Migrants Flood America
By Harold Miller
Email: hmiller@mcsmms.com
I am sure you have seen the pictures on TV recently, poor refugees sloshing through the rivers and swamps that divide our southern border from Mexico and South America.
Recently a boatload of refugees from the Caribbean islands managed to sneak through the Coast Guard patrol boats and helicopters that ply back and forth over the southern beaches of Florida, where we reside in the winter season. Incredibly, they were able to sneak through the narrow Jupiter Inlet (adjacent to our home) and into the Intercoastal, where they were captured by local police and eventually returned to where they came from.
The problem of all this will be the overloading of our present infrastructures and the undermining of the existing immigrant families who waited and entered our country legally.
America still shines like a beacon of hope for those who dream of a better life.
From the beginning of its time in history this unique country has been populated by those who risk all for the opportunity that only America can provide. From the Pilgrims escaping England’s oppression, to the Irish escaping famine, to the Jews escaping the concentration camps in World War II; this country has always kept the beacon shining. No one has ever expressed this credo better than Emma Lazarus in her famous poem, “Give me your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The opportunity for a better life, however, comes with a price. Every ethnic group has had to fight against hardship and discrimination in order to fight for their place in the sun. The early generations had to work like slaves, often in sweatshop conditions, for meager wages. Their goals were always the same, to give their children a better life. They scrimped and saved and sacrificed to educate the next generation. Like tempered steel, each generation emerged smarter, tough minded, not afraid to work for their dreams, not limited to their father’s social status and not afraid to fight in order to preserve their independence.
The entrepreneurial spirit was born in America. Go west young man, to open new territories, to create a new industry and work far into the night by candlelight, in order to invent electric light. Build the first automobile for the masses or put the knowledge of the world on a microchip and store it in a cloud for the world to use.
America has created an atmosphere where the mind is not stifled, the soul is not oppressed, imagination is revered and nothing is impossible. Success begins with the individual but is nurtured by the American Dream.
A plaque hangs on a wall of my office, author unknown, which appeared in Baron’s magazine ages ago. Its prophetic wisdom has inspiration to me for lo these many years: “Call Your Shot.”
The reason that most people don’t get what they want out of life is because they don’t know what they want! They never completely define their objectives even to themselves.
Is it any wonder that the wishful arrows they shoot in the general direction of the target, seldom make a bullseye?
It may seem ridiculous to some, but there is ample evidence to prove that people can be pretty much what they want to be, if they will decide what that is and concentrate all their thoughts and actions on it.
A person’s powers, often unrecognized, have a way of matching their dreams. They can’t win, however, just by wishing. They must concentrate every thing upon reaching their goals, and give up everything that stands in their way!