<p>I think the McVeigh analogy is flawed. Many folks expressed opinions that were derogatory and stereotypical about McVeigh and the class of people they think he represented or belonged to; angry white male, alienated white Americans, small town anti-government redneck, racist survivalist etc.</p>
<p>The point is that people, including folks on CC, are at times quick to make conclusions, but those conclusions are not necessarily born of malice for the group, just malice for the bad act that a member of the group committed.</p>
<p>The difficulty, of course, is finding an effective way to screen immigrants so as to determine who are likely trouble makers and who are not. But, until that happens…</p>
<p>Oh, and I have no particular interest in an immigration policy that appears to allow our nation to be overrun with people who come here to get what they can and have no appreciation for the country itself or, it seems (every time we are affronted with these horrific acts), the citizens of it.</p>
<p>We do not need more people here for population sake, thank you very much, the proliferation of masses of people almost everywhere one goes convinces me of that. What we need is people to help keep this country strong and to make it even better – quality, not quantity. Quantity – that’s one age-old American ‘value’ that has yet to be discredited.</p>
<p>"I cannot believe that these two could put together all these bombs, store them, etc. And no one notice. Did they live alone, just the two of them? "</p>
<p>The big question is why? What makes these young men, who in many ways have their whole lives ahead of them, build a bunch of bombs and blew up a lot of people? This does not feel like the dysfunctional kids that did the Columbine shooting?</p>
<p>They did not live alone together. The 19 year old is a student who lives on campus at UMass-Dartmouth. He had friends. He captained his high school wrestling team here in the U.S. </p>
<p>It would have been really hard to pick these two out as ‘not normal’ and potential violent criminals. </p>
<p>We do need people to do the jobs, to create, not to mention the fact that immigrants participate in the workforce at a higher percentage and start more businesses per person than those of us who were born here.</p>
<p>But, I really don’t want to derail the thread. My humanity says, let people in. My logic says we need the ones who are already here, anyway, or they would have left.</p>
<p>Get rid of the criminals, but don’t brand every working immigrant with some sensationalist drivel. We have plenty of our own homegrown nuts, anyway.</p>
<p>Other people in the lives of these two have turned a blind eye. Like those around Holmes, Lanza, and the other young men who have done mass murder. The solution to all of this is for good people to do something. What did parents, friends and family know?</p>
<p>“We do not need more people here for population sake”
-Defifnitely not. Yes, being naive is never an innocent sport, it is very very dangerous. More so when most have chosen to be naive on their own. Actually the most of the country has chosen to be naive and believe that keeping the head under sand is a very safe idea. They forgot that one can suffocate…and this process has began, not only on immigration side, in ALL aspects of life. Got to pull your head out and up as high as possible, look around and assess the reality of the current situation,…very very bleak, much worse than it seems while keeping head in the sand.</p>
<p>I understand the normal human wish to protect yourself and be safe. I also support the 2nd Amendment. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that the MIT policeman was not killed with a pressure cooker; and the police did not have a shootout last night with a pressure cooker.</p>
<p>The younger brother was probably under 10 years old when he came here. Whatever happened in his life to lead him to do this – and my suspicion is that it was his older brother’s influence – happened here, not anywhere else, and could not possibly have been predicted at the time. There are plenty of people who were born right here who’ve done awful things. It really bothers me that this has turned into a discussion about immigration and immigrants.</p>
<p>You all know immigrants, right? Or 2nd or 3rd generation Americans, right? Many come and successfully contribute to our fabric. Many on this thread can probably recount their own family immigration tales. Okay? Not all bad. Not all doomed to mess things up.</p>
<p>Sounds like younger brother was really a very normal seeming student with friends and was around 8 when he came here. It really sounds like people were not ignoring signs. I’m getting this from friends of mine, not the news. I’d guess that if he went off the deep end it might have been after he graduated.</p>
Untrue. Since Monday I have heard many commentators suggesting that the bombings were probably the result of right-wing-fundamentalists (i.e. another Timothy McVeigh).</p>
<p>I have my views about US immigration policies and their enforcement, but I don’t see what that has to do with what happened in Boston. That the perps happen to be immigrants is not relevant to those views. Yes, immigrants can be and are criminals, as are any cross section of any group. </p>
<p>Haven’t we learned ANYTHING after putting Japanese in internment camps back in WW2?</p>