The Evolution of May Day into Immigrants Right's Day

May Day has past us yet again. What is May Day? International Worker's Day. A day that every good socialist loves to celebrate not with a May pole, but with a megaphone. Were we were celebrating the spring flowers or the guy who planted them?

Major happenings on May Day 2007

• Hugo Chavez starts the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry. I'm sure the egalitarian society that Chavez has in mind will keep the price of oil low in the name of the people.
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• Anti-U.S. demonstrations were held in Cuba. When are they not? Here's a clue Fidel, you're insignificant and about to die.
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• Marches were held in most major U.S. cities. Only here in the U.S. every worker is now Hispanic.

May Day in the U.S. has evolved from its communist roots into a rally day for immigrant's rights. That doesn't bother me. Everyone needs the occasional day off work. Only now, the entire focus of May Day is on illegal aliens. I have to call stupid, "Stupid," when I hear it. Human rights? Yes. Constitutional rights? No.

Allow me to paraphrase one of the dumbest vibrations to hit my inner ear in a long time. The following jewel of a sound bite nearly drove me off the road as it stumbled from the radio newscast on my drive home. "I think they should make it easier for the illegals to stay in this country. They should get rid of the criminals, but let the good people, who want to work stay." Granted, from the accent, English was this woman's second language, but that was one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

I write a little. I dabble in words. Words mean certain things. Putting words together, also know as sentences, communicate thoughts. In the case of the aforementioned sound bite, the communication was egregiously moronic thoughts. The word "illegal" denotes criminal activity. It is the definition of the word.

When did illegal aliens stop being criminals? I'm sure there are thousands, no millions, of illegal aliens that try to follow the law, stay off the radar, and lead good lives, but that does not relieve them of the crime of entering the United States without going through the proper channels.

I need to know the secret of non-culpability when I'm pulled over for speeding. "No, officer, I don't know why you pulled me over. I wasn't speeding just now."

"The radar gun 10 miles back has you doing 90mph."

"No, officer, right now I'm not speeding now. You can't give me a ticket for what happened 10 miles ago."

"Want to bet? Sign here."

I could avoid the whole mess if I just knew the recesses of the mind that can disconnect "illegal" from "alien." Unfortunately, there are minds out there that are able to make that disconnection. The human brain has a way of doing that when it comes to our uncle or brother or cousin or sandbox playmate or neighbor who speaks Spanish or workmate who named his dog Pepito. Solidarity at all cost, even the cost of our reason.

There is no easy, reasonable solution for the estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States. Deportation is impractical. Citizenship is unconscionable. Some sort of equitable penalty lies just beyond our factional reason.

Demonstrations be damned! I didn't get the day off and I do my own gardening. I'll spend my next day off talking over the hedge about this with my neighbor. He's Hispanic and he feels the same way I do, but then he's reasonable.