Given that this week was the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks, I was reminded that shortly after the horror of that day, former President Barack Obama's notorious "minister," Jeremiah Wright, provocatively claimed in a sermon that "America's chickens have come home to roost." It was never immediately clear what chickens Wright was referring to. The media was more interested in protecting their political messiah than they were in actually getting an answer to that question.
Still, the phrase has appropriate application these days to a completely unrelated crisis - the one happening at the southern border. You will recall that border state governors like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott became so exasperated with the lack of seriousness our federal government was exhibiting at the economic, national security, and humanitarian disaster occurring in his state, that they began "deporting" a small fraction of the migrants they've apprehended into so-called "blue" cities and states.
Many of the mayors, councils, governors, and legislatures of those states, far removed from the invasion itself, have enjoyed preening and posturing for cameras. They make meaningless gestures like declaring themselves to be "sanctuary cities" or states without any fear that they will have to do anything beyond signal their virtue.
Governor Abbott (as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) decided to provide these gallant officials with an opportunity to demonstrate their nobility. Abbott audaciously predicted that the response from men like New York City Mayor Eric Adams would be panic and contempt rather than patience and compassion. That's how it started. So how's it going?
Man, forgive me for saying so, but that sounds a bit xenophobic, doesn't it? A bit ethnocentric? A bit, dare I say it, racist? This isn't a man who respects the humanity of these poor migrants. Listen to how he speaks of them - as problems not people.
Why is Mayor Adams so angry with Gov. Abbott and Gov. DeSantis? They merely provided him the opportunity to be true to his word. And what's with him suggesting that peaceful asylum seekers will "destroy New York City?" Why such scare tactics? Why the fear mongering?
Adams surely knows that the few thousand that have arrived in his city are a drop in the bucket compared to the millions that have overrun smaller Texas border towns and cities. The Mayor and his leftist brethren waxed eloquent about being "welcoming to all" then. Why the different tune?
NBC's Chuck Todd, of all people, had an explanation:
Well Todd almost got it right. Perhaps Mayor Adams is upset with the Biden administration privately, but publicly it's all about those mean Republican governors making New York progressives deal with the consequences of progressive politics and policies.
I guess New Yorkers haven't gotten the memo:
Adams says that he "doesn't see an end to this." But, of course, that's absurd. The "end to this" happens whenever the federal government decides to do what every other civilized country in the world does - secure its borders. The moment we shut down the southern border and restore order, the migrant crisis ends, at least on this side of the Rio Grande. That doesn't mean we turn our back on hurting people. It means that we don't pretend that letting them flood across the border and into American cities carte blanche does anything but create more hurting people.
Hurting people like, as Mayor Adams points out, over-extended New Yorkers.
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