As I compose this session of The Body Politic, the politics of our nation continues to take knee jerk courses of action to deal with our ongoing internal dilemmas. Recent demostrations and proclamations from "undocumented" individuals better known as illegal immigrants, has piqued my senses and cause me to assess not only the issue of any illegal immigration, but also the processes involving how we handle people in personal jeporady. I don't consider my views racist or in the vein of bigotry, but unfortunately, we are all to blame for some of these problems. We have allowed the U.S. Congress to continue to be wishy-washy with the functioning of our country. Our mere abdication and disengagement with our policy makers at all levels of government have provided us with broken borders, disfunctioning governmental agencies such as FEMA, SBA,Department of Interior and the Department of Homeland Security. It is a bitter pill for me to swallow when these protesters are in the streets demanding so-called rights and a pathway to citizenship altered from the established laws. The fact that the law of our land has been usurped and dismissed by an estimated 12 million people is simply too much to accept. I am not advocating massive deportation because it's probably not practical. Even though we are spending thousands of dollars daily "actually deporting" new arrivals by jetliner to destitnations in the heart of Mexico and beyond. I believe that in order to stem this tide we must start with securing the borders. Futher address the urgent resources available to our border patrol, adhere to the laws that have been enacted, severely punish business interest that employ any undocumented workers and hold everyone accountable for their inaction dealing with formal immmigration. Universally, it seems that we have'nt had the best track record for the management of people issues. Homelessness is still rampant throughout our nation and certainly here in Arkansas. Despite task forces, NGO's, Nonprofits, homeless advocates and city fathers, we are still embroiled in how we approach this ongoing human crisis. Recently, I saw some raw footage from Homeless Activist Charles Neeley who has joined the legion of citizen journalist who take cameras to the issue and give it a face. The segments offered a stark and revealing attitude from a service provider and possible clients. The footages featured a verbal exchange with the local Salvation Army's Lodge Manager who had been rather abrupt with two women seeking services prior to the center's opening. The manager cited the cities loitering act and ejects them from the premises. Later he summons the police when confronted by Neely about his aloof attitude. It would be in the best interest of the Salvation Army, a 501c 3 "Tax Expempt" organization to further address this incident and seek to save face with the public that it constantly cajoles with pleas of financial assistance. It would seem that they would'nt need any additional public relation debacles since the alleged misappropriations during Hurricane Katrina. If you would like links to the acutal video stream, e-mail us at Nealix101@comcast and we will provide it. Look for more video and citizen journalism from this site, so stay tuned and let us hear from you!
