MCRI ·
Chicago Tribune columnist helping to kill the dreams of American workers
By Dave Gorak, 04/27/2012
Steve Chapman, a member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board, recently wrote that “ America is where dreams go to die.”
If you're among the 20 million Americans the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says can't find full-time employment while their government permits 7 million illegal aliens to keep their non-farming jobs, you're likely to agree. You can see Chapman's gloomy assessment of what our nation has become in the last paragraph of yet another of his hand-wringing columns about the “plight” of illegal aliens who are getting the short end of the stick, “Killing the American Dream.”
As in the DREAM Act. As in amnesty, not just for the children brought here illegally but also their parents, many of whom are enjoying the security of a regular paycheck.
Chapman generously concedes that the "parents may be faulted for overlooking our laws," but let's not pick on these kids. Fine. But as long as he's going to bat for the down and out, how about the same amount of compassion for kids born to legal immigrants who lose their college seats to those here illegally? Is it OK to punish them for something their parents didn't do?
Chapman praises President Reagan's 1986 amnesty for 3 million illegal aliens that was signed by Mr. Reagan only after he was promised that this "one-time only amnesty" would be followed by strict enforcement of our immigration laws designed to protect American workers. Well, because the promised enforcement never materialized (Surprise!), we're now dealing with 11 million illegal aliens who Chapman says are worthy of our respect. Had the promise to uphold our immigration laws been kept, then Chapman's column wouldn't have been necessary, would it? This is something most members of the mainstream just don't get: When you fail to enforce a law, any law, it only encourages more people to thumb their noses at it. And so it goes.
Sitting in his office high atop the Tribune Tower, it must be difficult for Chapman to appreciate the hopes and concerns of the little people walking on Michigan Avenue below while he and his colleagues write about their vision of an America they feel is suddenly obligated to reward those who have shown no respect for our immigration laws and, in so many words, saying that millions of their unemployed fellow citizens should take a back seat to illegal aliens when searching for a better life.