Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
We accept responsibility for those who are us. Family, tribe (city), clan (state), country, in that order. But in this case that means legal citizens, regardless of race or country of origin. That includes, among others, legal Latinos.
This, I believe, is the core of where we differ.

We all are "us". There is no "they." Family? The human race. Anyone and everyone. What if my sister tomorrow married a guy from Mexico? Instant family. City? People move in/out of my city, my state, and my country every day, and that does not change their level of importance to me. Yes, of course I love my family. I just remind myself that any person I speak to is part of someone's family, and so therefore, equally as important as mine.

No, we are not responsible for each other. Or not every other person. We accept responsibility for some, and those we help as much as we can. But I, for one, will not accept responsibility for every hungry person in the world.
I have no logical argument for this. It just makes me plain sad. You have a right to feel differently than me. But if I suddenly found myself with enough food for the whole world and some way to distribute it, I would. I feel responsible for my fellow human beings everywhere, because what separates me from them? The pure random chance of where I was born, and nothing else. I could easily have been them; I could still easily become them. At any time I could become sick, or poor, or wronged, or alone. How dare I think myself more important or better than anyone else, simply because I was randomly dealt a better hand of cards than they were?

And yes, we are responsible for each other, because that is the root of civilization. Evolutionary-wise, does it make sense for the strong to protect the weak? No. In the animal world, they let the weak die, because they are a burden. Humans are different. We choose to bear the burden of the weak, because we believe in something better than that. We believe in civilization, in that even the weak have value, simply because they are one of us.

And we are all "one of us."

I have no problem with the idea of changing the law, even to the point of allowing more immigrants, legally, into the country. But until those laws are changed, I think we have to enforce the laws as they exist today. If you believe the laws are bad you fight them in the courts, or in the Congress. You don't simply ignore them.
On this, I would have to agree with, except where following the law would violate a person's human rights. Human rights always apply first, and our country believes that, which is why places like emergency rooms and food pantries aren't allowed to report illegal immigrants. Because getting them the food and medicine to carry on as living, healthy human beings is more important than the laws. Our own government knows this; which is why they are so hesitant to enforce inhumane acts, like deportation (also because it's a pointless waste of resources when the deported person is going to do everything they can to come right back, anyway).