Diana wrote:
"I see a country that puts the mentally ill on the street but pays
welfare benefits, provides college educations, and other benefits to
someone who has never contributed one thin dime to this country's
income.  Our own children can't always afford college, yet I see the
Vietnamese, etc. having their college paid for by our government.
Something is very wrong here."

Like Frank, i don't wish to start a war, but just couldn't let this
slide by without a few facts being inserted:

1) Every non-native inhabitant of our continent is either an immigrant
or decended from one - remember those words on the Statue of Liberty? -
these are the folks that made the New World the powerhouse that it is
today!!
2) The USA takes in  rather few of the world's "huddled masses" these
days - certainly far fewer per capita than some other wealthy countries,
and in fact has quite restrictive immigration laws.
3) The USA is the richest country on the planet - it can certainly
afford to assist  the mentally ill, the most deserving students of ALL
persuasions,  and the few immigrants that manage to run the gauntlet of
rules and regulations and work towards the goal of full citizenship. It
can even afford a few pesos to help illegal migrants out a bit, during
their stay in the country - this is not a debatable point: the public
purses of the  industrialized countries of the world are NOT
impoverished because the majority of thier citizens cannot afford to
contribute more towards to common good (actually, rampant,
largely-unchallenged beaurocracy, "corporate welfare",  tax-laws and
policies that favor the truly-wealthy, and gross inneficiency  at most
if not all levels of government are perhaps a larger part of the problem
of Public-Sector Poverty, but who's counting??).
4) Studies in many First-World countries consistantly show that "fresh
blood" injected into well-developed economies in the form of immigrants
creates FAR more economic activity, mostly in the form of small
business, than most folks realize: many of them have known hunger,
oppression and lack of opportunity - so they know how to work hard, live
frugally, and on the whole make splendid citizens - the popular image of
immigrants as lazy freeloaders is statistically false: the few that
really ARE deadbeats (as if this beastie doesn't also crop up in other
demographics...) tend to stick out rather sorely, so they are more
noticable - but the fact is that these are indeed a decided minority!!!
5) As for Vietnam, i think this is ONE country that is owed a bit of
consideration - they may have come through the war a notch or two  this
side of the Stone Age, but i don't think 99% of us can even BEGIN to
imagine the suffering they went through because of choices made by
leaders on both  sides.

To make this post shell-related, there sure are a LOT of great shells
coming out of Vietnam these days - does anyone know if many new species
are being described out of this delightful bounty??

Up here in an ALMOST as rich country with an equally-warped immigration
policy,
-Ross.

P.S.: just thought i'd clarify a sentence in my Cuba posting - their
socioeconomic system is far more "semi-dictatorial" and "centralist"
than Communist (I'm NOT defending Communism, by the way - but it hasn't
been honestly attempted by any country i know of!!) - they have an
unfairly  inequal distribution of wealth also, but due to different
reasons than some other countries.//

This WILL be my last word on these topics on this list - so please don't
put a Virtual Toungelashing on me for this brief rebuttal, since Conch-L
is not the place  for a continuation of the debate :--)