Amnesty Fight Ethics

Dr. Michael L. Ford

29 June 2007

            This week a significant amount of my working time has been focused on the battle to stop the amnesty bill for illegal aliens being passed. I am convinced members of Congress have exhibited over and over contempt for enforcing laws, especially those against illegal entrance into the United States, at a level equaled only by the disdain they have for personally obeying the law of the land. Both the Executive branch and the Legislative have turned a blind eye on the criminal activity of illegal aliens, while American judiciary has actually punished American citizens for defending life and property from them. The last straw was this effort to make illegals legal while at the same time bankrupting American society.

            At this critical time something took place on the side of those of us fighting against amnesty needing to be remarked upon. Several grass roots organizations offered to send fax messages to Congressmen to help in the battle. But, their service was conditioned on people making contribution to their organization as a condition for sending out the message. Now I am not surprised when an organization like Newsmax does this because they are not considered a nonprofit organization, but when others do so, I think there is an ethical issue involved.

            One such organization offered for $15 dollars to send a fax to the 18 key senators who changed their vote for cloture and $35 to fax all 53 senators who voted no in the first vote that would have killed the bill. This particular offer I mention because it is a sample of the way some conservative nonprofits acted during this critical time when the future of the country hung in the balance. Many people, disabled and retired, who wanted to communicate, would find themselves stopped from participating. Why? Because, as small as the amount mentioned might seem, it is beyond the reach of people on limited income at the end of their monthly financial cycle. I opted to send personal e-mails to Congressmen.

            While I fully realize every organization needs to make expenses, there is a time when the service of the group should not be conditional on people being able to pay. At a time when the future of America so clearly hung in the balance is one of them.