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Monday, October 9, 2006
Questions impolitic to ask
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Questions too rude to ask in a politically correct world:1) Are you here legally? 2) Where is the baby’s father and why isn’t he providing support? 3) Do you not buy health insurance because you can’t afford it or because you have other priorities?
The first question is prompted by a weekend demonstration by a crowd estimated at 2,000 near the State Capitol calling for amnesty for illegal immigrants. “We are Latino and we are here,” the crowd chanted in Spanish. One construction worker, in this country just over a year, made a sign: “I never live from welfare because I hard worker. I just build houses for yu.”
To me it matters a great deal whether the protesters are here legally or illegally, though in the case of the sign-maker it's a question unasked. In fact, I've never seen or heard a story about similar demonstrations that informed readers and listeners whether any named participant was an American citizen, a legal guest or an illegal immigrant. It matters. American citizens certainly have a right to petition their government for any cause they advocate. Guests here at the invitation of their hosts are rude to protest the firmness of the host's mattress. Illegals who protest publicly are twice disrespectful -- once by breaking in and again by flaunting it. The weight of their grievances depends on the category to which they belong.When we don’t know, the assumption is that the information is being withheld purposefullly. The same is true of stories reporting on children in need. It is really quite remarkable how infrequently fathers are mentioned, as though they never mattered or, in crisis, are never expected to contribute to the solution. And it’s true, too, of unexpected health circumstances that confront families without insurance. The explanation always is that they can’t “afford” it, but the reader and listener never get enough information to know whether they can’t, or have chosen other less prudent spending priorities.
