Poop on the Porch

Mike D. passed this story along:

I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week, we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.

But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tiles, the chairs, the table...everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean: They would dive-bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.

After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. I took down the bird feeder and, in three days, the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be...quiet, serene and no one demanding thei r rights to a free meal.

Now let's see...our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegal's came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor: you child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English; Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.

This is the first immigration-related email in quite a while that I agree with. It analogizes nicely a couple of the points I keep making about our current immigration policy: the welfare programs are wrong-headed, and "immigrants" who are really just transient workers with no intention of becoming Americans are undesirable. Removing the welfare programs -- and enforcing immigration law in the workplace -- would indeed "clean up our porch".

But I'm pessimistic about this happening. More likely, I think, is the direction things seem to be headed in Congress: some token (and utterly useless) "border security" efforts, some token internal enforcement, and a huge broadening of immigrant welfare programs and an amnesty for those already here.

All of which makes me start thinking about the unthinkable: where else, other than America, might I want to live? Because if we continue down this path, I don't think my country is going to remain the kind of place I want to live in...