America Can't House, Feed and Educate Every Unhappy Human

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Sunday, November 3, 2002

BY KATHLEEN PARK

You couldn't miss her. The little Haitian girl dressed in a yellow dress and wearing a bright yellow bow on each pigtail, being lifted down from the boat like a princess from her throne. She was beaming. You couldn't see her and fail to smile and think: Why, yes! But of course. Glad we invited her to the party. You couldn't glimpse that instant of pure innocence and not marvel at the power of hope. After eight days at sea, she looked like she might have been going to a birthday party. Instead, she was going to a brand spanking new country where people have plenty of food, lots of toys, schools, families and churches. We wear our Sunday best for such days. The television cameras zoomed next to the scraggly, barely dressed Haitians who had leapt from the 50-foot boat's bow and swum ashore hoping for asylum, then next to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush fielding questions from the Haitians' self-anointed spokespeople, U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Fla., who insisted Bush call his brother President Bush to instruct the Immigration and Naturalization Service to release the Haitians. She demanded to know why Cubans can swim ashore and stay in the United States while Haitians face deportation. Indeed, Haitians and not others are detained under a new post-9-11 policy while the INS reviews their claims of persecution and pleas for refugee status. More than a third of 187 Haitians who came ashore in December are still in detention. No one would argue that we shouldn't treat all groups fairly, equally and humanely. But the reason Cubans who make it ashore are granted asylum is because their persecution back home is a certainty, whereas Haitians are considered refugees from poverty. Clearly, if our restrictive treatment of Haitians violates anti-discrimination laws or human rights, then our policies must change. Notwithstanding the beautiful little girl in the bright yellow dress, America cannot house, feed, clothe and educate every unhappy human being from every crummy country or America will sink. The notion that we should absorb each and every refugee-choked boat that runs aground off Key Biscayne reminds me of the airline captain's instructions to passengers should an emergency occur. When the oxygen masks drop down, adults are told to strap on their masks before helping children and helpless others. If we aren't careful with our borders, there will be no adults left to distribute the oxygen.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002

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Barefoot is right: send them to S. America!

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002

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