Tuesday, December 26, 2006

People on the move...

We have passed through the advent season of waiting. Hopeful anticipation has given way to joyful celebration of the Emmanuel, God-with-us! At least one teller of the stories shares with us that after Jesus' birth, the new family fled their homeland for safety from Herod's wrath. A family of immigrants, political refugees. Hoping for a safe future for their young son, Mary and Joseph took him to another land, one that was prospering.

Thus, we come back to immigration. The hot button issue of the year is not going to let the year go out quietly. MSNBC has posted an Associated Press article on a law forbidding landlords to rent to illegal immigrants. The "usual suspects" - English as official language, etc - are also part of this package. You can read for yourself on the Farmers Branch, TX municipal website. Like Hazleton, PA, Farmers Branch, TX, had been a declining community which found new life thanks to the wave of immigration. The ACLU and local landlords are suing Farmer's Branch - in part due to concerns about process, as much as content.

I hear that Tom Brokaw produced a special report that was to air this evening, "In the Shadow of the American Dream." More, perhaps, if I'm able to track down part or all of the report, after the fact...

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