The Border
On the TV in the evening, Lou Dobbs rants on about the illegals, they must be removed, they are lawbreakers and worse, why can’t the gumment do something. He fluffs up his feathers and gets cranky and self-righteous about it, shouting down his “guest” if disagreed with. Or worse, if the guest points out some of the realities of patrolling a border that is 1500 miles long, or the difficulties of rounding up 11 million people (how do they know how many?) and throwing them out.
It reminds me of language in the Alien and Sedition Acts of1798*, of Bostonians taking against the Irish, of the Irish Troubles, and that song that ends, “ And I don’t like anybody very much.
Here in SoCA, and in Texas the border is a joke. There is a 10’ metal fence on the more accessible area here in Campo, but the rest is just a bulldozed fire line. The Rio Grande in Big Bend was not secured either. Where there are main entry roads, there are processing areas, and inspection stations on the major roads, and the border patrol patrols. But there are miles and miles of rough country where there is nothing. In spite of stories of people rounded up or dying in the desert, and coming ashore with sad boats into the arms of the Federales, 11 million people had no problem hiking in, flying in or floating in.
This morning a group of trainees came through the train yards, learning how to search a train. The majority of the Border Patrol that I have seen look to be Hispanic which is ironic until I remember that they were here first, by centuries. I suspect that there are Hispanic families who have been around here since before the Mayflower, and have pedigrees that are more impressive than that lot of desperados.
When we pass through the checkpoints on the highway, I get a little tickle of fear. The BP guys just look at the old fart, the old bag, and the old dog in our white pickup, and wave us through. The massed police muscle of vehicles, weapons and possibly over zealous personnel gives me a moment of understanding how it must be to look Hispanic, or indeed to be any color besides WASP white. Will there come a time that WASPs are the minority? Will the majority of non whites decide to deport us as old, useless drains on their tax dollars, that refuse to learn their language and still insist on English in school?
I heard on the TV that a big lettuce producer here in SOCA has moved his operation to Mexico because it is getting harder and harder to find laborers to work his fields. It has been my experience in many places that the horrible jobs that producing food requires are done mostly by people who are Hispanic, and probably not legal. In ND and in KS these workers were clearly not local, and the language and cultural differences made the locals nervous. But when the only employer in the area depends on the illegals, making a scene about them is probably not sensible. Only folks who live away in the big cities and luxury suburbs, who don’t know who’s in the kitchens or in the trenches of our food chain can remain unaware of this.
Taking our jobs: Hardly, these jobs are minimum wage or less, physically strenuous and dangerous. And often seasonal, requiring a migrant population. And for all the mutterings I hear about people today being lazy and greedy, I have done some of these jobs and they are not something I want to do.
Filling up our schools: Since the illegals get a paycheck and the taxes are taken out, they are paying for school and any other services they might need. Not to mention the economic value of their labor to our economy, both local and national.
Illegals are criminals and terrorists: Known terrorists seem to have gotten into the US legally in many cases, and I doubt that the percentage of criminals among illegals is any higher than the poor and dispossessed who are “fortunate” enough to be US Citizens.
The real problem I suspect is fear aka racism. We can’t understand what they are saying, and their skin is so dark we can’t tell if they are dirty. And we don’t like Catholics very much anyway. I’m either too naive or have traveled too much to be afraid of people who are not WASPs and don’t speak English. The only way I can understand the fear is to think about how I feel about bears. I’m not afraid of the woods or animals, but bears, I don’t know about, and I don’t like them.
The other part of the problem is the gumment. 9-11 was a terrible thing for all those directly affected, but the secondary and probably more dangerous result is that in the US we now have first hand knowledge of what everyday life is like in most of the rest of the world. Bombs happen, and we don’t like it. After the initial shock wore off, we turned to the gumment and wondered how they, in their infinite wisdom and power, could let this happen to us. Lest we find out how incompetent the Feds really are, they mounted a wave of visible strategies in Airports, public buildings and on our phones to lull us into believing they are protecting us. And, having done their homework in Machiavelli, they invented a war to distract us from their incompetence.
* From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The Alien and Sedition Acts were four laws passed by the Federalists in the United States Congress in 1798 during the administration of President John Adams, which was waging an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. Proponents claimed they were designed to protect the United States from alien citizens of enemy powers and to stop seditious attacks from weakening the government.”
It reminds me of language in the Alien and Sedition Acts of1798*, of Bostonians taking against the Irish, of the Irish Troubles, and that song that ends, “ And I don’t like anybody very much.
Here in SoCA, and in Texas the border is a joke. There is a 10’ metal fence on the more accessible area here in Campo, but the rest is just a bulldozed fire line. The Rio Grande in Big Bend was not secured either. Where there are main entry roads, there are processing areas, and inspection stations on the major roads, and the border patrol patrols. But there are miles and miles of rough country where there is nothing. In spite of stories of people rounded up or dying in the desert, and coming ashore with sad boats into the arms of the Federales, 11 million people had no problem hiking in, flying in or floating in.
This morning a group of trainees came through the train yards, learning how to search a train. The majority of the Border Patrol that I have seen look to be Hispanic which is ironic until I remember that they were here first, by centuries. I suspect that there are Hispanic families who have been around here since before the Mayflower, and have pedigrees that are more impressive than that lot of desperados.
When we pass through the checkpoints on the highway, I get a little tickle of fear. The BP guys just look at the old fart, the old bag, and the old dog in our white pickup, and wave us through. The massed police muscle of vehicles, weapons and possibly over zealous personnel gives me a moment of understanding how it must be to look Hispanic, or indeed to be any color besides WASP white. Will there come a time that WASPs are the minority? Will the majority of non whites decide to deport us as old, useless drains on their tax dollars, that refuse to learn their language and still insist on English in school?
I heard on the TV that a big lettuce producer here in SOCA has moved his operation to Mexico because it is getting harder and harder to find laborers to work his fields. It has been my experience in many places that the horrible jobs that producing food requires are done mostly by people who are Hispanic, and probably not legal. In ND and in KS these workers were clearly not local, and the language and cultural differences made the locals nervous. But when the only employer in the area depends on the illegals, making a scene about them is probably not sensible. Only folks who live away in the big cities and luxury suburbs, who don’t know who’s in the kitchens or in the trenches of our food chain can remain unaware of this.
Taking our jobs: Hardly, these jobs are minimum wage or less, physically strenuous and dangerous. And often seasonal, requiring a migrant population. And for all the mutterings I hear about people today being lazy and greedy, I have done some of these jobs and they are not something I want to do.
Filling up our schools: Since the illegals get a paycheck and the taxes are taken out, they are paying for school and any other services they might need. Not to mention the economic value of their labor to our economy, both local and national.
Illegals are criminals and terrorists: Known terrorists seem to have gotten into the US legally in many cases, and I doubt that the percentage of criminals among illegals is any higher than the poor and dispossessed who are “fortunate” enough to be US Citizens.
The real problem I suspect is fear aka racism. We can’t understand what they are saying, and their skin is so dark we can’t tell if they are dirty. And we don’t like Catholics very much anyway. I’m either too naive or have traveled too much to be afraid of people who are not WASPs and don’t speak English. The only way I can understand the fear is to think about how I feel about bears. I’m not afraid of the woods or animals, but bears, I don’t know about, and I don’t like them.
The other part of the problem is the gumment. 9-11 was a terrible thing for all those directly affected, but the secondary and probably more dangerous result is that in the US we now have first hand knowledge of what everyday life is like in most of the rest of the world. Bombs happen, and we don’t like it. After the initial shock wore off, we turned to the gumment and wondered how they, in their infinite wisdom and power, could let this happen to us. Lest we find out how incompetent the Feds really are, they mounted a wave of visible strategies in Airports, public buildings and on our phones to lull us into believing they are protecting us. And, having done their homework in Machiavelli, they invented a war to distract us from their incompetence.
* From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The Alien and Sedition Acts were four laws passed by the Federalists in the United States Congress in 1798 during the administration of President John Adams, which was waging an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. Proponents claimed they were designed to protect the United States from alien citizens of enemy powers and to stop seditious attacks from weakening the government.”
posted by Thistledown24 at 9:23 PM
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