Blarney from Kenney on St. Patrick’s

The Irish have a well-deserved reputation as story-tellers and when you hear a story in a saloon, you expect some blarney.

You expect better from the top elected official in Philadelphia.

At Thursday's solemn remembrance of the Irish migration, Mayor Jim Kenney could not resist spreading the blarney.

He has told the tale before, the tale has been revealed to be false, and since he keeps repeating it, that makes it a lie.

"They didn't have papers," he said of long-ago Irish immigrants. "They were undocumented immigrants who no one wanted, and were told to go back where we came from."

He uses that as a (false) parallel to the illegal immigrants of today.

In his desperation to justify illegal behavior, Big Jim Kenney again disrespects his own grandparents, and mine, who probably arrived around the same time, pre-World War I. His were escaping the Great Famine that killed 1 million, while mine escaped despots who killed Jews for sport.

There is a Yiddish saying: "A half-truth is a whole lie." Kenney is lying.

He doesn't claim his grandparents "lived in the shadows" after they arrived here. They didn't. Nor did mine.

Why?

Because they came here legally under the law at the time.

When they arrived at the port of entry, New York's Ellis Island for most of them, they stopped, they were questioned, they were examined for medical problems and many were sent back.

After checking in at the front door – pay attention, Big Jim – they received, yes, documents, their papers. They were documented. To call them "undocumented" is a lie.

His and my grandparents stopped at the border and checked in. Today's illegal immigrants don't do that.

In his remarks, Big Jim told another whopper about today's undocmented: "'Cause they're poor, downtrodden, politically and religiously oppressed, and this is the only place in the world, where they can find safe harbor."

Only place? He's never heard of Canada, Australia, Central America, Europe? Blarney.

Religiously or politically oppressed in democratic Mexico? Blarney.

How about Canada, Ireland and Israel? We have undocumented (white) people from those countries, too. Blarney.

Except for war refugees and those seeking political asylum – a small number – most of the undocumented come here for the higher pay and a better life. There is nothing wrong with that.

What is wrong is selfishly placing their wants over our laws. If they want to come here, let them take a number and wait their turn like the almost 1 million immigrants the United States admits each year, more than any other nation on earth.

They should line up, take a number and wait their turn.

Just like my grandparents – and Big Jim Kenney's.