We’re into the third piece here, trying to figure out the real questions raised by "Disaffected people living in the United States". The implication being the disaffected are likely candidates to commit acts as home-grown terrorists, the further implication being they’re Al Qaeda cement-heads all cranked up and ready to go.
All countries have borders. Borders often mean controls. There is a person in authority standing on the line who is supposed to give the person trying to get in, a lookover, to see if they’re obviously bad. To apply to get into the US, if you’re not from Canada, you have to have a visa of some sort. Depending on what country you are applying from, getting an entry visa is easy or nearly impossible.
Theoretically, someone reads what you put on your visa application and checks the rules. If you are coming in to the US to be a tourist, you’re fine. Go see the Grand Canyon, Branson, Missouri, Christmas Town near Frankenmuth, Michigan, The Mystery Spot in New Hampshire and that place on the Florida-Georgia border that says "Guns – Fireworks – Liquor" on the big sign. After your trip, get out and go back to Elbonia.
If you’re a student and have an acceptance letter, you can come in to do your studies. If the acceptance letter is from Madame Esmerelda’s School of Cosmetology, that’s fine. So is Harvard, Yale or Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School in Gainesville Florida: You’re a student. Study, finish your course and go back to Elbonia.
Before the Department of Homeland Paranoia, the visas were handled by the State Department and the Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services, the INS. State had controls over who got visas based on what country the applicant was from and what they wanted to do in the US. INS handled those who wanted to stay permanently, to become citizens.
The follow-up after granting a visa was negligible to none. This has not changed under Chertoff’s Department of Homeland Paranoia: They’re more concerned with X-raying Aunt Hazel’s walker at the airport. Or confiscating the mouthwash in your carry-on.
Here’s the ugly part.
The disaffected are already in the United States. Disaffected, cut out of the American Dream, cranked up on religious intolerance and just waiting for the word from wherever to strike a blow against the Great Satan.
Nobody from Homeland Paranoia, INS or State have ever been, or will ever be, called to account for the whereabouts of every visitor under any kind of visa to the US. They don’t know where they are. They have no way of finding them. Those disaffected folks have gone to the Undisclosed Location: America.
So what can we do about it? Clamping down in the Internet is intellectually bogus. If you want to stop the disaffected from hearing from their masters, you must turn off radio, TV, newspapers, telephones, mail, couriers and any other type of communication, including skywriting, smoke signals and the Trans-Atlantic String and Dixie cup system we put in last year.
There is another possible fix. I’m not positive it will work. I do know a little bit about how humans behave, so I have a feeling it might work. Downside? It will take a long time, close to an entire generation, to see the results. Also, it will cost some serious money.
Here’s what I think might work: Remember the four commonalities that all humans share? Shelter, Food, Security, Better life for the kids? If a human gets all of those things, there is a reasonable possibility that they will be vaguely happy where they live. They might even become proud of where they live. This tends to shut down self-destructive disaffection and the willingness to become a terrorist.
To make it happen, the US is going to have to do a couple of things.
Pay a fair minimum wage. Humans can’t live in the US on $5.15 an hour. Hungry, homeless humans become disaffected quickly and will listen to anybody promising something better. There is no valid reason that anyone in the US should ever go to bed hungry or not have a roof over their head. Ignore the business people who say that a fair wage will hurt business. A fair wage means that a business won`t make 114% profit, they`ll have to suffer through with only 99% profit. As a broad rule of thumb, a worker should be able to afford to buy some of the things he or she makes.
Have cradle-to-grave universal health care that doesn’t cost the US citizen a dime. There is no reason any citizen should have to live in the fear that they will have to declare bankruptcy and lose their home because they slipped on the sidewalk and broke a leg. It doesn’t have to be a gold-plated system, just a comprehensive and fair one. Fund it from the tax system.
Shoot 90% of the lawyers. Put the remaining 9% in an open pit mine and invite the general public to come by and throw rocks at them. Keep 1% alive for the very few cases that actually need a legal opinion. Bringing back the stocks in the town square might also work, if you haven’t got a spare open pit mine.
Shitcan about 99% of the tax code. It is so full of loopholes and dodges that only the wealthy (and their lawyers) can use to wriggle around the confusing and contradictory laws. The only people who actually pay income taxes are the same poor people who can’t afford lawyers.
A gutting of the tax code also means that corporations will have to pay taxes, as all the shelters, incentives, finagles and paper accounting shenanigans are going to go away. A 10% corporate tax is fair, considering big corporations will save at least that much by firing their tax accountants and feeding their tax lawyers into a shredder.
Simplify the laws. The US Constitution is a good basis for most laws. Try reading it sometime.
Election term limits for everything from County Dog Catcher to President. Two four-year terms are enough. Politics is not a career path: It is Public Service for the common good. Plus, with term limits, the politicians can’t do too much damage, or skim off too much graft.
Encourage the media to be distrustful of anything that comes out of a government spokesperson`s mouth. A grumpy, suspicious media means an informed citizenry and keeps business and government honest.
Separate the Church and the State. The government is a managerial structure for fairly and efficiently funding things for the common good of all citizens. A Church is a place to feed the soul and to share with like-minded celebrants.
Repeat after me: The State Has No Place In The Bedrooms Of The Nation. As long as the participants are of the age of majority and can actively consent, then the State has no say. The Church can make it a part of their theology. Sexual morals are a Church thing. They know how to do guilt and shame.
Bring the military home. The US should not offer to fix other countries until they fix their own country. Use the military to protect your borders if you want. When the US is fixed, then you can look outside your borders. If you want to use the military to help in natural disasters overseas, that would be nice, but not expected by the rest of the world.
Treat every citizen with respect, tolerance and a bit of benign neglect. Americans, even new Americans, are smart people. They`ll find a way to make a prosperous life if you get out of their way and let them get on with it. Take away the confusion, fear, manipulation and hatred by being nice to each other. Perhaps learning about those brown or red or yellow or beige or blue or orange people down the street might help.
There. We can unwire the disaffected in the US by making it possible for all the citizens to get a piece of the American Dream. Not a guarantee, but a reasonable possibility of having a roof over their head, a full belly, a bit of security and a better life for the kids.
Nobody wants to turn that down.
RoadDave 