Quote:
Originally Posted by SecretMethod70
Incidentally, you want to know why you come across as racist to some people?
|
Well, for me, the fact that this is pan's, what, fourth immigration-related thread in as many days tells me he's at least got a bone to pick on the issue.
Pan, it's curious to me that somebody with the tag "lennonite priest" would have such a dogmatic view of the law. John was clear that law is a human construct, and that to the extent it serves to elevate humans, it's worth following, and largely it doesn't serve to elevate humans.
One of the finest things a human being can do is to perform an act of civil disobedience. I don't mean some adolescent anarchic fuck-you-to-the-man, or as you put it, "I don't like the law so fuck it", but a true, thoughtful, respectful,
public refusal to follow laws that are wrong, including a willingness to publicly suffer the consequences of that refusal as an aspect of that protest. (See
Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience.)
I believe our immigration laws are largely wrong. I believe they're written and enforced poorly, and I believe they're designed from a wrong-headed and myopic point of view. Thoreau would tell me that I have a duty and an obligation to do something about that.
Also, I'm not saying the phenomenon of illegal immigration is about civil disobedience or public protest; it's about individual and family economic survival. But I'm surprised to see your "the law is the law" attitude here. I suspect, given the particular gong you've been banging over the last week or so, that if it were about any issue other than immigration, you'd feel somewhat differently.