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Sensitivity in an Age of Terror
By Doug Patton
June 3, 2002

Robert Kirk is suing his old employer. He claims he was fired from his job for doing it too well, and he is asking the courts to award him compensation for lost wages and job retraining.

Kirk was not a soldier serving in Afghanistan, nor was he an agent of the CIA, the FBI or the INS. Yet he was one of thousands of Americans who were serving as our first line of defense in the war on terror before most of us knew there was a war on terror.

In another tale of political correctness run amuck, Bob Kirk was fired nearly two years ago from his position as a state driver's license examiner in Hastings, Nebraska. The reason? He spotted too many fake identification papers used by illegal aliens to obtain Nebraska driver's licenses.

He says it was easy. Some illegals, he says, came right out and admitted that they had bought copies of someone else's social security card. Many applicants couldn't match birth dates or other data on their identification papers, while other documents couldn't pass the special "light test" used to detect bogus credentials.

Bob Kirk estimates that 70 percent of the Hispanics who came to his office carried fake IDs. By now you have probably guessed that Kirk was fired for "targeting people of color" for special scrutiny.

In his lawsuit against the state, Kirk claims that his supervisors ordered him to stop checking the validity of documents.

"You will not require proof of residency from applicants unless you know the address does not exist," wrote one supervisor in a memo. Even in a town of 25,000 people, that is code language for "rubber-stamp the Mexicans and other non-whites."

Kirk claims the state was "aiding and abetting illegals" in order to help supply local meat packing plants with cheap labor. Of course, this charge is being denied by state officials, who claim that "treating people equally" is just as important a component of the job as checking the authenticity of identification papers.

All 90 of Nebraska's state driver's license examiners have been forced to attend sensitivity training. Meanwhile, Bob Kirk has endured obscene gestures, the vandalizing of his home and even an attempt to run him down with a car. So much for sensitivity.

If Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and the rest of the vermin who make up the "Axis of Evil" were able to design the perfect plan for the destruction of the United States, they could not devise anything better than the politically correct nonsense our own government leaders are imposing on us. Because, you see, the tale of Robert Kirk of Hastings, Nebraska, is not an anomaly. Rather, it is the tip of the iceberg.

While the civil liberties of law-abiding American citizens are being weakened with every new gun law or "Patriot Act," our bureaucrats throw out the red carpet to any person capable of driving, flying, walking or swimming here through our sieve-like borders.

While airport security personnel harass old ladies and children, the Arab with the one-way ticket and no luggage may just be overlooked in our never-ending quest to be fair and impartial.

And while we are forced to live among 300,000 illegal aliens already under deportation orders who cannot even be found, we are told daily to expect another major attack. It is inevitable, we are told. It could be chemical. It could be biological. It could even be nuclear. They really can't tell us because they really don't know. What they do know is that it is inevitable.

On September 12, 2001, President George W. Bush should have issued the following statement:

"Yesterday, the United States of America was the target of an unprovoked attack by Arab terrorists. We will not know for some time exactly how many thousands of our fellow citizens were murdered. As commander in chief of our military forces, charged with the security of this nation, and as head of the branch of your government responsible for enforcing the laws of our land, I am ordering, and I am asking the congress to approve, the following three measures: One, all illegal aliens within the borders of the United States of America will be arrested and deported to their country of origin. Two, all immigrants in the United States on temporary visas issued by an Arab nation will be deported. Three, all immigration to the United States is hereby suspended until further notice."

I suspect that Robert Kirk would have called that bold, decisive leadership. But then, it also would have been insensitive.