Eli Kaplan wrote: > I found it interesting this subject on lying to immigration. > How many people who feel that it was wrong have asks their > forebears who came to this country whether or not they lied > to get it. I found out that my father had lied when he entered > this country back in the 20's. Why? Because he lied about his > age so he can get Social Security benefits early. Did your > immigrant forebears also lie so they could get into this > great country and receive its benefits. All this on my father, > came out when he died earlier and my mom needed to collect Social > Security. So before we pass judgement on other immigrants we > need to be sure that our immigrant forebears told the whole truth > and nothing but the truth.
This is a really interesting ethical dilemma. How many of us would have objected to Jews lying on their immigration forms to gain entry into the U.S. in the 1930s? Not many Americans objected to limiting the numbers of Jews who were admitted and ultimately died because they were unable to immigrate. Then again, Mr. Jamal is guilty of much the same crime as Joe Biernat. When is lying justified? When is lying to your government justified? I think that our society needs to place much more emphasis on honor and responsibility. Then I conclude that it is honorable for Mr. Jamal to accept responsibility for the consequences of his actions and honorable for our government to forgive his actions if its own position is unjust. Can both of these constraints be met? I think so. Michael Atherton Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
