“Guilt is the source of sorrow, ‘tis the fiend, Th’ avenging fiend, that follows behind, With whips and slings.” Nicholas Rowe, 1674-1718, English writer.
I said in Guilt the Source of Sorrow that as long as the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution grants full due process and equal protection rights to anyone who touches the soil of a state, America cannot keep creating massive welfare rights at unthinkable costs without bankrupting the nation.
I used the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 1990, amended in 2004, as an example of rights that would have to be granted to refugee and asylum-seeking children who are physically within the jurisdiction of a state should any be deemed a “child with a disability.” States have a legal duty to identify such children and make sure that they receive an Individualized Education Plan, including the often expensive “related” services.
To the average American, this makes no sense. How is it that efforts to assist Americans in their personal development (children and/or adults), funded by the American taxpayer, is mandated to extend to anyone who simply rams his or her way into the country illegally?
The answer lies, in part, in the serious mental disconnect now popularized in our society between what we see with our own eyes (reality); what we have experienced in our lives (the empirical); what common sense tells us (a type of truth); and what is said we are seeing, experiencing, and knowing. We are being told that all of this is rightful – an expression of our values. It is no such thing.
There is a body of American thinkers and leaders who view the actual as merely a construct of language. For these persons, 12,000 people under a bridge in Texas sheltered from the sun by sticks and rags do not really exist. The Secretary of Homeland Security stands right there, at the site, in front of a microphone, and says, “The border is closed.” “Do not come to America; you will be deported.” The White House Press Secretary says, at a White House briefing, that “these people have no intention of staying, so do not need COVID-19 tests or vaccinations.”
Many commentators are calling these statements “lies” as they are patently not true. These are not lies to those making the statements. Some human beings are actually capable of constructing a reality by simply saying that the reality exists. At one time the community assessment would be that a person or persons with this condition might be delusional or laughable. Imagine if the White House Press corps simply started laughing at the notion that 1.5 million people who have illegally entered the United States are “just visiting.”
Many of the Executive Branch of the federal government have been gripped by this out-of-mind condition that translates what they want to see into what they do see. “The withdrawal from Afghanistan was very well done – a huge success.” “The Taliban are our Afghan partners. They have assured us of an inclusive government.” “We will leave no American behind.” “Our predecessor made us do it.”
The answer lies, also, in the wording of the 14th Amendment that cannot be changed but by the Constitutional amendment process in Article V. All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States and the state where they reside. This 1868 Amendment meant to attach citizenship to both free blacks and former slaves. It was meant to overturn the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford decision that denied citizenship to black Americans. Just to make the point, rights were extended to “persons” in each state, not just citizens. This language was a deliberate creation of Senator Lyman Trumball of Illinois and ratified by ¾ of the states still in the Union. The import of the Amendment’s language today is that the enormous welfare state we have created at the federal level, with trillions more proposed, automatically grants non-citizens (”persons”) these same rights. The nation cannot avoid bankruptcy.
So, in addition to the powerful in government deliberately constructing their own reality, we have an immigration law on the books (the 1965 Hart-Celler Act) that deliberately allows mass immigration by persons from cultures who would find it hard to assimilate to our Rule of Law and bans those for whom it would be comfortable. The effect of Hart-Celler is that the white majority has been reduced to 60% of the population and will be at 48% by 2055. Instead of a “melting pot” culture based on careful assimilation, we are deliberately creating a “tribal pot” of diverse and warring identity groups. In order to get the majority to go along with such a scheme, those constructing their own reality just makeup history – teach it to the non-thinking – create guilt trips in the majority beginning in preschool so that by the end of the day the self-loathing is so elevated that the white majority is thankful they have been replaced.
On a practical level, since it is so hard to amend the 14th Amendment, Hart-Celler needs to be replaced by Congress, and a breathing period of several years created to assess the damage it has created in our society. Just stop immigration for a period of time. If Hart-Celler is allowed to go on then there should be no large federal welfare legislation passed by Congress as our immigration system has collapsed and those pouring into the country will be entitled to the largesse of the taxpayers of America. That largesse will run out.
Guilt is the source of sorrow. It is the fiend with whips and slings that follows behind us. The true reality for Americans and all of Western Civilization is that we are founded on a truth, not an idea or ideas that can swing wildly over time. That truth is that God exists, God is essential, and that His rules for a rightful society are not open to construction by the delusional. To begin to fix this collapse of our society we need to turn to Him now.