Arizona and the Minuteman Project...
My Dad is a part of a group of men who volunteer their time to patrol the U.S. border in Arizona. When he started doing this over a year ago, I thought he was crazy. What the hell was a retired, Harvard PhD. chemist doing with a handgun strapped to his hip out in the Arizona desert looking for Mexicans? It just sounds dumb... at least at first. I decided to step outside of my box and think seriously, point-for-point, what he was doing and about his cause.
Originally, I saw this group as a vigilante rag-tag bunch of conservative men who are (thankfully) too old to enlist in the military, but too bored at home to spend 24 hours a day with their wives and family. They need something to do - something worthy enough to label it as a "cause" and fun enough to involve weapons. So, they think about what really pisses them off, I mean what REALLY makes them tick. Mexicans! But they can't go on the record saying that, so they call it "illegal immigration." "Ok, we have the cause, now, we've got to get the guns involved." Enter, Arizona. The open carry laws in Arizona are some of the most lax in the country, so don't come into the Minuteman Project with a handgun, bring a rifle too!
This is how I used to think... now I feel quite differently about the topic. My opinion of the people involved, based on what I know of one of them and have read of the others remains. I think they still dream of the "good wars" and wish they had an opportunity to fight in them. I think they have an obsession not only with guns, tanks, bombs, or anything else that kills, but they have a fear of the unknown and feel that these things are the only way they can protect themselves and their country. Another debate for another blog...
But I stand beside these men considering the cause. Not "their" cause, but a cause all Americans should support. Illegal immigration, as productive as it may be for lowering consumer costs, agriculture prices, etc. is still illegal. We have laws to keep it from happening, regardless of any other benefit. For the last 20+ years the executive branch of government has turned a blind eye to the borders. Whether it be for political gain, lack of funds, lack of understanding of the problem, it is happening. It is causing neighborhoods in the southwest near the border become infiltrated with trespassers. Illegal immigrants camping on the lawns of property owners, dealing drugs in their yards, destroying their property. How? Because we let them. With one border patrol agent per tens of miles of border, how can the federal and local systems keep up with the staggering numbers of those coming to America for better lives and drug profits? No one here is willing to pay for the people needed to stop the problem, so my Dad, with others, has to do it for us.
Now, with a thousand volunteers doing a job for free, it's unlikely for a national interest to be created to start funding the INS and other programs to replace the Minuteman Project. Too many rich people are getting richer because of the lack of real border control in the southwest. Think of all that cheap labor we'd be missing out on. It's a shame that America has come to this. Allowing people who aren't even citizens break U.S. laws to enter this country illegally, not be documented, not have background checks, with us not able to decide, "should we allow this person to do this?" Maybe we should start a nationwide campaign to promote illegal immigrants to buy guns at Wal-Mart. Then at least we could figure who's here.
On a more serious note, I've been reading the 9/11 Commission report. It's scary, downright SCARY how easy it has been for people to illegally enter the U.S. with falsified documents and forged passports to commit terrorist acts in our homeland. Thanks to the Patriot Act we've tried to solve some of those problems (and create others, but again, another argument for another blog) with billions of dollars and an oppressive regime of our own, but still no effort to close our southern border from people just walking across it. If these people tried to fly across they'd be stopped before they got in the airport, but they can just walk to Arizona and sleep in an American's barn on an American's property.
Too much groveling for votes, I think. Dubbyuh and his people want more Latin votes, so they talk about opening borders and giving amnesty to illegals... and letting them VOTE! Letting the get drivers licenses! They are promoting this illegal behavior of walking to America... unacceptable!
People should help fight for those Americans in Arizona losing their OWN amnesty from illegal invasion. We should NOT support illegal immigration. It should NOT take 1000 yuppies like my Dad to solve this problem. Increased border patrol and local law enforcement will solve this problem. We need them to protect our rights as citizens in this country and to protect those who are being overwhelmed by those illegally crossing our southern border.
Originally, I saw this group as a vigilante rag-tag bunch of conservative men who are (thankfully) too old to enlist in the military, but too bored at home to spend 24 hours a day with their wives and family. They need something to do - something worthy enough to label it as a "cause" and fun enough to involve weapons. So, they think about what really pisses them off, I mean what REALLY makes them tick. Mexicans! But they can't go on the record saying that, so they call it "illegal immigration." "Ok, we have the cause, now, we've got to get the guns involved." Enter, Arizona. The open carry laws in Arizona are some of the most lax in the country, so don't come into the Minuteman Project with a handgun, bring a rifle too!
This is how I used to think... now I feel quite differently about the topic. My opinion of the people involved, based on what I know of one of them and have read of the others remains. I think they still dream of the "good wars" and wish they had an opportunity to fight in them. I think they have an obsession not only with guns, tanks, bombs, or anything else that kills, but they have a fear of the unknown and feel that these things are the only way they can protect themselves and their country. Another debate for another blog...
But I stand beside these men considering the cause. Not "their" cause, but a cause all Americans should support. Illegal immigration, as productive as it may be for lowering consumer costs, agriculture prices, etc. is still illegal. We have laws to keep it from happening, regardless of any other benefit. For the last 20+ years the executive branch of government has turned a blind eye to the borders. Whether it be for political gain, lack of funds, lack of understanding of the problem, it is happening. It is causing neighborhoods in the southwest near the border become infiltrated with trespassers. Illegal immigrants camping on the lawns of property owners, dealing drugs in their yards, destroying their property. How? Because we let them. With one border patrol agent per tens of miles of border, how can the federal and local systems keep up with the staggering numbers of those coming to America for better lives and drug profits? No one here is willing to pay for the people needed to stop the problem, so my Dad, with others, has to do it for us.
Now, with a thousand volunteers doing a job for free, it's unlikely for a national interest to be created to start funding the INS and other programs to replace the Minuteman Project. Too many rich people are getting richer because of the lack of real border control in the southwest. Think of all that cheap labor we'd be missing out on. It's a shame that America has come to this. Allowing people who aren't even citizens break U.S. laws to enter this country illegally, not be documented, not have background checks, with us not able to decide, "should we allow this person to do this?" Maybe we should start a nationwide campaign to promote illegal immigrants to buy guns at Wal-Mart. Then at least we could figure who's here.
On a more serious note, I've been reading the 9/11 Commission report. It's scary, downright SCARY how easy it has been for people to illegally enter the U.S. with falsified documents and forged passports to commit terrorist acts in our homeland. Thanks to the Patriot Act we've tried to solve some of those problems (and create others, but again, another argument for another blog) with billions of dollars and an oppressive regime of our own, but still no effort to close our southern border from people just walking across it. If these people tried to fly across they'd be stopped before they got in the airport, but they can just walk to Arizona and sleep in an American's barn on an American's property.
Too much groveling for votes, I think. Dubbyuh and his people want more Latin votes, so they talk about opening borders and giving amnesty to illegals... and letting them VOTE! Letting the get drivers licenses! They are promoting this illegal behavior of walking to America... unacceptable!
People should help fight for those Americans in Arizona losing their OWN amnesty from illegal invasion. We should NOT support illegal immigration. It should NOT take 1000 yuppies like my Dad to solve this problem. Increased border patrol and local law enforcement will solve this problem. We need them to protect our rights as citizens in this country and to protect those who are being overwhelmed by those illegally crossing our southern border.
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