Illegal Immigration ... let he among you ...

On the occasion of the defeat of the Dream Act in the Senate, with 56 Senators including both Kerry and Scott Brown voting to end debate:
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I'd like us all to consider whether, if the shoe had been on the other foot, we would have slipped across a border illegally to find work if that's what it had taken to feed our families.

And then think back on our family stories, and ask ourselves how many of our ancestors, who mostly came here legally, would have come anyway if it had been illegal.

There's no doubt our country's in a mess, and headed in the wrong direction, and there's no doubt the immigrants are a part of the mess, but do we really think that they caused it, or that the terror of midnight raids, highway checkpoints, concentration camps and kangaroo courts it would take to remove maybe ten million men women and children from our midst would really make anything better - or make it any easier for us to all come together to find solutions for taking our neighborhoods, our cities, our state and country back from the brink?

I know that's a hard sell if you're the one who's seen an immigrant take your job and then had your nose rubbed in it, or if you're the one who's been in an accident with an undocumented worker who fled the scene to avoid getting caught. But we need to remember ourselves as human beings, not monkeys in a barrel - or dogs in a fighting pit. We need to find the light in our souls that will let us imagine the shoe being on the other foot

Not because some goody two-shoes told us on Sunday we should, but because that's what we need to do. So we can all stand up for each other, and face our common problems together.

So thank you Scott Brown for a sensible and compassionate vote on the Dream Act.