Campus encounters of the liberal kind

An interesting thing happened to me last week: As I took a leisurely stroll through the Humanities courtyard, I was ambushed by a group of liberal activists. Now before I continue, I must say that liberal activists in general should not take offense. After all, I fully agree with the recent opinion of The Vanguard's editorial board that our campus needs more activism. I would love to see more non-partisan school oriented activism. I would also like to see more of the conservative groups on campus to be more active. But if the only people willing to get off their butts to be active is the liberal groups, then so be it. I find it hard to fault them for effort. As I was saying, I was walking toward the Humanities courtyard admiring the work of another liberal activist group. You know, the Save Darfur activists. The chalk outlines disturbed me a little, but I guess that was the point. Maybe if we draw a couple more and chant some voodoo spell, Darfur will be saved. So here I am fixated on the disturbing artwork as I am now walking through the courtyard, when I hear a voice asking me to sign my name to a piece of paper. Sign? Paper? For What? Oh, the DREAM Act. The Who? It turned out to be some kind of petition that these activists wanted to send to Jo Bonner to convince him to vote yes to a bill that supports the right of illegal immigrants to obtain citizenship and better themselves by making in-state tuition rates available to them. I don't know if they were smoking a little too much of some really potent stuff, but I think there would be a better chance of chalk outlines magically saving Darfur than Rep. Jo Bonner voting yes to such an act. As I walked off, I heard the long-haired hippie-looking guy (or maybe it was a girl, I couldn't really tell) say something along the lines of, "But it is not their fault. The children shouldn't be faulted for the choices of their parents." I couldn't help but think to myself that this guy has lived an extremely sheltered life. Life simple isn't fair, and whether we like it or not, all children are either relatively better off or worse off because of the choices their parents made. Choices that may in turn unfairly limit the choices of their children. This is true whether you are the son of an immigrant or the daughter of an eighth generation American. I would much rather choose to use our resources to make the lives of the children of fellow Americans more equitable before our resources are used on illegal immigrants. Does this mean we should treat immigrants - even the illegal ones - as dogs or as second rate people? No. But let us get our priorities straight. If we are going to spend American resources on creating a more equitable system, let us spend it on the children of Americans first.