So the illegal immigration supporters want all immigrants to boycott work on May 1st. That doesn’t make much sense to me, but I guess the idea is to get as many people on board their cause as possible.

Recent polls have shown a waning support for this effort among the immigrant population. Good for them. The kids skipping school are only hurting themselves – most of them are just happy to have an excuse to play hooky; the sad thing is they’ll be used in the head-count that will supposedly demonstrate how effective this little protest will be.

Here’s how I’m going to celebrate this date:

I’m going to clean my toilet. I may even field-day the head at work, or at least supervise some junior Marine doing it. [grin]
I’m going to go shopping and buy something made in the USA – preferably somewhere other than Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and definitely California. I realize this doesn’t guarantee it’ll be something made by legal citizens, but it’s the thought that counts here.
I’m going to take my own trash out at the end of the workday (I generally do this anyway).

I’m also going to take my cue from other bloggers by posting the following:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause, it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Any other words, in any other language, is not the National Anthem of the United States of America.

My ancestors were immigrants to this country. Legal immigrants. Their names are recorded in the rolls of Ellis Island. They learned English (the German half, at least had to learn), they worked hard, and they melded into American society. I have nothing but respect for anyone, from anywhere in the world, who follows in the footsteps of my great-grandparents and embraces life as an American citizen.

I have nothing but contempt for those who circumvent the system, impose unjust burden on American society and honest, hard working people, and then demand rights and benefits which they are in no way entitled. I’ll happily clean my own toilets if that’ll help reduce the “demand” for underpaid, illegal labor.

A little commentary from http://www.coxandforkum.com Cox and Forkum