Observations by Joe Tobin, April 1, 2019
Recently I took a quick trip to the Palm Beach area. I say “quick” because I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The trip down was pleasant along the back roads of Route 98. But once I hit the outskirts of the Palm suburbs, I sat in lots of red lights and heavy traffic. With the green lights, I held my breath as cars were whizzing and zigzagging under me, over me and beside me. The crabby old side of me said to me (I had nobody else to talk to in the car), “there’re just too damn many people in Florida.”
I love living in Florida and walking out my front door, not worrying about shoveling snow and chopping ice. Economically, I could not afford to move back to Massachusetts. But I also recognize the old order of life is rapidly changing. Pasture lands and orange groves are being gobbled up, traffic lines back up and public order and services are challenged. The question: why are they all coming here and what do they do when they get here? The worry is: maybe too much over-development and too many people can kill a once-good thing.
In a sense, all of us who moved to Florida are not much different from people “migrating” from other countries. Quality of life, economic opportunities or severe disruption of living conditions are three good reasons why people leave their home turf. So, it should come as no surprise that families arriving at our borders, legally or illegally, are also seeking a new start in life. In a sense, their struggles to reach here are positive compliments to the desirability of America. The downside is that uncontrolled migration in the long-run is not a good or sustainable policy for any country.
Migrations, legal or illegal, to America will continue as long as America remains the country it currently is. However, putting the issue of wall-building aside, I believe the following areas especially need addressing: (1) reassessment of current federal assistance programs to Central American countries to help reduce criminal violence; (2) remedial resolution for the “dreamers”; (3) the number and types of immigrants the country is willing to accept; and (4) the processing and screening of those seeking entry are carried out in accordance with the norms of human decency and the laws of United States – to reflect the country we claim to be.
Finally, when we are huffing and puffing in that long line of traffic, remember our car is as much a “migrant” as the other migrant “car. Let’s face it, most of us are migrants in one way or another. Fortunately, we at Solivita have the luck of being “legal” and don’t have to worry about being “sent back” to that other state we came from.
