I thought it might have taken a little longer, but seventeen minutes is what we got.
Given that 7 pm CST is when I start my drive home, I listened on the car's radio, and taking notes at 70 mph isn't highly reccommended.
Or for the faint of heart.
From my carefully and hastily scribbled notes:
The tone was about right. I heard a serious President try to take on a very serious topic.
I did not hear a surefit of pandering to Vicente Fox, or Mexico in particular. And that is what I had dreaded highly as the countdown to the speech came on. Yes, there was the little diddy about "Mexico is our neighbor, and our friend", but that was delivered minimally, almost as an afterword.
A good point, delivered with reasonable force of conviction, and which I agreed with, was the President's declaration that we do not have control of our borders. And of what the consequences of that loss of control has wrought in terms of our society. For that, I say "well done".
On the issue of a fence, I am disappointed. Though the President did mention a better barrier in the metropolitan areas, what I wanted to hear; what we needed to hear, was lacking.
What should have been said was that the United States would henceforth begin construction of the best wall the taxpayers can buy. That the construction, starting in the metro areas and continuing as far as necessary, until the wall runs from the Gulf to the Pacific, or until Mexico gets the clue and commences with true border enforcement on their side of the frontier.
But he did mention the unmaned aircraft, and I might take that to include the aerostats which Doc and I discussed the other day.
With more time than seventeen minutes, perhaps he could have more strongly emphasized our Nation's history of legal immigration through Ellis Island, and even here in Galveston, Texas.
And on the topic of assimilation, he did fair in his endorsement of English, but again, just a bit short. Until we make English the absolute and official language of these United States, we'll not turn the burner up under the Melting Pot which President Bush so aptly invoked.
The best moment though? The end of "Catch and Release". Perhaps his most forceful point of the entire speech, and which must be put into force at once.
Though the President did not flesh-out just what he would do about the tens of millions of illegal aliens already here in the U.S., he did address the issue. But I flat out disagree with him that paying a fine and going "to the back of the line" isn't amnestey. It is nothing less than amnesty, albiet with a price.
So, let's say he gets his way on that. Will we see the unceremonious ejection of illegal aliens who are found to have not "paid their fine"? Will we have the nerve and guts to instantly deport those who don't step up and even try to work with the program?
That's what worries me. If we haven't had the guts to do it for the past forty years, I'm not sure that the will exists to do it in the next ten.
But if we're to survive as a Nation, we must do exactly that.
And finally, what I wanted to hear the most, I heard not at all. The President missed a prime moment to invoke shame upon those hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and their socialist motivators, who dared flaunt their numbers in the streets of our Nation. My words would have been "How DARE you!", in these United States of America!
But, all in all, I give the speech a "7". A "B-minus" if you will.
I'm relieved that I'm not as infuriated as I'd feared I would be. I'm just mildly annoyed right now.
But I'm sure that once the Senate gets back into play, there'll be plenty of fury to go around.
Bush 41 broke it off in us with the "no new taxes." Bush 43 blew smoke up it.
Posted by: oldduffy | May 16, 2006 at 09:33 AM