Thread: PA: Fox’s visit offers best incentive to hit the polls

Fox’s visit offers best incentive to hit the polls
RENITA FENNICK OPINION


Vicente Fox’s appearance in Wilkes-Barre Monday night couldn’t come at a better time.

Fox, the former president of Mexico, will speak at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Wilkes University’s Outstanding Leaders Forum. He will talk about bringing a new economy to Latin America to people who will dish out $25 to hear his speech.

All this on Election Eve. Voters in all of Luzerne County’s municipalities will head to the polls on Tuesday to choose the men and women who will make the big decisions that affect their boroughs, townships and cities.

What an inspiration to voters – a reminder of the most serious issue facing America today, the influx of illegal immigrants into our nation. No one will dispute the fact that immigration is a federal issue. But I don’t think we’ve seen the last word on the argument that a municipality should have the right to decide how it deals with illegal immigrants.

Wanted: Leaders with courage
We’ve all read about Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta’s effort to give the city some clout in dealing with this growing problem. But anyone who thinks this dilemma isn’t going to make its way to Wilkes-Barre or Pittston or Nanticoke or any other town in the county is sadly mistaken.

That’s why Fox’s visit is the best incentive for voters to get to the polling places and support local candidates who have the guts to make some unpopular decisions. It wouldn’t be so bad if Fox just talked about the book he has just written, the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement or the opportunities for international corporations in the region. But, as he makes his national book tour, the issue of illegal immigration arises. And that’s when he starts to insult all law-abiding Americans.

He has called legal American citizens – those of us who were born here and those who went through the naturalization process – nasty names if we speak out about the growing problem of illegal immigration.

The Wilkes University press release credits Fox with playing a role in his country’s democratization and with strengthening the country’s economy. True, but there is no question that millions of men, women and children risked life and limb to come to the United States during his six-year term.

While Fox is delivering the lecture at the Kirby, a group of protesters will assemble on Public Square.

The gathering is being organized by Voices of the People, the group that favors the enforcement of immigration laws. Call them racists, xenophobes and bigots if you like but the truth is, all they want is for the federal government to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into our country.

It’s so simple – yet, when Mayor Barletta tries to explain it in a simple manner (Remember illegal is illegal?) he gets demonized, too. No one will argue that the federal government has failed miserably in its effort to control our borders by allowing up to 15 million people to arrive and live in America illegally. The disagreement surfaces when we start talking about how we remedy this serious situation.

That means that local governments will have to shoulder the burden and cost of dealing with an influx of people who have no respect for our immigration laws.

Public officials with guts – such as Barletta and the Hazleton council members who passed the ordinance – don’t feel like waiting around for the federal government to start doing its job. They see control of their city slipping away from them and decided to make a bold move.

I’m glad Fox will be here on the day before we choose our local leaders. It’s a reminder that we need leaders with courage on every level.


Renita Fennick can be reached at 829-7246 or rfennick@timesleader.com.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/20071104_03renita.html

Bump