February 2010

The good news is that State Senator Mike Delph's illegal immigration bill passed the State Senate 46-4. The bad news is that the House's committee leadership plans to kill the bill, like they've done year after year. Despite its enormous popularity, this bill has been tossed into the committee known as the "graveyard of unwanted bills".

According to Sen. Delph at the town hall meeting last night, the fate of the bill will probably be determined by this weekend. This means that you absolutely MUST call the office of your state representative TODAY and the office of the representative responsible for the committee it's stuck in.

1. Figure out who your representative is.

Use the District Lookup page at the state website to find your State Representative's phone number, email address, and mailing address.

2. Call your state representative AND Earl Harris.

Your legislator knows that Hoosiers want the bill passed. What he or she may not know is that you're not going to tolerate excuses for failure this time around. Don't merely ask him or her to support "Mike Delph's Illegal Immigration Bill". Ask your rep to personally ask Earl Harris to promise to "hear" this bill.

Script: I'm [Name], a registered voter in your district and I want to know how you plan to guarantee that Earl Harris hears Mike Delph's Illegal Immigration Bill. Can you promise to personally ask him to prioritize this very important bill?

Also call committeeman Earl Harris, the Democrat from East Chicago who controls the fate of this bill: (317) 232-9600. Ask him for a promise to send this bill to a vote. If you can, make a liberal working class argument for the bill: It will help working Hoosiers. It will keep wages and benefits up. Be polite but firm.

3. Email your state representative AND Earl Harris

Email your state representative. The point here isn't to convince the representative to be against illegal immigration. They know that. It is to convince him or her that:

• You're actually from his or her district
• You want results, not mere "support"
• You will be talking with friends and family about this issue
• You're personally affected by this bill
• You'll be following up until he or she succeeds

Email Earl Harris at h2@in.gov. Be polite to avoid a defensive reaction. Make no mistake. If he kills this bill, we at Hoosier Nation will see to it that every single one of his constituents knows that he personally caused the illegal immigration problem in Indiana to worsen. Even his very liberal constituents are against illegal immigration, but he may be betting that they won't be paying attention. At this stage in the game, we're politely asking him to "hear Mike Delph's illegal immigration bill".

4. Write your state representative AND Earl Harris

This may seem like overkill, but please also take the time to handwrite or personally type a letter noting your phone conversation and thanking him or her for doing what he or she can to get the bill heard and voted on. Taking all three of these steps is a time-consuming pain that can't be automated or faked. That's the point, though. They need to be convinced that we're both passionate and disciplined. They need to know that we're real people who are really upset and won't forget about this.

State Rep. Earl Harris 

Indiana House of Representatives

200 W. Washington St.

Indianapolis, IN 46204-2786

5. Call and email every adult Hoosier you know about this

Ask them to go to this website and follow the instructions, or even offer to help them through the steps. This part is the most important, since most Hoosier voters don't know that the fate of this very important bill hangs in the balance today. It's not like the media is going to inform them about it! Ask for a promise and follow up.

6. Join the Facebook Event

The success or failure of this initiative depends on whether it can go viral. Join the "Call Your State Rep about the Illegal Immigration Bill TODAY!" Facebook Event and invite your Hoosier friends and family to "attend". This is a great way to reach out to loved ones.

 I've never found a more simple and poetic refutation of modernity than this Kipling poem. For me, each stanza is a thought-provoking essay in itself. His characteristic style is accessible without being pedantic. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. -Matt Parrott

Published in October 1919 when the poet was 53 years old, "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" has proved enduringly popular, despite the fact that copybooks disappeared from schoolrooms in Britain and America during, or shortly after, World War 2.  A copybook was an exercise book used to practice one's handwriting in.  The pages were blank except for horizontal rulings and a printed specimen of perfect handwriting at the top.  You were supposed to copy this specimen all down the page.  The specimens were proverbs or quotations, or little commonplace hortatory or admonitory sayings—the ones in the poem illustrate the kind of thing.  These were the copybook headings.

- John Derbyshire

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four—
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!