Two Hoosiers are on my mind this week: Senator Richard Lugar and rock and roller Hall of Famer John Mellencamp.
The nominally Republican Lugar has just distinguished himself by being one of five GOP Senators to join the Democrats' muscling through the "Hate Crimes" bill by attaching it to wholly unrelated defense appropriations legislation—on the same day that he broke ranks to endorse Sonia "Affirmative Action baby" Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.
But the reason I came to focus on this odd couple is, as you might guess, immigration.
On Independence Day (!), the Evansville Courier and Press announced that Lugar's staff would host a forum at the Juan Diego Center (!!) on July 22nd to explain how the DREAM Act could: "help young, undocumented immigrants who grew up in the United States to earn legal status by obtaining an education and completing national or public service." [Lugar's Office to Hold DREAM Act Forum, by Tom Lovett, Evansville Courier and Press, July 4, 2009]
Good God! Why doesn't Lugar just invite the DREAMers over to his house for a cookout?
And I wonder: When illegal aliens show up at the Juan Diego Center for an information gathering session under the guidance of a U.S. Senator's staff, are they still at that moment considered to be "in the shadows"?
Lugar, you may remember, is the RINO and the party's senior ranking member who in March re-introduced the DREAM Act (S. 719) only to watch it flounder ever since.
And with good reason. Among its other pitfalls, the DREAM Act would allow "students" up to age 35 apply and would not require them to produce hard evidence supporting any statement they make on their applications—that is, a "student" can simply say that he has been in the U.S. for five years (one of the conditions) but never have to prove it.
When I wrote my April column, the DREAM Act had 18 co-sponsors; today, three months later, it has 23.
Lugar has always been terrible on immigration. And he's getting worse.
In some ways then, the fact that Lugar will host a seminar for illegal aliens on how to milk the system isn't the least surprising.
But in a broader sense, Lugar's advocacy is incomprehensible.
When a worn out, feeble-minded crone like Senator Dianne Feinstein backs outrageous pro-alien legislation, you could—if you were in a generous mood—acknowledge the political expediency of her maneuvering. California is, after all, 36 percent Hispanic.
But Indiana is still America having a white and African American population just under 95 percent. In Evansville, the white and black total is over 96 percent.
And in Evansville, the Hispanic population is only 1.5 percent.
What Lugar is all about isn't clear. Maybe his immigration advocacy comes from his goo-gooish Methodist, Eagle Scout rearing?
Lugar apparently doesn't know what I for sure do know. As one who recently fled California because of over-immigration, I'm here to tell him:
I was reminded just how true this is earlier this week when I went to the Bob Dylan Show starring Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dylan.
On the night of the concert, after weeks of gray skies and rain, Pennsylvania finally had perfect July summer weather—clear and warm with just a few passing clouds.
The show's venue was quintessentially all-American, the Washington (PA) Wildcat's minor league baseball park that offered boiled hot dogs and grilled hamburgers as its fare.
Fans sitting in general admission seats wore "Vietnam Veteran" caps and t-shirts that read "Al's Cafe Softball."
Nelson and Dylan had joined forces for ballpark tours in 2004, but in 2009 added Mellencamp who earlier partnered with Nelson in 1985 for another all-American event, the debut Farm Aid festival that has raised over $33 million for struggling farmers.
The show opened with the 76-year-old Nelson standing in front of a giant red-white-and-blue Texan flag dressed in black from hat to boots while he sang his American classics that included Whiskey River, Funny How Time Slips Away, Night Life, and Always on My Mind. (Watch here, here, here and here)
But when Seymour Indiana-native Mellencamp, long famous for his Americana song book, took the stage I thought briefly of Lugar and his treasonous plot to turn America over to the reconquistadors.
Among Mellencamp's songs were Pink Houses (see Mellencamp's video performance here filmed in the authentic Midwestern town of Austin, Indiana); Small Town, (watch the clip with great American imagery here) and Rain on the Scarecrow.
Mellencamp's songbook, although occasionally dark in its outlook, nevertheless emphasizes American values and traditions. As such, it could serve as a reminder to our Congress about the things we want to hold on to instead of so eagerly giving them away to criminal trespassers.
I don't mean to overly romanticize Mellencamp or get too misty-eyed over the America he sings about.
And I'm certain that John Kerry/Barack Obama supporter Mellencamp would no more be on our side of the national question than Bruce Springsteen. But music nevertheless serves as a reminder of what most of America once was and, in some of its corners like Washington, PA (White and African American population more than 98 percent) as well as other cities on the ball park tour, still is.
I want to drive that point home. As despondent as patriots can become over the steep uphill climb we always face, our mission is vital to America's survival.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to address a patriotic immigration reform organization in northern Virginia about California and its future. A handful of its members are gloomy about our future.
During my speech, one person in the audience asked me repeatedly—with each question posed somewhat differently—why I bothered to spend so much time on our cause since it's obvious to him that inevitably we will lose.
I replied—repeatedly—that I don't agree. As far as I'm concerned, although it's maybe hard to imagine for northern Virginia or California residents, immigration hasn't yet overwhelmed large cross sections of America.
Now that I live in Pittsburgh, one of America's remaining havens, that's why I'll never give up—and will fight to the bitter end to keep my city and its surrounding areas American.
And if, along the way, my VDARE.COM colleagues and I do anything to help preserve America in other cities and states, so much the better.
Joe Guzzardi [email him] is a California native who recently fled the state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
