The President's Speechwriter

Over at the website of Reform Immigration FOR America, they're inviting people to suggest what they'd like to hear President Obama say in his address about immigration tomorrow.

I couldn't resist:

I'd like the president to say:

No human being is illegal. People residing in the U.S. without legal authority to be here are still our brothers and sisters. Their immigration status violates the law, but they, themselves, ought not to be called 'illegal aliens'. It's a dehumanizing phrase that packs a double-wallop. 'Illegal'. 'Alien'. Whatever else I accomplish here today, I'd like to banish that phrase from our public discourse. Words matter. These words are unworthy.

I'd also like the president to say:

Every wave of voluntary immigrants to this nation's shores have enriched America. They've weaved themselves into our great American tapestry. They've helped create what it means to BE American.

My wife Michelle, and our children, Sasha and Malia, are descendants of IN-voluntary immigrants. Slaves. They were, by the laws of the day, not people at all, but mere chattel property. They were dehumanized. President Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, helped fix that. Nearly 150 years later, we're still working at the task.

But let no one gainsay this, Michelle's great-great-grandparents, and the waves of Affrican Americans who came here as they did --- and their children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren --- have enriched America in ways beyond compare. They've weaved themselves into our great American tapestry. They, too, have helped create what it means to BE American.

Finally, I'd like the president to say:

You'll never believe this, but I got most of the best lines in my speech from the blog over at the website of an organization called "Reform Immigragtion FOR America". It's at www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org. Check it out.