Hapless souls chasing rainbows

Illegal immigration now covers a large segment of our news items served up by the media. However, John Q. Public sees this reportage as being worrisome.

We already have too many unemployed in our midst and the employed are becoming edgy figuring the cost of catering to thousands of illegals will be passed on to them, one way or another. Meanwhile politicians don't seem to be overly concerned as most will already be counting the future votes they might reap.

We are not alone in this recent phenomena of masses of impoverished people fleeing their lands with only the shirts on their backs. Industrialized nations like France, Italy, England and Germany also have to deal with this influx of uninvited immigrants on a daily basis.

For France and England this proves to be a double-edged sword as many come from colonies they once ruled and thusly have dual citizenship. Germany's once vibrant economy is down to a 32 hour workweek to minimize mass unemployment and Italy has to spend millions upon millions on sea patrols to safely ferry in many overloaded floundering refuge boats to their shores and provide housing to keep them off the streets. This does not bode well with some 25 percent of Italian youth who presently find it difficult to enter the job market after graduation.

A more reasonable approach to solving this problem might be if the industrialized nations of the world would all lock arms together funding programs updating the local economies of the areas these hapless souls are fleeing from but all too often winding up chasing rainbows for that better tomorrow that does not yet exist elsewhere either.

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale