Obama Family Wisdom

For being hailed as the finest orator of his generation, Barack Obama's speeches leave surprisingly little long-term impact.  Can anyone remember a famous phrase he's said, or a profound truth?

Where is his "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," "With malice toward none, with charity toward all," "The torch has been passed to a new generation," or even "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"?

The only memorable thing he's said is remembered only because he recycles it in almost every speech: "Let me be perfectly clear," a verbal warning that an unusually opaque and unintelligible lie is about to ooze from between his lips.

This is a completely avoidable shame, because his relatives are quite able to make their points in a clear and memorable way, even those for whom English is not their first language and who openly admit to being born in Kenya.

Take his Aunt Zeituni Onyango, a years-long illegal immigrant who has subsisted unmolested on American taxpayer dollars for almost all that time.  WBZ-TV of Boston reports:

Zeituni Onyango said she came to the United States in 2000 and had every intention of leaving. Then, however, she says she got deathly ill and was hospitalized. When she recovered, she said she was broke and couldn't afford to leave. For two years Onyango said she lived in a homeless shelter, before she was assigned public housing despite thousands of legal residents also awaiting assistance. "I didn't take any advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me. I didn't ask for it; they gave it to me. Ask your system. I didn't create it or vote for it. Go and ask your system," she said unapologetically.

And she's right. The system provided her assistance despite her status as an illegal immigrant. [emphasis added]

In a handful of words, Aunt Zeituni declaimed more truth than an entire term's worth of State of the Union Addresses while putting her finger squarely on the problem: Americans are too generous for their own good.

She came to the United States perfectly legally; fair enough.  When it was time for her to leave, she didn't, on account of lack of funds.

How is this possible?  Many other countries require legal visitors on temporary visas to supply proof of a return plane ticket - no return ticket, no entry.  Our political masters have decided not to impose this requirement.

Similarly, most other countries keep a record of who comes into the country and who leaves, so as to match up the two lists and know who's illegally present.  Then the cops go round up the excess for deportation.

Yes, we do some deportations as the Left is constantly in tears over.  While we watch who comes in (by plane if not across the Rio Grande), however, we don't bother to keep a record of who goes out.  So we really have no idea of illegal overstayers, much less be able to try to send them back where they came from.

Then, we find, this illegally-present person was assigned public housing in front of lawful Americans!  The report doesn't say, but there's no reason to suppose she got special treatment; odds are, her name got put on the list and eventually made its way to the top.  Bluer-than-blue Massachusetts is a "sanctuary" state that refuses to enforce America's immigration laws even against illegal immigrant terrorists.

The welfare bureaucrats certainly saw no reason to ask for proof that harmless Aunt Zeituni had any rightful claim on a free house.  In point of fact, the bureaucracy had every reason not to ask for verification.  The more people they can house, the more money then can shovel out the door, and the more money they can ask for next year.

The only way to stop them housing illegals would be to make it a firing offense for a social worker to sign off on benefits for an illegal.  Short of that, the financial incentives all run the wrong way.

We've previously seen how illegal immigrants cost hospitals fortunes, as well as generating anchor babies that will cost even more.  Aunt Zeituni apparently didn't intentionally set out to defraud America as so many do; she happened into it by bad personal luck followed by the excellent luck of being in America at the time.  But just like all too many natural born citizens, once she was sucked into the welfare maw she couldn't get out.

So whose fault is it?  No sane sick person is going to want to go back to an African grass hut when a modern American hospital, or even a clean American homeless shelter, is on offer.

Throw in a free apartment and $700 a month disability payment, and you wonder why illegal immigrants come and stay?  It's more a miracle why anyone would ever leave!

Aunt Zeituni has no degree from Harvard nor a teleprompter to assist in her orations, but she understands reality and reveals far more wisdom than her nephew can even comprehend.

Refuse illegals the welfare benefits and other freebies to which citizens are entitled, and they will leave.  Hand out money and valuables right and left, and not only will illegals stay forever, we'll get more.  Only a very highly educated person could fail to understand this simple point.

Maybe we put the wrong Obama in the White House, given that the existence of an American birth certificate seems of no particular concern?