While struggling to come up with a title for my response to Steve Denson’s cheap shot at the Young Conservatives of Texas in Wednesday’s issue of The Daily Campus, a sudden but elementary realization came over me: Denson rhymes with Henson. While I enjoy reading Professor George Henson’s writing, I share the view of many others on this campus that his words are anything but optimistic about both the present and future of our country.

In his Op/Ed piece Wednesday, Steve Denson referred to the Young Conservatives of Texas as “the junior league of the KKK.” Regardless of your political ideology, statements such as these have no place in SMU’s daily publication. If Joel Sartain’s piece last week inspired such a high level of controversy regarding bigotry and hate speech, I expect an equally strong response to this one.

Before you read any further, step back and think about Denson’s comparison. From his perspective, members of YCT will soon be marching around campus in white robes performing hateful rituals directed at minority students. While YCT failed in their efforts to change the rules governing the race based Student Senate seats, their desire to advance a certain political agenda bears little comparison to a vehemently white supremacist organization that uses far more violent measures to demonstrate their beliefs.

To continue Denson’s discussion of immigration, I have been impressed with the untold numbers of Hispanics who have suddenly taken an interest in the workings of our government. I am willing to accept the reality that many of the goods and services we take for granted are relatively cheap due largely to the contributions of immigrant labor. However, the mass media has ignored what Gustavo A. Bujanda referred to as “the colossal failure of the Mexican government” in a recent Dallas Morning News editorial. No matter how troubled or impoverished their lives may be in the United States, countless Mexican citizens have already voted against their country and way of life with their feet — by making the treacherous journey north to find a far better life here in the United States. The mass exodus on our hands today reflects the lack of opportunities for Mexicans to use their skills to the benefit of their own country’s economy.

Denson’s proposal to strengthen alliances with neighboring countries sounds fine in principle, but the fact remains that the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States saw little or no future in their homeland, whether that be in Mexico or another part of the world. The situation today remains the way it was years ago when the Statue of Liberty first went up in New York Harbor — The United States of America remains the most open and inviting society to foreign immigrants on the planet.

My optimism and pride also come with an acceptance of reality about the necessity of immigration reform. I welcome the many hard working Mexicans seeking employment and a better life outside of their homeland as long as they pay for the social services they use. Mexicans working in the United States send $20 billion per year to their relatives and friends back home, translating to a tax-free drain on the United States economy. I figure it is not too much to ask that immigrants remain crime free and making a legitimate effort to assimilate themselves and their families by learning English and subscribing to the American way of life in a similar manner to previous generations of immigrants.

I will conclude this column with a request directed at the man I mentioned in the first paragraph, Professor George Henson. As a lifelong conservative, I appreciate his efforts to keep me and many other SMU students questioning how we view ourselves politically. I alluded to the often negative and pessimistic nature of his columns and I find myself wondering what Professor Henson looks forward to each day. I would love to see a Henson column about what our generation has to be excited about for our future as voting, tax paying American citizens. Could it be a shift to a Democratic majority in Congress in this November’s elections? How about a resounding victory by Democrats in 2008?

Like SMU’s angry —ensons, I look forward to what others have to offer.

Kyle Snyder is a junior finance major. He can be reached at [email protected].