Quantum C 的个人资料My Elegant Universe照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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11月12日 Be Careful What you ask for!The heavens opened up, god spoke and now Michael Nutter is Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. Uh...Not exactly! Actually the residents of the city of Philadelphia actually spoke with their votes and low and behold...Here's Mike!
For the first time in Philadelphia's history we have a mayor who's not only African American in a city where African Americans predominate but he's an African American who has a brain he's not afraid to use. Unlike previous African American mayors in this city Mr Nutter appears to be a policy wonk and a pragmatist. Given his own sense of style and personality AND pragmatism, he's not likely to get bogged down with political feuds, megolamania, egotism, authoritarianism and the self imposed isolation of his predecessors. He's articulate, intelligent and conversant with the city's pressing issues. He's progressive and is the author of two pieces of groundbreaking legislation in Philadelphia's history..the smoking ban and the Ethics bill. He's appears everybit as invested in quality of life issues as the rest of are. He's concerned about the funding of Philadelphia schools as he has a teenaged daughter who attends Masterman. He is affected by senseless gun violence in the city as his family also resides here. Mr Nutter will inherit a potentially volatile agenda of city governement; Municipal Labor contracts which includes a possible revamping of the pension and medical care systems, The school funding issue, a burgeoning homicide rate and casinos. This is coupled with an attempt to attract the "Best and the Brightest" to work for his administration tackling the city's most serious issues at jobs that pay at the most quite possibly a fifth of what they would earn in the private sector. Mr Nutter has also made the campaign promise to cease this city's "Brain Drain" in an effort to keep the "Best and the Brightest" who graduate from any of our numerous excellent academic institutions employed right here in Philadelphia and contributing to our quality of life. These are not easy issues and Mr Nutter will not be in an enviable place in dealing with these...The saving grace might be the presumptive election of either Hillary Clinton or Rudy Guliani as this nation's 44th president. Both candidates appear to genuinely extol the virtues of saving this nations cities as well as improving the quality of life for all Americans. It will be "Touch and Go" as shortly after taking office in January 2008 Mr Nutter's skill as a politician, reformer and pragmatist will be tested when he is saddled with the cumbersome task of negotiating new Municipal labor contracts. We all wait with "baited breath" and wish mr Nutter success in navigating this city's myriad of social, economic and political issues.
Excelsior 9月4日 The Great Immigration DebateI am an opponent of illegal immigration...Not for the seemingly discriminatory, possibly racist exclusionary motives of the Bush Administration but for several other reasons. You may or may not agree with them;
1. No Society can be free without securing it sovereign territories and borders. The United States possesses the longest unrestricted border in the world in which people have almost virtually unlimited, unfettered access to this country.
2. Although Illegals provide a large source of skilled and unskilled workforce, they also cause an unanticipated and expensive drain on social service resources of which taxpayers pay the bill. Illegals do not pay taxes and social services particularly medical care are expensive.
3. Undocumented, illegal entry into this country demeans and disenfranchises the process by which people have taken to legally enter this country and obtain citizenship. It is an expensive, intrusive and lengthy process.
Illegal immigrants are economic refugees much like the Irish who entered the country at the turn of the 20th century during the Irish potato famine, except the Irish came to this country through legal means. They seek a better way of life, essentially the American Dream. They are not criminals and should not be criminalized as the Bush adminstration has suggested. Upon detection they should be humanely returned to their country of origin. If we wish to open our arms and accept more immigrants then we should push for legal immigration reform. It can also be argued that how can we accept more people in this country when we've done nothing to care for the legions of impoverished, undereducated people already here? Unemployment and underemployment are still major problems and there is still no national health care plan. Poverty remains the single biggest factor in high crime, drug abuse and child abuse rates.
Federal estimates have illegals in this country numbering somehwhere around 11 million people. How do they know? From where do they get these statistics? Illegals can't be counted (Almost by definition). The Feds state that it would be impractical and damn well near impossible to send all these people back to their countries of origin. I disagree. It is a known fact that the majority of these illegals are from Mexico. Most are law abiding, hard working people. The Mexican governement has stated that it considers the propsect of the US placing a standing army at its border an act of agression. Mexican president Vincente Fox has stated that he opposes the US putting up any fence or deterrent to Mexican illegals (On OUR OWN side of the border!). Since when does the Mexican president dictate US domestic policy??? Other Latin American countries have also oppossed the US sealing its own border. It's no secret that illegal immigration from said countries provides a "Relief Valve" allowing people who otherwise would otherwise would oppose these governments while seeking economic justice in the form of housing, food, employment and equality. Mexico is not exempt from this. In Mexico the economic rift between the rich and the very poor is as great as it can get anywhere in Latin America.
So let's seal our borders not just from terrorists but illegal immigrants and let's begin to take care of our own. America should be for Americans and those who we invite to live, work, visit and/or become Americans (legally).
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