U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
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/ .
I ususally only come with 1 amazingly brilliant thought at a time.
To this writer, George Thomas Clark:
I'm not worried about 99% of the illegals. I'm concerned about the 1% who are convicts and terrorists.
Because it isn't about Mexicans taking menial labor jobs. It's about border security from terrorists. More straw for the Scarecrow. [whistle] "If he only had a brain"
Trying to disrupt another thread Dane?
Ping to HiJinx.
"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."
That's one of the goals of the minutemen.
Remember, you took the first shot. Now you can't complain when the 'frothing mouth minutemen supporters' take potshots at you.
U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
Ignore Dane MEGoody and it'll go away. It's just here to disrupt the discussion. Disengage.
Take it out in cheap labor to build a secure twenty foot high, concertina wire topped, whoppin, illegal stoppin fence.
The Berlin wall was intended to keep people IN not out.
It was erected by communists to enslave their people. A wall on the border here would only direct the so-called immigrants to the ports of entry where, if they are not criminals and drug smugglers, may apply for entry legally.
"As far as illegals being here to pick tomatoes and such, that's what I did when I was 16. Summer jobs on farms. Hard work. Learning what it meant to do a hard day's work and be rewarded for it with a paycheck. Stuff today's youth are not learning."
Same here, picking rocks and baling hay. During the winter I often went to the farm and fed calves at 4 AM.
Wrong analogy. The Berlin Wall was designed to keep people IN. A US-Mexico wall would be designed to keep (illegal) people OUT.
What about the other %'s that are on welfare popping out anchor babies or the one's that are bankrupting many hospitals across the country and forcing our premiums up so high or the reconquista agents filtering into politics with the only thing in mind of "furthering their community", etc? We're in the process of committing national suicide with the borders being so porous.
Correct, and it appears many people have a difficult time recognizing that distinction. The Israelis have such a barrier, and terrorist incidents have plummetted in Israel since it was built.
Ouch! And this opinion is based on what? Hard to take anything else the guy has to say seriously after that falsehood.
...but rarely achieved.
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