High walls and hard lessons
© by Barbara Anderson


The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, March 27, 2016


"Good fences make good neighbors."

Robert Frost, New England poet.

Oddly, this quote is considered controversial. Guess there have been crazy, open-property liberals around for a longer time. Here's my home, my yard, my garden, come on in. And bring your homemade bomb in case you disagree with something I say, even though I've been supporting you and your family with my hard-earned pay.

 

Seriously, folks. I'm glad I didn't write a column this week about building communities with my peace-loving brothers, just as we got the news about said peace-loving brothers blowing up innocent civilians in Belgium, which had been living foolishly under that delusion.

I'm not a religious person now, but much of what I learned the first Catholic years of my life have stayed with me. I still think in terms of good vs. evil, the latter now represented by Muslims who want to destroy everyone who won't convert to their religion. They are evil. No they can't come here to live on our welfare programs. As Donald Trump says, they can't come here at all until we can vet them. How did that vetting go in Brussels, the capital city of European civilization?

Until this week, we had a nice fence (open sea) with Cuba. I remember the 1959 revolution, which was a good one, against an evil dictator; then the revolutionaries became evil themselves. Oh looky, our president celebrated the new openness with evil communism by visiting the island. Had he first made his pitch to release the political prisoners?

How about Assata Olugbala Shakur, a black activist and member of the former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, who after having been convicted of the first-degree murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster fled to Cuba in 1984, where she has received political asylum. In 2013 the FBI added her to the Most Wanted Terrorist List, the first woman to be listed. Yay, female equality.

So just wondering: If President Obama, or Congressman Seth Moulton ran into this honored guest on their trip to Cuba, did they shake her hand? Bad photo op, Congressman, socializing with a cop-killer, for your future campaign for Senate.

As he paused from his island vacation, Obama noted the killings in Belgium, as he began his Cuban speech with the phrase "Please indulge me ..." as he offered his condolences to the families of the victims. Certainly, Mr. President, apologize again for interrupting outreach to the peace-loving communist dictators while deploring actions by the peace-loving Muslims.

Our own Sen. Elizabeth Warren wasn't there. She's keeping busy attacking Donald Trump's perceived racism, sexism, xenophobia and hatred regurgitated phrases used even by Republican opponents. Prove even one of them.

By the way, prosecutors have dropped charges against four illegal immigrants linked to an alleged Framingham kidnapping and rape case, citing insufficient evidence. But all four will now be turned over to immigration officials, the Boston Herald was told last week.

 

At what was supposed to be a dangerousness hearing in Framingham District Court, Assistant District Attorney Joe Gentile said the alleged victims a man and a woman indicated they would plead their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if they were called to testify. "The commonwealth has insufficient evidence upon which to proceed," Gentile said.

The alleged victim and her boyfriend had told police they were out walking and enjoying an unseasonably warm evening when they were approached by a man carrying beer and another grabbed her by the hood of her sweatshirt, dragging her away and into a building, where she was held down and raped. The boyfriend told police he managed to force his way into the apartment and called 911.

The Herald has reported that two of the previously accused men had been deported to Guatemala once before after convictions for drunken driving and disorderly conduct, and another brother and friend had been charged in the case. All four suspects are from Guatemala, and one other was also deported back to his homeland in April 2014, ICE said.

Too bad there wasn't a fence or a wall high enough to keep them out.

We need to build walls that keep out illegal immigrants, while tearing down walls which nurture ethnic enclaves and build "communities" that don't honor the larger nation that accepts the legal immigrants. Hope Belgium -- and the United States -- are learning this hard lesson.

But, despite what opponents of Trump and Cruz say about their supporters, we are not all angry and mean. I myself am mostly just incredulous that there are so many "useful idiots" still buying this brotherhood nonsense.

When I get angry, it's when my own rights are attacked. For instance, as I get older, I want the right to choose assisted suicide should I be in a "ready to die" mode. But no, despite my having left the Catholic Church 55 years ago, it still had the power to fight a ballot question that would give me personal autonomy over its religious doctrine. My own emotions don't usually run deep, my being a rational, logical person and all, but I admit to hating the voters who said no to the recent "death with dignity" ballot question; hope they live long enough to regret it. Or better still, hope the bill supporting doctor-assisted suicide filed by my state rep Lori Ehrlich passes this year.

Unfortunately, legislative leaders were non-committal, with Gov. Charlie Baker taking his lead from the voters who rejected the ballot question. As an expert on the initiative process, I believe that the attorney general should not have approved the petition, since its assumption violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, giving me religious freedom. We do not have an official religion in this country that can tell us individuals what to do. It should be understood that I have a right to die with my doctor's assistance.

Well, enough peace, love and understanding this week.

Barbara Anderson of Marblehead is a weekly columnist for the Salem News and Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company.


The comments made and opinions expressed in her columns are those of Barbara Anderson
and do not necessarily reflect those of Citizens for Limited Taxation.


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