illegal victory!
"The language, and who wins the framing of the language, likely will win the debate" on immigration legislation.

-- Frank Sharry, National Immigration Forum

Be that as it may, illegal aliens don't seem especially popular in Philadelphia. Not only does the Inquirer use the word "illegal" to refer to them ("undocumented" is simply not an accurate descriptor), but a poll by local CBS affiliate KYW reveals a high level of opposition to Bush's amnesty plan.

Here are the poll results:

The President wants to give 'guest worker' status to many current illegal aliens.

Good idea
 
24%

Bad Idea
 
66%

Not Sure
 
10%

I'd say that the Inquirer is on pretty safe ground, both linguistically and politically. Whether they're called aliens or immigrants, to declare people who are here illegally to be "undocumented" creates a fiction, and does not address their illegal status. Besides, many of them have documents; they just don't have documents which give them the legal right to work.

Is this a debate over language? While I don't like it when semantics get in the way of debate, it seems here that there is a genuine debate over whether the word "illegal" means "illegal."

If it does not, then in logic that would mean that illegal isn't illegal, and the plain meaning of language is lost.

Maybe that means Mr. Sharry is right.

(A sobering thought in itself . . .)

posted by Eric on 04.04.06 at 02:32 PM





TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/3473








March 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

ANCIENT (AND MODERN)
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR


Search the Site


E-mail




Classics To Go

Classical Values PDA Link



Archives




Recent Entries



Links



Site Credits