Boomerangs are fascinating tools. They have been around tens of thousands of years. There are rocks carved with depictions of boomerangs being tossed at animals by Aboriginals in the north central Kimberly region of Australia as long as 50,000 years ago. Boomerangs have also been found in ancient Europe, Africa, and North America. They are a fascinating tool, particularly those designed to return to the thrower.
How does that happen? A returning boomerang functions as a rotating wing, designed with two or more arms, essentially wings, joined at an angle. The flat wings are further shaped as airfoils which facilitate the lift they require to fly through the air. Their unique structure brings them home to the thrower. Boomerangs reliably come back at you.
Boomerangs are not common in our society, although they can be used in sports competitions, for flushing game on a hunt, or just for backyard fun. But these are not the only types of boomerangs that we see flying about these days. There is a political and policy version that has all the potential to fly back in one’s face when carelessly tossed. We see these frequently.
Consider our social policy. When Social Security was passed, it was designed to provide a retirement income for low-wage people. It has become a program that provides extensive benefits to nonretired people including survivor and disability benefits, a provision that has exploded social spending. And now we have taken Medicaid—a program designed to provide healthcare to the needy—and extended that to able-bodied men and women who can work, but do not, preferring to remain on the dole. Do-gooding comes flying back at us with a price.
Political boomerangs are also prevalent in spending by politicians who like to waste the nation’s gelt on anything they think will garner votes in their next election. Politicians love spending other people’s money so they can continue to receive exceedingly generous pay and benefits at public expense. Moreover, they have found that when they throw money at voters, it returns faithfully as a re-election contribution. Such a boomerang flies through our pocketbooks on the way back to fat cat politicians.
Alarmingly we see political boomerangs in the rampant illegal invasion of our country by people who break the law entering the U.S. Illegal immigration is the result of salutary neglect, which is a deliberate failure to enforce the laws on the books that prohibit illegal entry into America. Those sympathetic to the plight of people in underdeveloped countries now think those weary ones have an inherent right to enter the US simply to escape their sad circumstances. They are right to be sympathetic. They are wrong to ignore the immigration laws on the books. One state is seeing that clearly, these days.
Forty years ago, Democrat Governor Michael Dukakis signed into law Massachusetts’ “right-to-shelter” statute. It’s the only one of its kind in America and requires state officials to expedite sheltering and provisions to homeless parents with children and pregnant women, Recently, a large influx of illegal immigrants arrived in Massachusetts. The law was not designed to accommodate people who come here illegally and explicitly excludes homeless individuals. Nevertheless, it is now being interpreted to include those who broke the law entering the U.S. Designed to do good, it now has flown back in the face of Massachusetts citizens. One might say no good deed goes unpunished. Others might conclude be careful what you wish for.
But now the Bay State’s do-gooders are not doing so good after all. They’re overwhelmed by illegal aliens who swarmed into Texas, were bused to New York City, and now have spilled over the Massachusetts state line, provoking Democrat Governor Maura Healey to called out the National Guard to restore order.
Texans have had quite enough lecturing from open-border Democrats in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, DC. So, they’ve decided to share some of their misery with the very people who regard open borders as a virtue, not a vice. Now both New York and Massachusetts find themselves in a mechanical vise of sorts with the pressure increasing daily with every turn of the handle. They whine for more federal aid. They accuse—reflexively—the Governor of Texas of racism and insanity. They seem to have forgotten that they are the ones who advocated for open borders and were decisive in electing a President who has flung that boomerang into the air. They now find themselves to be border states in every sense of the word. The boomerang is returning with a boom.
Open border advocates are frustrated that immigration laws make it inconvenient to achieve their cynical and irresponsible political objectives. But when you elect people who ignore the law, that can boomerang back to you with unforgiving fury.
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