Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

That’s so funny, oh wait, no it’s not

On Oct. 15 The New York Times reported on the solutions that Republican candidates Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann are proposing to address the illegal immigration issue. The details for those proposed solutions were alarming.

Bachmann’s solution was to make English the official language, build a double fence and eliminate “taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens.”

Cain’s solutions were more unorthodox. He wanted to build an electrified fence along the Mexico-U.S. border that would kill people who tried to cross it. Cain’s other solution was to use troops “with real guns and real bullets” at U.S. borders to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country.

A day later, The New York Times reported that Cain said he was only joking about the fence and that “the American people needed to get a ‘sense of humor.'”

The American people have a sense of humor; they will laugh when something is funny. An electrical fence that has the capacity to kill those trying to get through is just not funny.

In Arizona the number of deaths in 2010 along their border with Mexico was 252, and since 2001 2,160 have died. When there is so much death along the border why increase that amount?

We need to treat all human life with respect even if we don’t agree with the choices that these immigrants make. Laughing about death may seem normal to Cain, but a lesson in ettiquette would teach him when to make jokes about serious issues and when to refrain.

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