8/2/2019 Agent Brownback

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COLUMNISTS

Fromwhat I couldsee wehad agoldenBlackFriday; thatannualfrenzyafter Thanksgiving Daywhen theshopping seasonofficiallybegins andwhen merchantsmeas-uretheirhopes andexpectationsfora solid bottom-line in bold blackprofitsfor theyear. There sure werea lotof shoppersat the storeI visit-ed;business wasbrisk,therewerelines at thecheck-outcounters, andthestaff wassmiling andcheerful;andI wasat a hardwarestore. Prob-ably onSaturdaythe vendors of Americasang theirfavoritecarol:

Whata friend wehave in Jesus!With Americas struggling econo-myan exciting andenergetic com-merce acrossthe counter bodeswell for the future.Nowit ison to-ward theclimaxof Christmasmorningand thesharedjoy of folksaroundthe country gettingall thestuff purchased duringthe shop-ping season.It shouldbe a frolick-ingfour weeks of sales.

Asan enticement toget out thereandshop there were voluminousprintads in thenewspapers onThanksgivingDay. I hadto carry aload tomy recyclingbin with twohands.Ill admit I subscribe to fourdaily papers (Im an inveteratenewspaper reader! Newspapers ed-ucate, TV indoctrinatesmore onthatanothertime),so I got aquadrupled doseof advertising.Of course, forthe next four weeks wellbe inundatedwith TV adshawkingallmannerof stuff.Repeatedlywell be hearing andseeingthepromise, buy me,and you willhaveeternal bliss.From shinynew carswithbows onthe roof, toslinky lingerie; from flashy dia-mond tennisbracelets, to innu-merable plastictoys that allmakenoise,to ever more complexand

magical electronic gadgets, thepromises of continuing joyandhappiness will be shoutedif webutbuy!Of coursemost of usknowdeepdownthat this promise simply

isnt true. After yearsof believingandbuyingand tryingwemust facethetruth that there arentenoughof the thingsof this world to makeus truly happy!Whateverthe worldoffers,it eventuallyrusts,breaks,wears out, goes outof style,be-comes obsolete or loses itsattrac-tiveness.We humanshave neverbeenable tomasterour boredom.Always there mustbe that whichisnew, improved, the latest,thegreatest, or just plain in that re-lievesour boredom. Wecan shoptill wedrop, buteventually all thateffort isin vain, and wemustbeginagain.

For thetruth is there really isntenoughstuff inall the world tocompletely satisfyour emptiness,calm ourrestlessness andlift ourconstant anxiety. Witheach passingyearwere always disappointedandendlessly longingfor more.Even if wedoreceive THE gift forChrist-mas,or evenget allthedesires onourWISHlist,boredomin-evitable seeps in!Whats newandexciting fora momentswiftly be-comes used,drab,dated anddull.We findourselves again empty andunsatisfied! With a sighof resigna-tion,wemutterthe worldsempty

hope,Maybenext year?So manyof us truly do chase ourtails.

Butthere is,of course,an alter-native toall thisrunning in cir-cles. SoI offer thiscommercial fortheonly realitythat lasts a lifetimeandis never boring. Some two thou-sandyears agoa childwasbornwho, when Hebecame a man, prom-isedto give allhumankindlivingwaterandthe bread of life: wa-ter that wouldquenchourarid livesandbread that wouldenliven ourempty hearts. I once wascapturedbya signoutside a little country

churchthatread,Jesussaves andsatisfies. Ive learned themessageon thesign wasprofoundly true. Je-susdoes satiate ourinsatiable long-ings, andwith Hisforgiveness, Hispresence and His hope, Heis theonewho cantrulybring that longedfor Peaceon earth, and goodwilltomen!And amazingly, suchrealstuff is totally free andavailablefor the asking. Itis Jesus whobrings mirth outof theworldsmadness, andbringslightintoourhearts even in theworldsdarkness.And thats reallyworthcelebrating. Only if we seekHimcanChrist-mass truly be joyfulandblessed. Theworld wishesusto be merry, theLord Jesus promis-es us blessedness. Merrimentwanes anddies butblessednesslastfor eternity. I hope that thisyear Jesus is yourmust havegift,and withHim I praythat you haveaveryBlessedChrist-mass. Jesusdoes save andsatisfy.

Bob Layne, the slightly reverend (Iwas neverknown for my piety), isa retired Episcopalpriest livingin McPherson, supplying on Sundaysin parishes with no residentclergy. I still love to talk about Jesus. Email: fatherbob33@cox.net.

The best Christmas present of all

During the presidential cam-paign of 2000,George W. Bush wascriticized by some conservativesfor calling himself a compassion-ate conservative. Some believedtheterm to be redundant.

Now were in themiddle of the2012 presidential campaign andcandidateNewt Gingrich hascalled fora humane policyon il-legal immigrants.Gingrich wantsillegal residents who have beeninAmerica for25 years to stay, so asnot to separate families.

Seeking to clarify comments hemade during theRepublican de-bate on national security lastweek, Gingrich told Fox News, Iam fordeportingall recent unat-tached illegals.I amfor a local citi-zen panel to consider certificationof those who have beenhere 25years andhave family andcommu-nity (ties) andhave beenlaw abid-ing and taxpaying.

While I saluteGingrichs valida-tion of family values, there areseveral problems with his sugges-tion.

First,why25 years? Why not24,or23?Howabout 15?Whatif thechil-drenare adults? If a singleparentre-mained becauseof divorceor death,would thatparentbe deported?

Second, what is to keep thelocal

citizenpanel from being co-optedby liberal interest groups workingforthe Democratic Party?Gin-grichs call to ...be humanein en-forcing the lawwithout givingthem citizenship... maysoundgood to some, butonce those hereillegallyhave been certified, in-terestgroupswill surely lobby ontheirbehalf for full citizenship.

Republicansshould not have toprove theircompassion by sup-

porting a statute of limitations onlawbreakers. Instead, Republicansshould present examples of immi-grantswho have come to Americalegally andbuilt a lifewhileobey-ing the law.

Gingrichis correct when he sayswearenot about toroundup 11 mil-lion illegal immigrants,as Americarounded up more than 100,000Japaneseat thestart of World WarII,many of them U.S.citizens.Butdoing nothingor granting Gin-grichs proposed path to legality(through certification) will onlydraw moreillegals.

In my ideal world(and some U.S.laws might have to change to ac-complish it), this is what I thinkshould be done: Illegal immigrantswho have jobs, pay taxes andarelaw abiding canstayas temporaryresidents provided they are doing

jobs no American citizen wants todo. An employer canprove that byadvertisingfor a position andif no

citizenapplies,the illegal immi-grantmaybe hired for a fixed peri-od of time,afterwhich theposition must be advertisedagain.

The illegal immigrant shouldbeforbidden any unemploymentorwelfare benefits. Medicalinsur-ance,or thecost of anycare, shouldbe provided by theemployer. Immi-grant children canbe educated inpublicschools (and taught English)provided theirparents payproperty

taxes.If an illegal immigrant isrentingor livingwith others, he orsheshouldpay a certainamounttodefraythe cost of education. If achildis born inAmerica toillegalimmigrants,thatchild shouldnotautomaticallyreceiveU.S. citizen-ship(a court ruling reinterpretingtheConstitutionwouldbe requiredto change theautomatic grantingof citizenshipto children of illegal im-migrants bornin theU.S.)

After two or three renewals of the illegals special visa, theper-son mustreturn tohis orher na-tive land fora specified periodof time andthen apply forre-entry.

Shouldthe illegal immigrant de-sire citizenship, thatpersonshould first learn EnglishandAmerican history. The pathoughttobe rigorousso thatwe knowthepersonis comingto America formore than just thegoodies theU.S.government provides.

Most importantly, we must pro-tect andsecure ourcountrys bor-ders.Gingrichs hero, RonaldReagan, is credited withsaying, Anationthat cannotcontrol itsbor-ders is not a nation.

Something elsetroublesmeabout this debate.Why is it com-passionate to suggestwaysfor peo-ple who have broken ourlawsto

escapethe consequences butcruelto require that they obey ourlawsin notenteringthe country illegal-ly in the first place?

Everyonewantsa better life forthemselves and theirchildren.American citizens mostly seekthat betterlife by conformingtothe law. Illegal immigrants shoulddo thesame.

EmailCal Thomas at tmseditors@tribune.com.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

EDITORIAL

WESTERN FRONT

READER OPINIONS FROM HUTCHNEWS.COM

O PINION A8 Tuesday, November 29, 2011 The Hutchinson Ne

Real issue with tweetI believe that we have lost sight of

the real issues regarding EmmaSullivans tweet while at the Youthin Government Conference. The is-sue is not whether Ms. Sullivan hadthe right to tweet her defamatoryremarks. Of course she had the

right to do so. Thank God for freespeech. Thank God we have theright to speak up when we feel thatour politicians are making poor de-cisions. Speaking up is not only our

right, but our responsibility.However, Ms. Sullivan was invit-

ed to be a participant in this con-ference. She was a guest. The realissue is not about rights. Thereal issue is about expressing our-selves effectively and appropriate-ly when we disagree. The realissue is about good manners and

respect something we see too lit-tle of, not only in teens, but in allof us.

ROSE ALDERSONNickerson

G Ill cut Brownbacks staff alittle slack. It is not terribly out-of-line to scan the Internet for legiti-mate threats. However, this wasno threat and the over-reaction

was monumental. G You didnt mention Principal

Karl R. Krawitz by name. His cow-ardly actions deserve criticism aswell. .

G Reminds me of Richard Nixon.He was paranoid, too.

G The school principal shouldbe standing up for his studentsrights.

G (Brownbacks staff dont) de-serve any slack and neither doesthe spineless principal. . Theprincipal should have blown off thecall entirely. Brownback needsa good high school course in theConstitution. He is a poor excusefor a public servant.

G My son is recovering fromnear-fatal wounds he received inAfghanistan, protecting, amongother things, this young ladys rightto free speech. (Brownback is) notworthy of the office you hold.

G Brownback is a disgrace to thepeople and great state of Kansaswhile Emma Sullivan is a heroineof her generation. His tactics looklike totalitarianism, and she repre-

sents democracy. G The tweet, while disrespectful,

came from an immature highschool student. The response was

classic over-reaction and represen-tative of an insecure, petty and vin-dictive public official.

G .I shake my head in shame

(at) Gov. Brownback, PrincipalKrawitz and members of the eliteKansas Secret Social Media Police.

G Brownback should put awaythe Nixon playbook and apologizeto all Kansans.

G Brownback has the right tomonitor, but reporting to the princi-pal is a clear violation of the FirstAmendment.

G The fun will really begin whenThe View, Bill Maher and othercomedians blast Brownback onthis one, and he can do nothingabout it.

G What else can you expect fromour fearless leader and his goons.As an educator and former admin-istrator what I find appalling is theactions of the school principal. Heshould be defending his students,not carrying out the orders of thegovernor.

G Apparently the governor alsomonitors public opinion. His some-what insincere apology turned uptoday. He apologized for his staff over-reacting, but nothing aboutmonitoring which he has to bespending heavily on since therewere not hash tags in the mes-

sage the student sent with hisname in it. Also, nothing yet fromthe overly reactive principal. Theschool district and outraged par-ents should be all over that.

Agent BrownbackGovernor apologizes but snooping is troubling

Two things every Kansan needsto know about Gov. SamBrownback: One, his office is ac-tively monitoring what you sayabout him online, and two, he willrat you out if he finds your onlineopining less than flattering.

Emma Sullivan, a senior atShawnee Mission East HighSchool in Prairie Village, foundherself in the principals officelast week after she jokingly postedcomments about Brownback dur-ing his appearance at a KansasYouth in Government gathering.

Just made mean comments atgov brownback and told him hesucked, in person #heblowsalot,Sullivans tweet read.

Brownbacks spokeswoman,Sherriene Jones-Sontag, said heroffice routinely monitors socialmedia to see what Kansans arethinking and saying. When theyfound Sullivans tweet, the officeforwarded a copy to school offi-

cials to make them aware of whatstudents were saying about thegovernor.

The schools principal chastisedSullivan for creating such a prob-lem and ordered her to write anapology letter to the governor. Sul-livan said she only had about 60Twitter followers and viewed thepost as largely anonymous.

The teenage girls tweet, her Twit-ter account and Brownbacks reac-tion to the situation didnt remainanonymous for long. Sullivan nowhas more than 9,000 Twitter follow-ers, and the story of a thin-skinnedgovernor tattling on a high schoolstudent made national headlines.

On Monday the governor apolo-gized for his staff s over-reaction.

The concern about this issue istwofold. The first is that Brown-backs office is actively building adossier of Kansans commentsabout him. That his office uncov-ered a one-time tweet from a high-school student with few followersindicates that such efforts arentcasual in nature. The second con-cern is that when Brownbacks of-fice finds a comment offensive ordisagreeable, it is willing to takesteps to create problems for theperson who posted the comment.

Whatever ones view on Brown-back or his policies, there can beno dispute that Kansans of allages have the right to say how theyfeel without fear of retaliation orretribution. Even a high school

student has the constitutionalright to say what she wants aboutthe governor and should be freefrom any fear that the governmentwill take steps to silence her.

By the end of the weekend, Sul-livan announced that she had noplans to offer an insincere apologyto the governor. Brownbacks apol-ogy followed soon after.

D o o n e s

b u r y

Editorial BoardJOHND. MONTGOMERY / Editor-PublisherMARYRINTOUL/ Managing EditorJASON PROBST / News EditorPAT SANGIMINO / Sports Editor

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Father Bob Layne

Community columnist

Cal Thomas

Compassionate conservatism: The sequel?