When we look for reasons, we have to look at the big picture. US immigration policy is awful, slow and painfully outdated. People used to come to this country because of the opportunities to live a better life. that reason is dying slowly because of the slow immigration processes in place. Twenty years to get a visa to join your family. Really? I know someone from my immediate family who waited 25 years. Yes. Twenty five years to obtain a visa. At first She was ten years old when her aunt applied for her, her mother and her younger sister. Do the math. After waiting until 2005 from an application that was placed in 1988, her mother and younger sister made it. She did not. she had passed the age of eligibility because it took so long to process. She had to wait another eight years to join her mother. Go figure. Why is this still a problem? Where are the big thinkers to solve this rotten problem? In the Torah, God admonished the Israelites to be kind to immigrants to their land and to treat them fairly, seeing they were strangers in Egypt too (Lev 19:34).
Which brings me to the reason for this writing. Where are the new ideas, where are the common sense strategies that men and women in the political stratosphere should be employing to solve the socioeconomic problems that this country faces. Jobs are scarce, the United States is in the low rung of the intellectual totem pole,
"The real scourge of the U.S. education system—and its greatest competitive weakness—is the deep and growing achievement gap between socioeconomic groups that begins early and lasts through a student's academic career," writes Rebecca Strauss, associate director for CFR's Renewing America publications. Wealthy students are achieving more, and the influence of parental wealth is stronger in the United States than anywhere else in the developed world.There is a striking absence of ideas to move this country forward. When a politician can devote twenty-four hours reciting drivel in an attempt to prove a point. I ask where are the new ideas. Filibuster? Really? No wonder the Democrats had to drop the Nuclear Option. Enough Already! In full disclosure, let me say that I vehemently oppose many of the bills that President Obama has presented. I am an Independent thinker and I vote for whomsoever I deem the best and brightest candidate. Period! But obstructing his ideas and commonsense strategies that are good for this country is not the way to move this country forward. Again, where are the alternative ideas? If the opposing party cannot come up with a better plan, better ideas, then they just need to simply go quietly in the night.
