Just when you think your faith in humanity can't dip any lower, something comes along and reminds you that idiots are running the show.
Last week, Web Devil Editor in Chief Amanda Myers wrote an excellent column detailing the frightening treatment illegal immigrants face when they come to Arizona. Unsurprisingly, the idiots at ASU came out of the woodwork to write some of the most shocking and ignorant letters I have ever read.
My purpose here is not to defend a friend - I have never even met Myers - or to offer any sort of substantive response to these letters, which, of course, merit none. I simply want to reprint some of what they said to expose these people to as much ridicule as possible.
We'll start with a real winner from Erik Gibbs, a civil engineering junior.
Gibbs starts by clearing up the issue: "These people are called illegal immigrants because they entered the country illegally." Thanks Erik.
He goes on to offer his own proposal: "Let's open up all the borders and let anyone in the world come here who wants. I think that would be great because... all the scum bags and low lifes (sic) that break the law and refuse to function as a member in a civilized society can come to America."
Yeah, because I'm sure the words "scum bags and low lifes" are what come to mind for all of us when we think of people who come to America to work crap jobs for slave wages and then send most of that money back to their families in Mexico so they can survive. These really aren't the kind of self-centered, over-consumptive people we really admire here.
I could go on about our buddy Erik, but ASU alumnus Todd Koppel makes an even more interesting argument when he writes, "What you fail to grasp is that illegal immigrants are essentially criminals. By choosing to disregard our laws in their methods for entering our country, they almost deserve whatever happens to them."
Anyone who would argue that people who cross the border illegally "almost deserve" to be kidnapped and held for ransom is "essentially" an idiot. And that is exactly the kind of treatment Myers is attacking in her piece.
Koppel goes on to assert, "Illegal Mexicans in our country really are the scum of Mexican society." He also says, "You may think I'm a racist, but race has nothing to do with it."
At least he's perceptive enough to predict my reaction to his letter. In fact, about the only positive moral one can take from his letter comes in the postscript, where he identifies himself as an ASU alumnus.
Kids, if this guy can get a degree, anyone can. Stay in school.
Does anyone know these people? Do these guys have any friends? Because, if you're out there and you're buddies with Erik or Todd, do them a favor and hit them on the head, over and over again until you hear the nuts and bolts in their brains fall back into place. Or offer them mind-altering drugs. Do anything that might get their brains functioning again.
All recommendations aside, let's close with a few final words of wisdom from our pal Todd.
"Right now I live in Dallas [where] sending your kids to the public school is simply not an option... because the teachers are preoccupied with kids who can't even speak our language, and dealing with discipline problems from disfunctional (sic) homes."
Well, I hope home school isn't an option either.
Stay in school, kids. By God, stay in school.
Benjamin Thelen is a philosophy and political science senior. Reach him at benjamin.thelen@asu.edu.
