In Chapter 16 of Leviticus, Aaron, the brother of Moses, gets two goats. On one of them he piles all the sins of the children of Israel and sends that goat into the wilderness. According to Verse 22, “And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” That goat is labeled the “scapegoat.”
I thought of that poor goat when I read about Rep. Heffley’s proposed legislation regarding Access cards and undocumented immigrants. I’m not sure how big a problem this is, but it seems to be limited to one incident in the town of Beaver Meadows. At least that is what all the press releases keep referring to. Nevertheless we can pile all our sins--unemployment, crime, bilingual education, welfare fraud--on that Latino goat.
If you ranked all of the problems faced by the people of Carbon County, I believe that misuse of Access cards would be far down the list. Nonetheless, undocumented workers make an excellent scapegoat. Like the goat, they can’t fight back.k
Rep. Heffley may very well ride this issue to reelection. Certainly Congressman Barletta used attacks on immigrants without papers to his advantage. It works, but it is a despicable tactic.
No comments:
Post a Comment