(June 18, 2009)  I begin writing this with some irritation, which indeed I should not, as I am preparing to discuss words of the Bible, the Old Testament, as Christians call it, which are holy as I understand it for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, though we may have different ways of referring to these scriptures and different translations.

I am irritated with with anti-immigration activists: those who say--what part of illegal don't you understand?

I would say first: what part of making laws don't you understand?  The basic idea in my opposition to your concept of laws as automatically legal is: people in power make the laws.  Many terrible groups, including Hitler and his party in Germany, and proslavery groups in the United States, have made laws that are offensive in retrospect and also were in the present to a prescient minority. For example  in the United States, slavery was legal, and oppression of slaves was harsh. Things have certainly gotten better since then with respect to slavery, but to what extent do you understand where we are going or should go with respect to our laws?

Secondly, I would say 'what part of the Bible don't you understand?'  I say this not in irritation, but as someone who  who thinks about the Bible and tries to follow its meaning.  Here is the quote from the Old Testament of the Bible, which I express in the hope that you will write Hunger Notes (hungernotes@verizon.net ) with your thoughts, which we will try to publish:

You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. - Exodus 23:9