Freedom of Movement

I know that I have been quite bad about keeping up posts while I am traveling, and for that I apologize. For the most part there is little to inspire me as I am in my old stomping grounds, doing a great deal of work, and of course thus I am making no progress on the homestead.

That doesn't mean that I stop everything though..

Tonight I was catching up on a blog I have read for some time about a gal and her husband living off grid. Many of the posts are quite helpful, even where I disagree with the approach she takes, for she documents some of the experiments that they are undertaking. I've been inspired by a few, sought out research from others, but the latest two are not only not helpful, sadly they are hateful.

That in and of itself is rather trivial of course, though it is saddening. What prompted me to write tonight is the issue on which these hateful posts addressed. They were emotional appeals to bigotry and the power of the state. They embraced an attitude better fitting the USSR than the tradition of the US. In essence they called for a new Iron Curtain to come to be around the US to keep out the undesirables (tan people).

So to this attitude, I pose a few simple questions: Where in the Constitution is the federal government granted the power and "authority" to close the borders?

If the government is to have the "authority" to regulate movement, then do you oppose internment camps? If so, on what principle as you have abandoned any right to movement?

What about the ideals of the sovereignty of the individual? What about reason? What about honesty, compassion, tolerance?

And finally, why on earth do you want to decrease the standard of living not only for the immigrants, but for virtually all of us here? Restaurants would have to shut their doors by the hundreds.. Housing would be so expensive none but the wealthiest could afford it.. what manufacturing that remains would disappear.

So if you are going to rant about immigrants, you must either be inconsistent, else drop the economic claims, the pretense of any appreciation and respect for the founding of the US, any hope of moral justification, and of course any hint of the basic respect for persons that is necessary under morality. With all of that removed, all that will be left is the bigotry and hatred bared for all to see.

IF that shames you, or the suggestion angers you, then rather than lash out at others, why not drop the hatred and bigotry in favor of reasonableness, compassion, justice, and economic prosperity?

All individuals are inherently morally worthwhile, regardless of sex, skin color, language spoken, even religious leaning (at least until they act on it, such as the Crusades).

Support liberty, not internment camps regardless of how large the fence is..