Act As If Ye Had Faith

I caught the last few minutes of Paul Newman’s role as Attorney Frank Galvin and his closing argument presented to the jury in the movie, The Verdict. That one scene had to be one of the best performances I’ve had the pleasure to watch, having seen that movie a couple of times I continue to be captivated by those words, thoughts painted so perfectly.

A troublesome thought came to me as I listened to the words; that we as citizens are tired of being lied to by our elected representatives. We also think of ourselves as victims unable to control our destiny. We have begun to doubt ourselves, our beliefs; we doubt our institutions and our laws. We elect folks to stand up for us in Washington only to find that they abandon our desires and leave us with only a prayer, that they might do something which is right, it is a fervent and frightened prayer that we fear is not being listened to.

Several issues have been toyed with by the House and Senate; illegal immigration and the need for defined borders to safeguard our sovereignty, how to protect ourselves from the Islamo-fascist terrorist intent on the destruction of our way of life, run away tax and spend policies which would include scrapping the current Income Tax and IRS in favor of the Fair Tax or consumption tax as has been outlined by John Linder ( R) Georgia, individual property rights which seem to have been destroyed and lastly, the definition of marriage as a sacred union between a man and a woman. I just mentioned several important issues which have been politicized rather than dealt with on the basis of black and white, right or wrong mandates.

We are tired of being lied to, treated like serfs on the Master’s land as if we’re unable to understand the intricacies involved with legislation and why simple things have been made impossibly complicated. Let me explain some simple issues that need to be addressed.

Thomas Sowell had it right when he pointed out that “the debate about immigration legislation is not being talked about honestly”, which I mentioned in a previous post earlier today.

Throw away any currently proposed legislation that is being batted back and forth which mixes illegal immigration, a defined border and any mention of amnesty or guest worker programs. These issues, when combined into one body of thought intentionally distort any plan of action to the point of damaging any hope of correcting the problems associated with them. The most important issue of defining our national border, especially that which connects us so easily with Mexico, must be fixed. It must be stated for all the world that the United States of America will not tolerate entry by any means other than at a proper and established door. Until that issue has been addressed there is no sense in discussing how to deal with those who have entered this country illegally or what steps should be taken to reject or absorb those folks into our society.

My own opinion regarding those who have entered illegally are not entirely written in stone; those who’ve had children here in order to have them born, supposedly, as natural citizens of the United States with future options which include automatic amnesty for their illegal alien parents, and migrant workers here only to make a better wage. My lack of faith in those elected would tend to make me distrust their motives as they contemplate a blanket policy which would welcome all these illegal aliens from Mexico and points south, as immediate United States citizens. I believe that the temptation by those seeking elected positions would view these folks as “potential voters to be catered to” rather than as criminals who have flaunted our laws.

I might favor some form of lenient measures which would permit certain “refugees” to remain, to continue their lives inside our borders without the threat of prison or expulsion under some rather rigid guidelines. These refugees would have to declare allegiance to the United States of America and enter a “yet to be” newly established “Alien Work Force Paymaster Program” whereby all monies earned by them would first be taxed to help pay for the millions of dollars which have already been spent through the various wealth redistribution programs such as Social Security, Welfare and Medicaid.

Those who entered here illegally and wish to stay would forever relinquish any chance of becoming a citizen; having lost any chance to vote or to take part in that government which they chose to thumb their noses at. These individuals would not be eligible to receive social security or other welfare payments regardless of whether or not they have paid taxes since they could not have legally obtained the proper documents it would have to be assumed that any documents; social security card numbers, driver’s licenses and such had been obtained illegally as well.

One exception to the permanent relinquishing of any hope for rights of citizenship might be a voluntary 2 year tour as a member of our armed forces. At the end of such a tour of duty that person would be eligible for full privileges and citizenship. It is my intent to make it clear that any thought of adding poor ignorant voters by granting amnesty to illegal aliens is out of the question which might sway the judgment of those less than honest who are holding elected positions.

I will not get into the corrupt income tax system that we are burdened with, wealth redistribution as it turns one person’s earned money into another’s entitlement via the many give away programs, private ownership of property or the other issues which I lumped together, at least not at this time. The suggestions I have offered may or may not be practical; they are no worse than some of the garbage I’ve heard coming out of Washington. I do plan to send a copy of this to my congressional representative and both of my Senators. I suspect that I’ll receive a standard form letter thanking me for my interest; at least I will have spoken my mind to them.

I’ve included the text of Frank Galvin’s closing argument below along with a link ( via the title bar) which will permit you to listen to that in MP3 format.

“Well...You know, so much of the time we're just lost. We say, "Please, God, tell us what is right. Tell us what is true."

I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims -- and we become victims. We become weak; we doubt ourselves; we doubt our beliefs; we doubt our institutions; and we doubt the law.

But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court. See, those are just symbols of our desire to be just. They are, in fact, a prayer, I mean a fervent and a frightened prayer.”

In my religion, they say, "Act as if you had faith; faith will be given to you."

If we are to have faith in justice we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts.