Consolidation
I’m blogging at http://kaimipono.wordpress.com/ for the time being. It’s better than having to keep everything up to date myself.
I’m blogging at http://kaimipono.wordpress.com/ for the time being. It’s better than having to keep everything up to date myself.
It’s not available on the SLTrib main search page now, I thought I’d post it here to have it available online.
—
Harsh immigration laws echo 19th century anti-Mormon legislation
By Kaimipono D. Wenger
Article Last Updated: 02/25/2008 06:20:25 AM MST
The Salt Lake Tribune
The 47th Congress was a busy bunch of bigots. In March of 1882, they passed the Edmunds Act, a notorious anti-Mormon law that barred polygamists from voting, serving on juries or holding office. This law (along with related statutes) sent hundreds of Mormon men into federal prison and shattered families across Mormon country.
Barely a month later, that same Congress passed another odious law. Called the Chinese Exclusion Act, it was the first major federal immigration law, and it was explicitly designed to keep out the despised Asian immigrants. It set the framework for the draconian approach to immigration that continues to this day.
Both the hateful immigration laws and hateful anti-Mormon laws were challenged in court. The racist Supreme Court of the era upheld both laws in close succession, with telling language that compared Mormons to Asians. Apparently, that was reason enough to allow persecution of both groups.
This tainted history is just one reason why some Latter-day Saints like me are troubled by current immigration laws and proposals. Today’s harsh laws and harsher proposals are a direct legacy of the most hateful anti-Mormon legislators of the late 19th century.
It’s an awfully good thing that Congress didn’t start regulating immigration until shortly after the largest wave of Mormon immigration was finished. If the hateful and anti-Mormon Congress had thought to
exercise this power just a few decades earlier, there’s little doubt that they would have included Mormons - along with Chinese and other outsiders - as undesirables, subject to exclusion and deportation.
Sometimes fellow church members ask me, but what about the Articles of Faith? This is an important series of short statements setting out basic church beliefs, and one of them (the 12th) states that church members believe in “obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.”
Does that mean that church members - legislators, even - should support more stringent immigration law policy or enforcement?
No, it doesn’t. Church members are not required to support unjust, anti-family laws; and in fact, church history is full of opposition to such laws. Church members vigorously opposed the unjust, anti-family Edmunds Act and its cousins, and we should similarly oppose (in existence and enforcement) the harsh immigration laws that sprang from the same poisoned well.
Immigration laws as enforced today are among the most anti-family laws in existence. Every single day, immigration officials break up families, flaunting another recent statement of church doctrine - the church’s Proclamation on the Family, which solemnly declares that children are entitled to a home with father and mother.
Recent proposals to further penalize immigrants would only make matters worse. A better immigration policy would be one that built on the proclamation’s statement that children are entitled to be reared by father and mother. It would focus on keeping immigrant families together, rather than tearing them apart.
Immigration barriers also clash with another of the church’s basic Articles of Faith - the 10th article of faith, which prophesies the “literal gathering of Israel” to a promised land here in the United States. This idea corresponds to verses from the Book of Isaiah that “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains,” and that “all nations shall flow unto it.”
Church leaders have long explained these verses as a prophecy that the nations of the Earth would come to the temples of the Lord in the Utah mountains. (The idea is reflected in popular church hymns like “High on the Mountain Top.”)
If church members really believe in this gathering, why would we try to impede it? We should instead welcome the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that the nations of the Earth be gathered to Zion.
As church Elder Marlin Jensen recently reiterated, “Immigration questions are questions dealing with God’s children.” In these matters, a humane approach is required. We are all children of God, a popular church hymn goes, and He has sent us here; He gives us an earthly home and parents kind and dear.
Children are entitled to be raised within those homes, not in homes fractured by misguided government policies. Legislators of all religious persuasions should take steps to reinforce immigrant homes and families, not tear them down.
And people everywhere who share Latter-day Saint values should follow Elder Jensen’s words, and push for more humane immigration laws and policies.
—
* KAIMIPONO D. WENGER is an assistant professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.
Done:
Faculty meeting
Met students
Replied to student e-mails
To do, tomorrow:
Swim
Get answer key in
Chiro
Finish replies to student mails
Journal catchup
Laundry
Finished writing my test.
Outfield, For You
Maroon 5, She will be loved
The trip went well. Thanksgiving was a lot of turkey-filled fun with family.
It’s been pretty chaotic, but so far it’s been fun, too.
Despair.
Not sure why. But it’s not fun.
Taught, last class.
Met with students
Posted slides and old exam issue analysis
To do:
Drive to Arizona
Pack
On trip:
Catch up some on journal
Also:
E-mail D
Write exam
Work on paper draft
I think I have itunes fully moved over.
Now, I just need to get pictures and documents all (finished) moved.
Done:
-Cleared out almost all e-mail backlog.
-Participation update.
-Figured out JRCLS stuff. Checked voice mail.
-Paid bills.
Still to do:
-Run
-Last few e-mails.
-Write exam
-Computer update.
Tomorrow:
-Meet students
-Swim
-Job talk
-Figure out model answer
-Work on test
-Journal
Done, so far:
-Attended faculty job talk
-Discussed faculty candidate
-Getting through e-mail backlog
-Student discussions
-Blogging at Befitting
-Some exam written
Still to do:
-Write more exam
-More e-mail backlog
-Figure out JRCLS stuff
-Update BA reading
-Figure out model answer
-Chiro
-Work out
-Move files from old computer
Busy day! (Aren’t they all.)
Done:
Posted pictures; some e-mail caught up; some journal; went running; did some cleaning. Started blogging at a group fitness blog. Played video games with Kace.
Still to do:
More journal catchup; more e-mail catchup; post slides; update BA reading.
M. is at school, and I’m on kid duty.
To do:
-Clean bedroom
-Laundry
-Get computer files transfered and figured out
-Get fully caught up on student e-mail backlog
-Journal catchup
-Post ward party pictures
-Bill pay catchup (mostly done now)
-Go run
Mana, El Muelle de San Blas
–
Remember how they tried to hold you down
And we climbed those towers
And looked down upon our town
And everything you hoped would last
It just always becomes your past
Summers when the money was gone you’d sing
All your little songs that meant everything to me
And I’ll remember you
And the things that we used to do
And the things that we used to say
I’ll remember you that way
Remy Zero, Perfect Memory (I’ll Remember You)
Guns n Roses, Sweet Child o Mine
Done:
Boiled a big pot of potatoes.
Rounded up a few loads of laundry.
Was a mean taskmaster to the children, making them fold clothes and clear tables and take out trash and pick up toys.
Folded some clothes.
Lost cell phone.
Got most of the rest of the files transfered.
Found cell phone. (In plain view.)
Got M. registered for some classes next semester.
Played computer and blogged a little.
Still to do:
Figure out which files I missed in the transfer. Get them moved.
Try to catch up some on my damn journal.
Clean the house some more?
Finish making mashed potatoes.
Ward thanksgiving party tonight. Take pictures.
Go paint the town red with M. and J.
Go run?
Read student papers and reply?
Later:
Move files off of old dining room computer?
-Installed itunes.
-Transfering over music that’s on ipod. Maybe want to move more than that, but that will do for now.
-Authorized computer on itunes. Hmm. It says I’ve got 5 authorized now. That can’t be right. Old desktop + old dining room computer + new computer + laptop + ipod . . . hmm. Yeah, I guess that is 5.
-Installed google pack and screen saver; configured folders.
-Still copying pix from the external HD.
-Started copying by hand pix. This is going to be a pain. Cleared off 2 jump disks to copy with.
-Installed picasa.
Still to do:
Install last.fm
Copy pics, and pics, and pics, and pics
Copy over my docs
Get internet working on old desktop (now in dining room)
Get in at 2:30.
New computer is here.
Begin work.
Unpack computer.
Set up monitor and keyboard.
Move old computers down like dominoes.
Install itunes.
(You are here)
Transfer music
Transfer 40 GB of photos from backup drive
Transfer another 30 GB of photos that I never got around to backing up
Transfer documents and files.
Get internet working again on old computer.
Make sure it’s all working . . .
Train, Cab.
A pretty enjoyable day so far. Played water polo in the morning in swim class. Scored one goal, assisted on two more, and had fun. Also, had some online discussion at OM.
Went with M. on a field trip with K’s class to the children’s museum. It was a lot of fun — the kids played bumper cars on scooters, made block towers, had a huge pillow fight (we had to help a little), rock-climbed on walls, painted a (real!) car. Tiring, but fun.
Home, and then some general cleaning up. Also, a nap.
On tap for tonight:
Watch kids while M. is in class.
Read student papers and get feedback to students.
Get laundry done
Catch up more on journal
Class prep for tomorrow
Dinner etc.
Pay bills
Done:
Some nice chats with friends
Chaufeuring kids
Some journaling
Playing with kids, having fun
Still to do:
-Read student papers
-Go run
-Catch up on journal
-Upload pics?
Carolina Liar, Show me what I’m looking for
Reimbursement
Catch up on backlogged e-mail
Post Halloween pics to FB.
Get ward pics figured out.
Journal catchup
Post class slides
Update this blog
Clean house
Laundry
Grocery shop?
Take a nap
Run
More?