Mayhem at the Marathon

Mayhem at the Marathon

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

April 16, 2013

So the person of interest concerning the dual bombings at the Boston Marathon is a Saudi national in the United States on a student visa. Hmm. Where have we heard this story before?

Call me paranoid, but were not 15 of the 19 homicide-hijackers on September 11, 2001 that murdered nearly 3,000 innocent people at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and in a field in Shanksville, PA also Saudis; most here with student visas?

When will we learn? Hoisted by our own petards, our openness is becoming the death of America as we know it. The United States prides herself on having a free and open society where we welcome legal immigrants, students on temporary visas, and permanent residents on work visas.

Terrorists prefer to attack when it makes a statement. What better statement than to draw blood in one of the birthplaces of democracy – Boston, on Patriot’s Day - Boston Massacre 2.0.

However, before more American cities resemble Tel Aviv, London, Madrid, and Mumbai, a genuine concerted effort must be undertaken to reduce the chances of terror being meted out upon our nation and upon our American people. Days of political correctness, turning a blind eye, and an unwillingness to call a terrorist a terrorist must cease at once and not at the traditional glacial speed of government.

While Congress continues arguing over how to make 12 million-plus illegal aliens legal, whether with or without citizenship, more and more teem across our porous borders leading to greater economic and national security detriment. Congress cannot dilly-dally any longer.

Democrats are guilty of seeking 12 million more voters for their side, while Republicans are guilty of providing 12 million more low wage workers to businesses that support the GOP financially and politically. Democrats are afraid of alienating Hispanic voters, who, quite frankly, should be offended that the Democrats support the legalization of people who broke the law, while those Hispanic citizens followed the law, stood in line and achieved their goal legally.

The more sieve-like the borders, the more likely enemies of the United States will have increased opportunities to wreak havoc on its citizens, economy, and way of life. If this is not unacceptable to all who legally live in this country, they are traitors and should feel free to pack their bags and live in Angola, China, Cuba, or North Korea.

In addition to sealing the borders, there should be an immigration moratorium – permanent for some, temporary for others. Making that decision should be easy. Any country voting against the United States in the United Nations 50 percent or more should permanently be barred from having its citizens enter the United States. For other countries, the moratorium could be lifted after the borders are secured.

The same should be true regarding student visas and foreign aid. The one area where I agreed with former presidential candidate and retired Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) was his notion that all countries should start at zero dollars and annually make their cases for foreign aid. Again, any country voting against the US in the UN would automatically be disqualified. Those same countries would be prohibited from sending their citizens to the US on student visas.

Of the students qualified for entrance into the United States via a student visa, they would be required to pay full price for their tuition and expenses as well as file updates every semester with the Department of Homeland Security. Failure to do so is causal for revocation of the student visa and immediate deportation back to the student’s country of origin. When the student visa expires, the student returns home to hopefully use his or her education to improve his or her home country. This is win-win for all involved.

The cost for these plans can be absorbed by money saved not cavalierly given to our enemies and a reduction in entitlement funding given to Americans who neither deserve nor earned it.

While no plan is perfect, neither is political correctness or turning a blind eye to the realities that the United States had better get used to becoming a bloody battlefield rife with terrorist attacks. Americans simply don’t have the stomach for it.

Americans don’t have the stomach to see the likes of Martin Richard, an eight-year-old little boy killed while cheering on his father run in the Boston Marathon. Government has the obligation to protect and defend its borders and citizenry and little else. It needs to remember why it exists before it no longer matters.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.