Posted by
Cuda on Thursday, August 16, 2007 7:59:45 AM
Perhaps, this analogy has been done before, but let me explain the immigration situation in terms of a little story.
Once upon a time, there were two brothers, Phil and Tom. Both lived in a fairly poor neighborhood, but dreamed one day of ownin their own bake shop. Tom, being the older brother had the first opportunity. He applied for a loan from the bank, but was rejected the first time due to some credit problems. It was very frustrating for Tom, but he was patient and waited to fix his credit, and get all his papers together. Phil, the more brash of the two brothers saw the difficulties his older brother had to go through to get a loan to open up a bakery.
So one day Phil bought a revolver from someone off the streets. He put on a ski mask, and walked into the town's bank. When he walked inside, he ordered everyone on the ground and pulled out his gun. He told the tellers to fill the bags with money, and soon, they were bristiling with hundreds of thousands of dollars. He ran out of the building. The police knew about the problem, but their standing orders were only to apprehend bank robbers that actually fired the gun, so they didn't even chase Phil. The police wanted to, they knew his description, they even could trace where he lived, but it was policy not to do anything about it.
A little time goes by, and Phil now has enough money to purchase a bakery. He becomes a good baker. He's a hard worker, and the townsfolk all enjoyed his products. In fact, other than the bank robbery, Phil never broke another law again. Phil became rich off the bakery, and even donated to the community. He built a park for the children, sponsored a baseball team, and even helped troubled youths stay out of paths of crime.
But not all of the townspeople were happy. Many knew that Phil robbed that bank, and while he may have been an upstanding citizen, all his good fortunes were a direct result of that crime.
So some of the people protested. They believed that a crime is a crime, and penatlies should be enacted. Some even wanted to kick Phil out of his bakery. Phil countered back that being a baker is a hard job, you work with ovens, messy flour, and get up before the crack of dawn, and he said few people in the town would want to do such a job. Many people agreed and defended Phil, saying these other townspeople were cruel and said Phil was just trying to make an honest living doing a job none of them would do. (A small voice in the crowd said "I'd do it." But no one seemed to hear Tom."
Back to our friend Tom. He had still been waiting for loan applications to go through, and finally had enough money to open his own bakery. But he realized that Phil had the advantage of already being there and taking up the best job. Tom felt cheated. He worked through the system, he dealt with the hardships and bureaucracies involved in opening a bakery, and here was his brother living the high life due to taking the easy way out. Because Phil committed a crime, he got ahead in life, and Tom's fidelity got him nowhere.
Tom looked down, shuffled his feet, and said to himself bitterly "Who said crime doesn't pay?"