Editorial Note

I have taken down yesterday’s item — a thing I’ve only ever done once or twice in the twenty-year history of this blog — about the effect of a rapid influx of Haitians to the small town of Springfield, Ohio. Although I stand by the gist of the post, which was that mass immigration from profoundly alien (and often dysfunctional) cultures, as deliberately encouraged and promoted by our current administration, is suicidal folly for any nation, and often terribly destructive for local communities subject to overwhelming influxes of needy migrants, my language, as commenter “Martin” angrily pointed out, was careless and intemperate, and perhaps even somewhat loose with facts — though his comment, it should be said, was also larded with some of the same. I’ll admit, though, that the post was not one of my best, and so rather than edit it in place, I’ve removed it, perhaps to rewrite it sometime soon. (Or not.)

Meanwhile, I will refer readers once again to this post, from 2013, about the corrosive and irreversible effects of reckless (or, in the present case, willfully malevolent) immigration policy.

9 Comments

  1. Vito B. Caiati says

    Malcolm,

    Your wrote in response to “Martin”: “No, the town is swamped and overwhelmed, with tremendous impact on local services and quality of life.”

    This appears to be an accurate statement of the fact of the matter, for which there is ample confirmatory evidence, collected by persons who are not content simply to swallow the lies of the Biden/Harris administration and of local Democrat apparatchiks on the beneficial effects of this forced illegal immigration but rather who have gone onto the streets of this Ohio city and interviewed or listened to many local residents.

    For example, see these video posts on X:

    https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1833865787385225318?mx=2
    https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1833660568580034582
    https://x.com/i/status/1833765205295223108
    https://x.com/i/status/1833760210609217638

    The hatred and contempt of the Democrat elites, political and economic, for the people of this nation and for their way of life knows no bounds. So I am far more offended by the sin of omission demonstrated by someone like “Martin,” who is eager to ignore or write off the real suffering of the local popolo minuto than by your (supposedly) “intemperate” language in their defense.

    Vito

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 12:21 pm | Permalink
  2. JMSmith says

    I saw your post this morning as I was finishing my oatmeal, but resolved to save it to read over my lunch. Alas! Banished to oblivion before I could savor the intemperate language. I’m sure you have read The Camp of the Saints, and from that book learned that pity is our Achilles’ Heel. And it is a true Achilles’ Heel–a fatal weakness that cannot, or at least should not, grow out of.

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 2:45 pm | Permalink
  3. JK says

    I listened to “the debate” on the radio last night realtime – this morning I found myself *somewhat “surprised” at the reactions that Trump had been *factchecked coupled with the insistence of Mr. Muir’s stating [he’d?] his organization had checked with the Springfield Ohio City Manager which revealed “no problems with the influx of immigrants.”

    But I was aware (courtesy of a friend who’d sent me a link which I’d bookmarked) of something The Honorable *Journalist Mr. Muir was perhaps not so aware.

    https://ohio.news/articles/20000-haitian-migrants-read-springfield-city-managers-letter-to-sherrod-brown

    I will admit to the possibility that the personage of the current occupier of Springfield Ohio’s City Manager position has changed since our most recent July and the present City Manager was/is simply too new to the job to be aware that a problem had developed.

    Of course I find myself stupefied to admit to even the remotest possibility that a major network “news” organization’s anchor could be so stupid as to open himself to getting *factchecked himself.

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
  4. Malcolm says

    Vito and JM,

    What caused me to pull the post was my having said that 20,000 “wretched Haitians” had been “dumped” in Springfield by the Biden-Harris administration. This is almost certainly inaccurate, as no doubt there are some who were not dumped, and some who are not wretched.

    That said, it is also the case that the current Federal administration has recently assigned so-called “Temporary Protected Status” (which is a sham and a mockery, because it almost never turns out to be “temporary” at all) to over 300,000 Haitians — which surely has much to do with the deepening crisis in Springfield and elsewhere.

    In the post I also referred to an earlier item of mine that mentioned forensic entomology, and drew a parallel to today’s United States and a corpse lying in a forest.

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 5:07 pm | Permalink
  5. Malcolm says

    JK,

    Nice to see you here again, sir.

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 5:10 pm | Permalink
  6. Jason says

    Are there are realistic alternatives? Shouldn’t Haitians seek refuge somewhere in the Caribbean according to the principle of geographic proximity? To be fair, perhaps that isn’t totally viable.

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 5:46 pm | Permalink
  7. JK says

    “Soon” to enjoy hanging around here thank you very much.

    & Just on the offchance folks paid no heed to the updates along that site’s sidebar – a “refreshing” look at our current state of vibrancy!

    https://ohio.news/articles/update-springfields-migrant-crisis-deepens-residents-at-breaking-point

    Headphones

    Posted September 11, 2024 at 5:59 pm | Permalink
  8. JMSmith says

    Never say “wretched” when you can say “wretched refuse.” It is right there in the founding document of immigration schmaltz. I’m only half facetious because Emma Lazarus can teach us something about language. A “wretch” was originally an outcast or exile, and “wretched” was originally the state of extreme misfortune that went with being a stranger in a strange land. “Refuse” is that for which no one has any use. These are not words of sneering contempt, but words that capture the terrible predicament for all concerned. The Hatians are indeed wretched, and this is largely because no one has any use for them.

    Posted September 12, 2024 at 9:11 am | Permalink
  9. Malcolm says

    JM,

    Yes, exactly — I had Lazarus in mind when I used the word.

    Perhaps I shouldn’t have withdrawn the post. (As I said, I almost never do that.) I just felt it wasn’t up to my usual flinty standards of pith and accuracy, and I didn’t feel like bickering about it.

    Posted September 12, 2024 at 9:44 am | Permalink

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