom, are we. We are throwing up the palms of our hands and saying, Stay out. Get back. Go back where you came from.
   The high and mighty land of freedom seeks a higher class of immigrant, and will not settle for the poor. It is quicker to let in the privileged than it is the poor. It speaks of a merit system. It scolds the countries they come from. "When Mexico sends is people, they're not sending their best," it says. "These aren't people; These are animals," it says.
   Instead of offering them charity, we swing a whip.
   We sting them with accusations of being murderers and gangsters and terrorists. This is what we think of the poor when they come. Welcome them with open arms? Nay. Our greeting is a greeting of accusations and contempt.
    This might be the America we are, The America we have become. But it is not the America found in the dictionary. The dictionary entry of America speaks nothing of treating the poor this way.

Note: This blog was lightly added to April 2, 2019.