Lando 
Posted on 04/12/2005 11:54:47 AM PDT by Lando Lincoln
At this moment about five hundred volunteers for the Minuteman Project are in southern Arizona on a self-assigned, self-righteous, and utterly overwrought mission to “protect” the United States from impoverished Mexicans trying to enter this country on foot to perform hard tasks most Americans would never consider doing. Even the most ardent racists – and racism, more than national security, is fueling this demonstration – understand Mexicans would not come to the United States unless they were virtually assured of being hired by (usually white) employers seeking workers they can pay very little.
If the Minutemen really don’t want illegal immigrants to pick fruit and vegetables, and take care of Anglo babies, and clean their houses, then they should themselves perform the aforementioned and other unpleasant duties. Or, if they aren’t prepared for that – and evidently they are not – then they should use their zeal for citizen law enforcement to confront countless employers across this nation and compel them to stop hiring those without proper documentation. Step into the farm fields and announce the police have been called. By doing so, the Minutemen would initiate the capture of more illegal immigrants in an hour than they will in a projected one-month in Arizona. But they aren’t going to do that, either, are they?
What the Minutemen want most is attention, and they’re getting some, but fate has dealt them a bad inaugural week to compete for headlines: the Pope died, baseball season opened, Saul Bellow passed away, and Peter Jennings was diagnosed with lung cancer. The volunteer sentinels, who are disrupting the real United States Border Patrol by setting off underground sensors and tramping more footprints in the sand, probably won’t make much news unless someone – one of them or the other guys – is killed or wounded. The Minutemen swear that won’t happen. They’re actually a “neighborhood watch group along our border … that has no affiliation with separatists, racists, or supremacy groups.” Theirs “is not a call to arms but a call to voices seeking a peaceful and respectable resolve to the chaotic neglect” by politicians at all levels in “applying U.S. immigration law.”
They want everyone to know this “nation is governed by the rule of law,” and they’re sacrificing the “comforts of a cozy home” so they can do something to prevent their homeland from being “devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens.” If this isn’t stopped, the Minutemen warn that “future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures with no common bond to hold them together” which will lead to a “certain guarantee of the death of this nation as a harmonious melting pot.” Thus, people “will write about how a lax America … (sank) into a quagmire of mutual acrimony among various sub-nations that will comprise the new self-destructing America.”
Exhale, and note that the Minutemen have many more warnings but those above should suffice to convince everyone they are genuinely concerned and almost writhing about the current and future condition of the United States. Sincere people deserve a serious response. And I hereby assure the Minutemen – the vacationing vigilantes, not the Patriots who battled King George’s well-trained Red Coats – that the apocalypse is not upon us. I am qualified to offer such a guarantee. For many years I have taught English as a Second Language for adults, ninety percent of whom are from Mexico. I know the people, and they are unequivocally not ruining this country; they are building it with their hands and their backs and their hearts, the way immigrants in this country always have. They are also infusing their new land with energy and optimism. Often, I ask students if they miss Mexico, and most say not much. No disrespect to their native land, they simply love the opportunities and way of life here.
The primary issue, then, is not security but the rule of law. Immigration standards are indeed being violated, but not because the United States is indifferent. Last year, in fact, twenty thousand Border Patrol agents arrested more than a million illegal entrants. That’s impressive intervention, but for every person seized two got through – more than two million in 2004. Do the political and economic rulers of the United States consider that an invasion? Of course not. If they did, they’d put a lot more agents or soldiers along the two-thousand mile border with Mexico.
Let’s further clarify matters by stating what leaders of the United States and Mexico have long known, and what anyone with access to a map should also understand: the American Southwest is destined to be inhabited by millions more people of Hispanic origin. This is a mandate of geopolitics and history; the wealthier nation, which won the Mexican-American War and most desirable territory, is an inexorable magnet for those desperate for economic betterment. Their hot and often dangerous journeys on foot are comparable to the perilous voyages long ago from Europe. And Mexican immigrants, like their European predecessors, will not cease coming in great numbers until opportunities improve at home.
Despite widespread and understandable concern about broken laws and large influxes of illegal residents, most people in the United States do not feel personally threatened and probably won’t unless a major terrorist attack here is traced south of the border. That possibility must be acknowledged. Recent trends paint the picture. In 2003 about forty thousand people other-than-Mexicans – “OTM” – were arrested along the border. Many were from the Middle East and Asia. Last year the number jumped to sixty-five thousand. Almost all were doubtless coming for the same enterprising reasons as the Mexicans. But it would be naive and irresponsible to pretend Al-Qaeda and other criminal organizations aren’t trying to squeeze through a few deadly agents.
About the Writer: George Thomas Clark is the author of two books, Hitler Here, a biographical novel, and Outliving Flynn, a short story collection. Hitler Here will be published in India this year by Vasan Publications/Mastermind Books and in the Czech Republic by Mlada Fronta. The author's website is http://www.georgethomasclark.com/ .
Lando
The book must be as good as this article.
Even the most ardent racists – and racism, more than national security, is fueling this demonstration
And a strawman:
If the Minutemen really don’t want illegal immigrants to pick fruit and vegetables, and take care of Anglo babies, and clean their houses, then they should themselves perform the aforementioned and other unpleasant duties
And then mix up the reader well. Viola! - one slime milkshake.
Well, I am Mexican-American and I applaude the Minutemen! Were it not for some serious reasons (the conditions of my parole being foremost among them) I would be part of the project myself.
It is myopic liberals who immedeately view anyone opposed to illegal immigrants as a racist.
Anybody that has ever read a newspaper down here can tell you that those illegals are not all here to do honest work.
How could they possibly do that, as long as the competition doesn't have to follow the same rules?
Hey George Thomas Clark ~ Mexican isn't a race, just like American isn't a race ~ it's a nationality!
Both counties have many different races comprising their citizenry.
Stop the foreign invasion ~ NOW!
Be Ever Vigilant!
JMO, the word English word "civility" will be heard in Esapnol, amongst the frothing mouth minutemen supporters on FR.
The writer of this article is the racist. The minutemen are trying to protect America and American law, which is being violated by the economic (and actual) terrorists gate crashers.
C'mon folks ... this is all the USA's fault. If we were poorer than Mexico and had lost the Mexican-American War then we wouldn't have a problem will illegal immigration.
I wonder how this writer feels about the Great Wall in China?
Huh and not a word by you of the most evil wall in our modern times, the Berlin wall.
//thin scarasm.
I wish you would explain to those who have yet to see the light why the most ardent opponents of illegal immigration are Hispanic-Americans!
Rangers Up!
Semper Fi,
Kelly
"hard tasks most Americans would never consider doing."
Ugh, I'm so tired of this lie. As if no American would ever consider doing construction work.
1) There have been many thousands of "OTMs" (other-than-Mexicans) that have illegally entered out nation since 9/11, and many of them are from (Islamic) nations with ties to terrorism. Leftists / race-card players regularly ignore this fact.
2) Not all border-crossing Mexicans come here to mow lawns, pick grapes, and scrub toilets. .....far from it, in fact. There are over 600,000 illegal aliens incarcerated in U.S. prisons, costing the U.S. taxpayer almost $2 BILLION annually. So a disconcertingly high percentage of these people are criminals / gang members who came here with no intention of doing honest work.
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