Who Should Come First? Why Do We Even Have to Ask This Question?

Two women stood side by side waiting on their orders at a small take-out restaurant. Bev and Jan had never met before, but after requisite chat about the weather, Bev mentioned her daughter had just recovered from scarlet fever. A mother herself, Jan knew this once common childhood illness derived from untreated strep throat. Did she dare ask?

Yes, she did ask why Bev was not aware of her daughter's illness sooner. Bev's answer, although heartbreaking, was telling. It seems Bev's sister's daughter had cancer, and she had been just too involved with her niece to notice how ill her own daughter was.


The above story is true. While there certainly were extenuating circumstances involved, Bev had nonetheless placed another's child before her own. Is this what we want for America? The plight of those seeking to immigrate to our country is heartbreaking, but we as a country in dire economic straits cannot properly take care of our own.

No, we shouldn't have to ask the question. Our citizens should come first. When we have full employment and proper medical care for all our citizens, then we can begin to consider those less fortunate who were born outside our borders. Those who think that policy sounds harsh have not stopped to consider the effect uncontrolled immigration has on our own citizens.

*****

We recently mentioned the Tennessee Valley Juvenile Detention Center located in Tuscumbia. A former inmate there provided an interesting description of every day life in the facility, but a former employee felt he had left out one of the most important parts.

It seem each detainee is allotted just three feet of toilet paper each day. Three feet for 24 hours? The children who are in the detention center are there because they have committed a crime. If they were adults they would be incarcerated in a county jail. Yet, don't county jails provide adequate toilet paper? We've heard the Florence-Lauderdale Detention Center has at times been out of soap, but never that they rationed toilet paper. Let this be a lesson to you if you're thinking of shooting into a school bus...



Shoalanda