In the fall of 2012, an elderly California man named Jay Leone found himself the victim of a home invasion. As he sat, ordered to stay still as the thief rifled through his things, the man remembered he had a gun in the bathroom.

Leone convinced the thief—a drug addict felon named Samuel Cutrufelli—to let him use the bathroom, and was able to retrieve a .357 revolver. When Leone came out with the gun, Cutrufelli shot first, striking the 90 year old in the cheek.

Leone promptly fired back.

Cutrufelli grabbed Leone’s gun, placed it to Leone’s head, and pulled the trigger. Thankfully, Leone’s shots had already emptied the gun.

Believe it or not, the criminal had the unmitigated gall to sue Leone for negligence. Samuel Cutrufelli was eventually found “guilty of robbery, burglary, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, illegal possession of a firearm, possession of stolen property and two counts of attempted murder,” and is currently serving a life sentence.

Any other outcome—especially had any judge ruled in Cutrufelli’s favor in his idiotic negligence suite—would have been unimaginable.

Why?

Because you don’t reward bad behavior—you punish it.

And you don’t grant reparations to someone who injured themselves in process of breaking the law.

Keep that in mind as you consider that a sitting US congressman is calling for the government “compensate illegal immigrant families separated at the border.”

(Congressman Joe Crowley, for those unaware, is the guy who got whupped by 28 year old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in recent primaries.)

And no—let’s not start with the childish suggestion that I’m comparing innocent families to drug addicted violent felons like Samuel Cutrufelli. That’s not the point.

Here are a few guidelines to this conversation:

1. Crossing the border without permission is illegal. Because laws.
2. When you break the law and refuse to stop breaking the law, you must be processed through the legal system. Because laws.
3. Children aren’t being cruelly ripped from pleading mothers’ arms for kicks and giggles. Remember: “separation happens only if officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the child’s parent, or is a threat to the child, or is put into criminal proceedings [i.e. those who won’t go back voluntarily]” because again, laws.

So what we have here is a simple case of people breaking the law, and subsequently being uncomfortable with the consequences of that act.

And Congressman Crowley wants the American people to hand over tax payer money to make them feel better.

Sort of like how Samuel Cutrufelli broke into a home that wasn’t his, took what wasn’t his, harmed another human being—and then demanded reparations because he didn’t like what happened to him.

(And yes, again, I get that it’s not exactly, 100%, totally the same thing. Move on.)

Look, I wrote before that I hated the idea of a young child being separated from his or her parents since that poor child didn’t do anything wrong of their own volition.

But once again, that’s not the point.

The point is that there’s a general idea among the global community (as well as the American Left) that the United States should somehow always and forever be the unquestionable benefactor to the rest of the world. Before we go any further, let me give you a few stats on just how much the world already benefits from the United States. Keep in mind, we account for just 4.3 percent of the population of the ENTIRE WORLD, and yet:

• We are the largest financial backer to the United Nations, funding 22 percent of its entire budget.
• The United States also funds just over 22 percent (1 to be precise) of NATO’s budget.
• We provide tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid annually to over 120 countries (for reference, there are 195 recognized countries in the world) to assist with economic growth, health programs, the World Bank, humanitarian aid, and more.
• From World War I through the War on Terror, we’ve given hundreds of thousands of American lives not only in defense of our own interests, but in defense of freedom around the world.

But yes, please tell me more about how unfair, mean and selfish we are for suggesting people follow our laws… and how further unfair, mean and selfish we are for exacting consequences on those who don’t.

Tell me more about how we’re supposed to give all this to the entire world and yet stand aside as our laws are trampled upon, as our citizens are senselessly killed by the miscreants that also cross the border with those who are simply seeking a better life.

Look, I’m a mother. I’m a mother to two wonderful children who had the incomparable blessing of being born here. So I get exactly why people want to come here.

Frankly I wish everyone who needs a better life could come live this dream too.  But we all know that’s not realistic. And we certainly can’t sacrifice our laws (and pay people for breaking them) just because we feel bad.

Unfortunately, too many countries (many of which receive chunks of the aforementioned aid) continue down the same tired paths of corruption, collectivism, and big government. They continue to abide by policies that spawn poverty and violence—the very things people want to come here and escape.

 

A few weeks ago Mexico elected Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an outspoken and controversial socialist, as their next president. A staunch critic of “AMLO” (as he’s known), I was a stunned to hear his acceptance speech contained talk of making Mexico a place people didn’t want to leave. Now, I don’t pretend to think his redistributive policies have a prayer of doing that, but that’s beside the point.

Why don’t countries—instead of demanding that we accept their people while continuing to accept our aid money—actually DO something about the problems that are causing people to leave in the first place?

It’s a thought.

So no, we don’t owe the world anything. But yet we have, we are, and we continue to share what our freedom has given us with the less fortunate around us.

Do us the relatively small favor of respecting our laws.