Wednesday, May 8, 1996 - The Michigan Daily -5 1M GONNA SAY IT NOW heirony of immigration The very same people that oppose less-restric- tive immigration policies might not be in the United States today if it weren't for these open policies in the first place. Many complain that unlike immigrants of the early 20th century, newerk.:.. m igrants are lazy, refuse tof work, and simply become bur- dens of the welfare state. Thea older immigrants, who often :-s- happen to be ancestors of those complaining about "newer"p immigrants, are said to have "worked hard" to make ends meet in the new country. The bottom line is that all of these immigrants - GREG whether pre- or post-1950; PARKER & ether from Mexico, ietnam, Poland or England - came to the United States for the same reason: to make a bet- ter life for themselves. It is as simple as that- a better life. When the Irish came to America to escape the potato famine in the 1850s, itsis the same as Mexicans coming into California to escape the tumultuous economy of Mexico in the 1990s. When the Vietnamese came to America for better health care and I ployment in the 1980s, it is the same as when Polish came into Ellis Island for economic opportunity in the 1920s. So why the sudden outcry against immigration? Sure, illegal immigration is a problem, as it cre- ates bureaucratic and economic problems for the government. The solution for illegal immigration: make all immigration legal. Open up the borders. If we can open our borders to international trade of goods and services, there is no reason why we can't do the same for humans. With the new "world" economy of low tariffs and open and relatively free e, the United States'economy has remained fair- strong and supportive. Did the sudden "flood" of goods and services in and out of America ruin the economy? No. The argument against this open immigration policy is that these immigrants will take our jobs, our welfare benefits and our chance at the American Dream. What people don't realize is that the sudden influxes of immigrants earlier in history did not throw the United States into an irrecoverable depression. While immigrants do in *t become employed in America, they also spend their money in America, creating more jobs for not only themselves, but other Americans. But if one is to advocate open borders and open immigration, there still has to be some way of deter- mining who is and isn't a citizen of the United States.The current system has potential citizens take a "citizenship" test that is elitist and inappropriate. I'd like to see how many "average Jane/Joe Americans" could actually passthis test themselves. Opening the borders of America to the world makes economic and moral sense. There is no rea- to deny anyone the opportunity of a better life and to prevent them from coming to our country. After all, immigrants have often been the people who have made this country great . One reason that the issue of immigration has changed is that the people who are currently immigrating are not necessarily white Europeans. Many people mask their fear of immigration behind an economic facade, when, in fact, they are frightened of people other than white Europeans ming to this country. It's truly a travesty when same people that claim these new immigrants are not "American" exhibit such un-American qualities as racism when forming their opinions on the issue of immigration. - Greg Parker can be reached over e-mail at glparker@umich.edu NOTABLE QUOTABLE "Funny - this doesn't - Osverheard outside Michigan Stadium at. look like $100,000." Spring Commencement, as an unidentified father examined his ticket for admission. I U-A4T FAVORITE ATTRACTION, R AL"L440 i F0 LETTERS Israel is justified in Lebanon bombings To THE DAILY: I am writing in response to a letter by Amer Zahr that appeared in the Daily ("Israel should stop bombing Lebanon," 4/26/96). I felt that this letter was not only inappropriate, but incorrect as well. The Israeli actions in Lebanon have nothing to do with the fact that Israel is "occupying land in South Lebanon." In Southern Lebanon there is a security zone between Israel and Lebanon, for that purpose and that purpose only. This security zone is small, not "half your backyard," as the letter stated. Israel is not and has never been looking to expand its boundaries, as it is not an imperialist country. Israel is retaliating against the Hezbollah, not against Lebanon. The Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which was originally started to create unrest in Lebanon. When they fire Katyushas on Israel, however, there is no choice but to retaliate in the interests of Israeli security and the protec- tion of innocent civilians. Israel started its bombings in response to Hezbollah attacks, and should continue to do so until Hezbollah is disarmed or stops firing on Israel. Israel has done its best to protect innocent Lebanese from harm, no matter how "inhumane" these actions may seem. And it continues to do its best to avoid hurting innocent people. Certainly there is nothing to gain (except sheer propaganda for the Hezbollah) from killing the innocent citizens of Lebanon. This is, however, a state of war, and in a war inno- cent people are bound to be hurt. Israelis, too, have been injured and continue to be at risk. This letter also states that Israel is guilty of illegal acts "all over the Middle East" I fail to see any factual basis for this claim. It also implies that the existence of Israel is the only obstacle to peace in the Middle East - again an irrational and fallacious argument. The aggressor in this situation is the Hezbollah and none other. If Hezbollah stops its bombings, Israel will more than willingly stop bombing as well. Pressure must be given to Syria, not the United States, to end violence. It is Syria who is in control of Lebanon, and who has in the past managed to control terrorist activity there. In addition, I must say that I feel that the print- ing of this article in The Michigan Daily was completely inappropriate. Are letters to the Daily simply a means of expressing political views? There is no rational explanation for why that let- ter should have appeared. Since, however, it did appear, I feel itsis my duty to make the other side of the argument known. JAMIE KANTOR FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENT SOUND AND FURY Do what you love We're done. It took quite a few sleepless nights, a plethora of caffeinated beverages and approxi- mately thirty-seven variations of the "f" word, but we did it. The papers are in, the exams are marked and the grades, good or bad, are in our possession. We made it through another academic year. Sometime in the middle of the many all-nighters I pulled last month, I wish this thought would have occurred to me: This is supposed to be fun. All of us here have cho- sen, and are lucky enough to have chosen, the path of a uni- versity education. And though the work sometimes seems overwhelming, you have to admit, we college kids are some of the luckiest saps on the planet. Think of it - we DEAN spend an entire year enveloped BAKOPOULOS in subjects that maybe two percent of the rest of the world cares about. And if we're lucky, we'll get to do this our whole lives. I remember when I pulled my first all-nighter. I was 14. I had an old beat-up copy of Hemingway's "Nick Adams Stories," an assignment for an English class. I was supposed to read the first story. I was awestruck. This was exciting, this was a writer writing in a style I never had seen before, about things I never read before. This was good and fine and I read the whole book cover to cover that night and when the morning came my mother came to wake me up. "You are still up," she said. "Yes," I said. "I am and it is a good and fine and warm morning." See? I started to talk and write and think like Hemingway, or at least I tried to. And I developed a passion for words, for the sound of them, the look of them, the heft of a book in my hands. I pulled many all-nighters that year, on my own. I read more and more. I stayed up all night writing bad Hemingway imitations. But I had fallen in love with words. That's why I get angry at myself at the end of the term every year. Literature, in the looming face of grades and deadlines, becomes a chore. I curse because I have so much reading to do, throw things at the wall because I have so much writing to do. Then summer slips in gentle and soft, and the whole world seems right again. And all the reading and writing and thinking I just did seems like it was nothing less than a remarkable gift. It's important to remember how lucky we are, because we are spending a good portion of our young lives learning and growing, or at least we should be. And we should be learning and grow- ing and doing something we love. That's equally important. This shouldn't be four years we grit our teeth and clench our fists and struggle just to get through until we start earning fat paychecks. Fat paychecks shouldn't even be on our minds as stu- dents. Sure, like me, most of us are going into debt to finance this education, but hey, let's worry about the debt later - that's how the government has operated for the last 50 years. My point is that the social pressures of getting a "respectable"job with big, fat paychecks is high, and I hope it doesn't force too many writers and artists and musicians and dancers and actors and scholars and scientists and explorers to give up on their dreams. And I hope it doesn't force any stu- dent to study something they don't love. That's wasting the gift of education. After all the griping and complaining and stress of the last term, you know what's oddest about the whole thing? The first thing I did when I turned in that last exam: I took outa cigar, stood in the Diag and lit it up. Then, I started to think of all the books I wanted to read this summer. - Dean Bakopoulos can be reached via e- mail at deanc@umich.edu JIM LASSER SHARP AS TOAST 1 900 1 9 5 9 19 q X19 9(0 - 7 R 0 15 LAN Youv ALlWAY S COMA E --- SACK To THE SASICS."