It's About the Coffins

I am sick and tired of hearing about illegal immigrants. Not that there is no problem; there are millions of people in this country who don't belong here. Unfortunately, someone has spread the vicious rumor that most of them are of Hispanic extraction. The real problem is not illegal immigrants; it's dead Americans.


The conservatives in charge of the government are drumming up a groundswell of support for immigration reform so that they can continue sending your sons and daughters to Iraq and Afghanistan. There, they are converted into dead sons and daughters and sent back in coffins.

The people in charge are not particularly malicious. They probably don't laugh with glee over the latest body count. On the other hand, war is very good for business, and if they can keep the political debate focused on something other than war and its human cost, U.S. soldiers will continue to deploy and to come home in boxes. Consequently, everyone has the words "illegal immigration" ringing in their ears, in the same way as the words "9-11" and "Saddam" rang in our ears while the U.S. government ramped up for its invasion of Iraq.

So while everyone is worried about the United States becoming a third world country, and about all the people who won't even bother to learn English, the flag-draped coffins are off-loaded each week at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and we don't even get to find out how many of our children we're losing each day. All this so that a few people who are already wildly rich can make a few more dollars.

The Mexican and Salvadoran and Irish and Chinese illegal immigrants are not our problem. The warmongers in Washington and their cowardly colleagues who will not stand up and turn the national debate to what really matters are our problem. Dead American soldiers are our problem.

Christ said, "The poor you will always have with you." As long as people perceive that life is better here than it is where they are, they will continue to come, legally or otherwise.

None of the promoters of the war in Iraq risks anything. They are betting our children's lives. They tell us it is the price of freedom, but it is really the price of greed. Don't let them fool you. It's about the coffins. It's about your children dying before their time. It's about oil and greed, and it has absolutely nothing to do with illegal immigrants. Every time you hear "illegal immigrants" remember that they don't want you to think about the coffins.

Because friends, it is all about those coffins.