Lesson 7

Both House and Senate negotiators today approved sweeping immigration legislation that could grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who entered the country before 1982. The bill, as worked out in five hours of closed-door negotiations, would establish a system of fines against employers who hire illegal immigrants. It would also make those who came to the US illegally but have established roots in this country eligible for amnesty.

The Supreme Court today agreed to decide if Illinois can require minors wanting abortions to notify their parents or obtain judicial consent. The justices will review the decision striking down a 1983 law, which required some girls to wait twenty-four hours after telling their parents they wanted an abortion.

It was announced today that the winner of this year's Noble Peace Prize is Elie Wiesel. He has written twenty-five books on his experiences in a Nazi prison of war camp and on the Holocaust. And he's been a human rights activist for thirty years. NPR's Mike Shuster reports. "Wiesel was sleeping in his Manhattan apartment when he received the word at five o'clock this morning from the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway. Wiesel said he was flabbergasted at the news, and later at a press conference, he said he would dedicate his Prize to the survivors of the Holocaust and their children. "The honor is not mine alone. It belongs to all the survivors who have tried to do something with their pain, with their memory, with their silence, with their life." Wiesel, fifty-eight, is a native of Rumania. As a teenager, he and his family were sent to a Nazi death camp. He and two sisters survived; his mother, father, and younger sister did not. After the War, Wiesel went first to France, then to the United States. He is credited with the first use of the word 'Holocaust' to describe the Nazi extermination of the Jews."

News In Detail

A House-Senate Conference Committee has agreed to an immigration reform bill. The measure, which had died in the final days of the last two Congresses, now looks as though it will become law. NPR's Cokie Roberts reports.
One of the chief advocates of the immigration bill, New York Democrat Charles Schumer, says that this year immigration became a white hat issue, that the forces fighting against the measures finally had a force on the opposite side of equal rate public opinion. The opponents of immigration reform have always been many: Hispanics in Congress and in the country have opposed the part of the bill most lawmakers consider key—punishment for employers who knowingly hire illegals. The measure, passed at a conference today, would provide civil penalties and criminal penalties for those who repeatedly hire illegal aliens. Hispanics worry the employer sanctions would cause discrimination against anyone with an accent or Spanish name, whether legal or not. The new bill includes strong anti-discrimination language for employers who do refuse to hire any Hispanics while still allowing someone to hire a citizen before an alien. To appease Hispanics and others, the immigration bill includes amnesty for aliens who have been in this country for five years. Many border state representatives fought against the legalization provisions, saying that millions of people could eventually become citizens and bring their relatives to this country. All those people could bankrupt the state's social services, said the representatives, but the idea of deporting all of those people seemed impractical as well as inhumane to most members of Congress. And aliens who came to this country before 1982 will be able to apply for legalization. The other major controversial area of the immigration bill is the farm worker program. Agricultural interests wanted to be able to bring workers into this country to harvest crops without being subjected to employer sanctions, but the trade unions opposed this section of the bill. Finally, a compromise was reached where up to three hundred and fifty thousand farm workers could come into this country, but their rights would be protected and they would also be able to apply for legalization if they met certain conditions. The elements of the final immigration package have been there all along, but this year, say the key lawmakers around this legislation, the Congress was ready to act on them. The combination of horror stories about people coming over the borders and editorials about congressional inability to act made members of Congress decide the time had come to enact immigration reform. But supporters of reform warn the end is not here yet. The conference report must still pass both houses of Congress, and a Senatefilibuster is always a possibility. I'm Cokie Roberts at the Capitol.

Special Report

Many photography shops are quite busy this time of the year. People back from vacation are dropping off rolls of film and hoping for the best. But commentator Tom Baudet learned a long time ago he was better off not hoping.
I've been told that I take lousy pictures. It's not that my shots aren't technically OK; it's just that my pictures seem to bring out the worst in people. I hope that's not a sign of something. I usually end up throwing half the pictures I take. It's not that they're deceiving. Not at all; they're just too honest. It's true what they say that a camera never lies, but you certainly can lie to a camera. We do it all the time; at least we exaggerate a little to a lens. The first thing you'll usually hear when you point a camera at someone is, "Wait, I'm not ready." Well, so you wait while they brush the crumbs off their chin, put out a cigarette, or throw an arm around the person next to them like they've been standing that way all day. Well, you get your picture, but it's blown all out of proportion. Everybody's having a little more fun than they really were and liking each other more than they actually do. We're all guilty of this one time or another. You're with your sweetheart travelling somewhere. You've been walking and complaining about the price of the room, the blister on your heel and the rude waitress at the cafe. But then, you stop somebody on the street, hand them your camera, and put on your very best having-a-wonderful-time smile. Well, ten years later you'll look at that picture in a scrapbook and remember what a great trip it was, whether it was or not. For it's natural thing to do: plant little seeds of contentment in our lives in case we doubt we ever had any. Well, it's good practice to take an opportunity to mug up [微软用户1]  to a camera. There never seems to be a camera around for the real special times: that make-up embrace after a long and dangerous discussion, the look on your face as you hold the phone and hear you got that promotion, the quiet ride home from the hospital after learning those suspicious lumps were benign and something to watch but not worry about. Those are the memories that should be preserved, to be remembered and relied upon when harder times take hold. Those times when a photographer like me will catch you at a party with a loneliness on your face that you didn't think would show or bitterness tugging at your lips during a conversation you didn't intend to be overheard. Well, we all slip up like this sometimes, and sooner or later we get caught with our guards down. I think that's why I end up with pictures like that, I like it when people leave their guards down. We all know our best sides, and it's nice to keep that face forward whenever we can. But I don't mind having pictures of the other sides. Either way they all look just like people to me.
Writer Tom Baudet. He lives in Homer, Alaska.