The Gene Pool

 THE GENE POOL

Being a criminal defense attorney, I am somewhat familiar with the gene pool in this country and there are days when I'm not so sure about it - - its quality I mean.  Hence, after some consideration and being aware of the hue and cry over immigration, I have a solution to both the issue of immigration and that of  the  deterioration in the country's gene pool.

My suggestion is quite simple, and possibly a comprehensive solution to both issues.  For every person who crosses the border illegally from whatever country of origin, we give that country one of ours.  For instance, a person from Mexico crossing illegally, we in turn would grab some American citizen, presumably one that is in jail for some misdemeanor and  give him or her a passport and a handfull of pesos and put them on a plane for Mexico City. C'est la vie!

I realize there may be objections to this procedure, but  with an act of Congress we could get it done.  Any family who traipes hundreds of miles on foot to get to America has some hutzpah.  It seems to me that these people might just be an asset to our society and give our country's gene pool a boost in the process.  Now, I know that there are some here who think these people coming into our country are criminals; and they are because we have defined them as such.  After all, crime and criminal are simply  matters of definition. Our legislature is making new crimes and criminals every legislative session.  Being a criminal is really no big deal here in this country.  I would be willing to bet you commit a crime driving to work every morning and if not then, driving home. We're all criminals so let's get over it already.

This horror that the country is being flooded with criminals will subside. Just pass some laws saying they are no longer criminals; that takes care of this imaginary problem that everyone is so worked up about.  And from my observations, these people do work, contrary to many of my clientele regardless of the cause; whether lack of intelligence, mental illness, or substance abuse. 

This idea sounds reasonable to me; not much different than trading baseball players before the deadline.  After your initial reaction to this proposal, reconsider and give it some thought.  It is a pretty radical idea, but one that might have some general acceptance with the right public interest campaign.  Maybe even something a major political party could pick up as an issue to mobilize the public around.  It just might get some votes.  This clamor for a resolution to the "border crisis" is then silenced and we can get back to some more rational issue such as guns in schools or some such thing.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo