Op-Ed by MP
"Society, even at its worst, is still a blessing. The state, however, is at its best repressive, and is frequently, intolerant".
This brief comment is made in response to an article that appears here under the headline: “Perceptions of America” by David P. McGinley.
If Native Americans could speak and act for themselves, they would have deported all non-native Americans back to where they or their ancestors came, including this so-called "American Thinker", instead of enduring the indignity of living on the Reservations and being labelled “primitive” in the process!
Now, he will do well to ponder the remark by Karl Marx about the American justice system that knew only how to send people to the gallows, but never considered the root causes that brought them before those gallows in the first place.
We don't know why someone who has been living in a country for twenty five years 'never bothered to become a citizen' of that country, nor the social circumstances that led him to breach the law of that country.
To become a naturalised citizen of most western countries, naturalisation procedures presumably insist on the applicant being able to demonstrate 'good or sound character' as one of the essential prerequisites.
Just because one comes to reside in another country or takes refuge in that country because of circumstances over which one has no control (and the prospective deportee here would have his own decision made for him by either his guardians or parents, being a minor upon entering the Good Old US of A) does not imply that one has no right to expect ‘fair treatment’ by the law of that country.
It is one thing to provide citizens with formal equal opportunities, but to treat them all 'equally', irrespective of their particular or individual situations, would be to discriminate against them and do violence to their ‘right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness’.
I find it disappointing that as an educator, the author has arrived at such illiberal conclusions. One could understand such views being associated with the US Immigration Department. After all, regardless of his subjective claim, there is no such a thing as 'a typical citizen', or what he/she thinks on any issue that can be conveniently lumped together under the headline: "Perceptions of America".
All this reminds me of a report about one Dith Pran (whose life story inspired the 1984 film "The Killing Fields") having been beaten by American cops whilst on assignment as a New York Times photographer, and the observation by one well-known journalist that certainly, "the Khmer Rouge are not without their equivalents in the West!"
When one listens carefully to the speeches and accents of these deportees (which can be traced to the negro ghettoes of Los Angeles or New York where a violent, gangland culture was already in full swing even before the KR era or the arrival of their bewildered families there) one would have to be inhumane to not feel that they have been made to be on the wrong end of a country's justice system by virtue of being forced to return to another country, in which they now find themselves, to all intent and purposes, complete aliens. Moreover, if they are not deemed worthy enough to remain on US soil, why should they be pronounced good enough to be among the Cambodian people, who have played no part within the last twenty-five years of their lives or so?
With time, even convicted criminals are known to have changed and reformed their habits or improved their persons. However, the greatest aid that can be provided them towards this end would presumably be their own familiar cultural environment or milieu, which Cambodia is definitely not?
When speaking in defence of any country's laws, it might be worthwhile for the speaker as a citizen (let alone a thinker and an educator!) to reflect upon one English philosopher's caution that:
"Society, even at its worst, is still a blessing. The state, however, is at its best repressive, and is frequently, intolerant".
3 comments:
Without the pilgrims,the settlers,the immigrants,these so-called native Americans would still live as stone age dwellers in caves .Don't blame people who came and build this country asshole that include the one who wrote this article .
these people were purely a product of the american culture and society. they came here when they were kids. some didn't even know they had to apply for citizenship until it was already too late.
gangs, crimes, existed here in the US way before these kids were accepted as refugees and permanent residents.
In 1970, some Khmers as Lol Nol and Sirimatak chose USA camp by knocking down the Khmer monarchy, by accepting US to wage civil war in Cambodia against the communists vietcong. Despite of their loyalty with US, in 1975, US abandoned its partisans and allies Lol Nol and Sirimatak in the hands of the Khmer Rouges.
Today, the U.S. worked with the Vietcong.
It is the betrayal of the USA against former supporters of Lol Nol.
Today, descendants of those supporters Khmer U.S. allies livingin the U.S. are not treated better than other immigrants to USA.They are returned to Cambodia after their criminal conviction.
What a sad fate for those individuals whose parents have chosen the side of the USA and made the civil war for the USA in Cambodia. Very very sad fate for these American Khmers.
The secret operations of CIA in Libya today remind the bad memories of the secret operations of CIA in Cambodia in 1970.
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