Do You Lock Your Doors?

As I begin this column, I have a couple of questions that I would like you to answer. Do you lock the doors of your house -- sometimes even when you are at home? Do you lock your vehicles when you run into the store? When you see someone along the side of the road do you stop and give them a ride? Or, even better, do you take them to your home and put them up for the night?

For those of you blasting President Trump for his ban on people from certain countries, think very carefully about how you answered each of those questions. If you don't lock your doors and you do pick up strangers and take them home with you without knowing anything about them, then by all means scream on. If you don't, then perhaps you need to examine your own hypocrisy.

Why do you take all the precautions that I mentioned in my opening? The answer, obviously, is for your safety. This is a crazy world that we are living in now. I remember growing up in a time when you really didn't think twice about locking your doors and it wasn't unusual for people to pick up hitchhikers. Not the case today.

In today's world, you really don't know where or when violence will strike. And no community is immune from terror -- domestic or foreign. So why are people so up in arms about the government doing what we do in our personal lives -- protecting ourselves from violence and crime?

Could it be that many people just don't understand how big a threat this country faces from those that would like to see us fall? And don't they understand that open borders threaten the very existence of this nation?

You can argue all day that the rollout of the ban was bumbled and perhaps resembled a three-ring circus (oops, don't know I can talk about circuses anymore since they are so evil to some folks). And yes, I know that much has been made about this being a Muslim ban and the President and some of his advisors didn't help their cause with their previous comments.

But debate which countries should be included and how the vetting should occur -- not whether it is in the national interest to insure that those who want to do harm to us are kept from coming into the country in the first place. If you advocate open borders and welcoming everyone, then, by all means, write a letter to the editor telling me how wrong I am.

I'm pretty sure by this time in the column, some folks have already started composing their response, and that's okay. I stand by my belief that we need to protect our nation just as we protect our homes and families.

Melody is big into researching our ancestry, and she finds that a lot of mine were from the Netherlands region and, of course, Great Britain. That means that at some point in time my relatives came on a boat to this country. So, you will never hear me say a bad word about any immigrant that comes here to make a better life for themselves and their family.

But, in the world in which we live today, it is imperative that we keep out those who come not to be Americans but rather to destroy Americans. There is a big difference, and far too many liberals seem to not understand that distinction. I'm not sure if they live with their heads buried in the sand or they are so enamored with "taking care of" everyone that they don't understand that if we don't have some basic protections then there won't be anything to "give out" to anyone.

On the news today there was a woman who faced deportation for falsifying her identification. According to the media, you would have thought we had put her against a wall and was getting ready to execute her for the offense. And the ironic thing is that she was being charged under orders passed by President Obama rather than President Trump. Of course, the last Justice Department conveniently ignored the order, but that is another story.

It may seem that I have no compassion, and that is just not true. I feel for the people that come to this country by any means in an attempt to provide for their families. If I were in their shoes, I would probably do the same thing.

But if we accept all comers -- especially those here illegally, then what happens to our nation? Should we not expect other countries to help their own citizens rather than pushing off the problems to our nation?

Yes, we are benevolent, and yes, we are compassionate, but tough love means we hold people and nations accountable for their own actions.

And tough love is never easy.

Kevin Wilson is a former state representative who was born in Goodman and now lives in Neosho. Opinions are those of the author.