By Donald A. Collins | 12 November 2018
Church and State
The lead story in the Washington Post Magazine on Armistice Day November 11, 2018 entitled “The State of Hate” argues that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) may or may not be fair in naming groups as hate groups. Its author cites examples on both sides which seem fair or unfair. Again, I must demur at its coverage since to me the prime generator of our present malaise stems in no small part from our failure as a nation to deal with the immigration crisis.
We know that the immigration invasion crisis is worldwide and again shows the danger of ignoring, as almost all leading media and governmental authority seem to do, the population growth crisis which is now threatening our existence.
According to Time Magazine’s November 12, 2018 on page 10, “A new report from the World Wildlife Fund has found a 60 percent average decline in population size across thousands of kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish since 1970. The growth of human consumption—specifically through agriculture and the overexploitation of various species—is the biggest driver of the drop in biodiversity.”
In the interest of full disclosure, let me note my long association as a member of the board of directors and now subsequently as Co-Chair of the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s National Advisory Board. FAIR is named in this SPLC article and on the hate list at SPLC with no proof of the racism claimed because there is none.
At this point I must repeat my comments from my November 4, 2018 OP ED entitled “These Migrant Alien Caravans Reveal our Deep Angst About Immigration” which you can read in full with this prompt.
Then I wrote,
What doesn’t get mentioned in the coverage I have seen is the history of how both parties have handled our flawed immigration record since our laws were changed in 1965 when our population was about 180 million. Our numbers are now 330 million, likely to be 500 million by midcentury if we decide to keep our present pace of allowing endless numbers into our country.
When has allowing this huge post 1965 migration issue ever been voted on by us American citizens? Well, the recent NO votes on various amnesty initiatives shows how deeply this issue is felt.
I have not seen mass media coverage which notes that since 1965 we have added 150 million to our numbers, most of whom are aliens and their children.
When Trump calls for alteration of our 14th Amendment, he cites the fact that this amendment was meant to cover African American rights to vote, not to give instant citizenship to babies dropped by alien mothers in El Paso or from any other nation!
I am very pro-immigrant, always hopeful that we can attract desirable aliens to become citizens under laws which are largely already on the books. For example, Congress could readily enact the improvement of the highly effective E verify program which insures that job applicants are here legally is simply one example which needs to be made permanent and mandatory for all US business new hires. But neither major party wants to give up what they perceive to be their open border advantage offered by our present broken immigration system.
So why does Trump, whose tenure as President has been marked with great current economic success, make his main message just before our mid-term elections to Americans be about immigration as symbolized by these caravans?
Answer: Because for decades neither major party has agreed to fix our broken system because of their obvious greed and the political biases which each brings to the issue of real immigration reform.
Trump—admittedly for his own political betterment—understands the almost subliminal fear of many of our citizens about the many years of unfixed, unchecked and unnoted mass immigration!!
The need (still unrecognized by far too many) has become urgent to fix the system, not with unenforced amnesties like the one in 1986 or the ones proposed since, but by encouraging needed legal aliens with skills and education that can enhance our own wellbeing not further impound our already badly overloaded social, medical, welfare and educational systems.
In short, Americans are justifiably concerned about their safety and their livelihoods which the simple charge of racism does not fully embrace. The future of the world is up for grabs with the overriding issue of population growth now the predominate measure of danger, now so glibly and fecklessly ignored by our leaders in the media and government.
As humans face major food shortages, decreased friendly social interaction, and other stresses, this will bring forth increasing bad human actions and environmental events like the fire and weather seen lately. As these events evolve, the charge of “racism” gets inadequate to cover the range of possible upsets to life in our country and on the planet as we know it today.
When human numbers reach what level will we be willing to address the danger? From 2 billion worldwide when I was born in 1931, we are on the threshold of nearly 8 billion, slated to reach 9 or 10 billion by mid-century. My children and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren are at great risk. When will we call an armistice to growth in human numbers by providing all with the ability to make each child a wanted child?
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013.
From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013
By Donald A. Collins
Publisher: Church and State Press (July 30, 2014)
ASIN: B00MA40TVE
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Migrant caravan believed to be largest on record
Vatican control of World Health Organization population policy: An interview with Milton P. Siegel
Robert Engelman – Catholic Church Impedes Sound Population Policy
Sir David Attenborough on Overpopulation
Bill Clinton talking like Trump on immigration
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Could not agree more!
Birth control is an absolute good – maybe that is really why the Catholic Church opposes it – they have a fetish for poverty and suffering – Mother Theresa was especially partial – she believed suffering brought people closer to God – maybe that was why only cheap locally purchased aspirin was available in her Calcutta hospices for patients in the agonising final stages of cancer.
Every child a wanted child is such obvious sense it amazes me there are still people who want to deprive women in the poorest places of access to birth control which – time and again – has proven to lift whole families out of poverty almost more than any other measure.
The best way to ensure a smaller carbon footprint is to have a smaller family.
I fear people will wake up too late despite repeated pleas by experts such as Sir David Attenborough who has no political axe to grind and has travelled the planet many times over studying the flora and fauna and recording the devastation.
I fear homo sapiens sapiens has ostrich syndrome about this issue – we need a smaller global population and birth control is the solution.