< PREVIOUS ] [ 1994 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Just a dozen days ago, California voters approved Proposition 187 because they were upset by increased immigration, primarily from Mexico and points south.
It appears that California is getting a new kind of migrant these days. The old ones ventured north to harvest crops under the hot sun or to toil in sweatshops that pay low wages and offer no benefits.
Anyone who complained or tried to organize a union got deported, so Republicans understandably spoke favorably of those immigrants -- an excellent supply of cheap and docile labor for their farms and factories.
But the new aliens send their kids to school instead of the fields, and even worse, they go to doctors when they're sick. Clearly they're a threat to the good life in the Golden State, and so it's no wonder that California responded by passing Proposition 187.
But California isn't the only state which suffers from migrants who threaten its established culture and institutions.
In Colorado, too, we face an invasion of folks who sneak past the border stations, plant themselves in our defenseless communities, and then start making expensive demands on our political, social, health and educational systems.
To cope with this incursion which threatens all that we hold dear, we must adopt Proposition 781, which is similar to Proposition 187, but reversed because our migrant problem isn't quite the same as California's.
The main source of our migrant problem is California. Every week, we see announcements that myriads of Californians have fled the miserable conditions prevailing in their homeland, searching for a better life in the Mountain West.
And when the People of Money get here, they can cause all kinds of problems. Thus Proposition 781, our way to protect ourselves.
For instance, Colorado schools used to be cheap because they trafficked only in multiplication tables and sentence diagrams.
As soon as the aliens move in, they demand that our schools to enhance pupil self-esteem and impart holistic refusal skills while promoting multi-cultural awareness. All this costs money.
The resulting graduates may feel good about themselves because their urine is pure. They may even respect and appreciate all cultures except the fundamentalist rural redneck culture their parents migrated into.
But they have trouble counting change or writing a simple declarative sentence. Proposition 781 would forbid Californians' children from attending Colorado schools, thus removing the malign influence of their parents.
Another problem with these migrants is their terrible effect on real-estate values. We used to have funky ramshackle towns like Salida, Aspen and Durango where the people who worked there could also afford to live there.
Come the emigres, and these once solid and stable communities immediately start to deteriorate. The desperate aliens will pay almost anything for real estate. Prices soar and the indigenous employees get pushed out. To keep their jobs, they're forced to commute great distances, adding to the pollution and congestion on roads that were already dangerous.
Proposition 781 addresses this problem by requiring that all purchasers of property be documented Colorado citizens.
As with the United States itself, a five-year residency period will be required before citizenship is granted. Prospective citizens will also have to pass tests in their knowledge of Colorado language and law.
By requiring a long residency before citizenship, we can also cut our taxes because these non-citizens will not be allowed to vote or organize the public.
As it is, People of Money will buy property in remote locations and erect trophy houses that are vacant most of the year. Then they start demanding services, like 24-hour sheriff's patrols, and the rest of us, who feel lucky if we own one house we live in all the time, are supposed to pay for the costs these parasites incur on our local governments.
No matter where you look, you find migrant aliens clogging our highways, infesting our forests, skiing our slopes, always taking things that rightfully belong to real Coloradans.
Proposition 781 should also protect us from being infected the perverse political ideas that these migrant aliens bring to Colorado. Need I mention where Doug Bruce came from? Or that almost every lunacy on our ballot, from Official English to term limits to the tobacco tax to the very length of the ballot itself, had its origin west of our border?
Just how much longer can we, the simple hard-working people of Colorado, be expected to tolerate this invasion which threatens the very foundations of our society?
Controlling the borders is a fundamental function of any government, and since the federal government refuses to protect us from this invasion, we have no choice but to adopt Proposition 781.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1994 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >