Mexico | Ain't Complicated

Desert Dipping

I am on my way home from my latest trip to Mexico.

Friday afternoon I went on a walk. On my way back to the desert village where I was staying (and where we used to live), I got to feeling quite warmed up by the sun. Thankfully, the course I was charting took me by an irrigation pump close to town.

Here is the same place from a different angle and closer up.

Well, I felt hot enough and it looked inviting enough . . . .

Ahhhhhhhh!

If you haven’t yet, you ought to try that sometime.

Posted from a Super 8 Motel in Tucson, Arizona

Berlin Wall

Yeah, I know — we’ve heard this before about the proposed wall on the US southern border.

Critics compare it to the Berlin Wall and say it goes against the American spirit of openness, sending the wrong message to the rest of the world about the United States.

The Berlin Wall? Where’s the historical accuracy in that comparison?

I haven’t heard that the House bill includes shoot-to-kill orders.
I haven’t heard that the intent of the House bill is to keep Americans in the US.
I haven’t heard that the House bill acknowledges that the current border between Mexico and the US is an artificial, foreign-imposed border dividing a single country from itself.

Berlin Wall, indeed.

And as far as sending the wrong message to the rest of the world about the US . . . . Protecting national sovereignty, promoting national security, and enforcing domestic laws are all part of a wrong message? Yes, if you believe that the concept of nation-states is an antiquated idea that must give way to the new world, one world order.

How about a bit more from the story:

But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security described the planned barrier, which would run for 698 miles, as a “stupid fence . . . .”

Oh wow!

Immigrant welfare groups are also critical of the proposal, and point to the fact that past policing crackdowns such as “Operation Gatekeeper” in the San Diego sector in 1994 only succeeded in rerouting the flow of immigrants to more remote and dangerous areas of the border.

“Nothing has actually succeeded in slowing down the number of migrants crossing the U.S. border,” said Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Tucson-based welfare group Humane Borders.

“The fence is just another gimmick that will just expose migrants to greater danger,” he added.

Does the fact the illegals make the choices that expose them to greater personal danger somehow obligate the US to make their illegal deeds less hazardous?

In that case, the logical conclusion is that the Border Patrol’s big buses ought to be used to ferry illegals north from the border instead of south to the border. Have the US agents meet the illegals at the normal (ie, safe) crossings, not with entry applications, but with bus tickets, meal vouchers, and motel passes.

OK. 😯

Two Southern Borders

In comments obviously for national consumption, Mexican President Vicente Fox . . .

denounced as “disgraceful and shameful” on Wednesday a proposal to build a high-tech wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants.

Concerned about the huge numbers of illegal immigrants streaming across the border and worried it could be an entry point for terrorists, a U.S. lawmaker has proposed building two parallel steel and wire fences running from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said a wall running the length of a border would cost too much.

Mexico has expressed indignation at the idea.

Fox, speaking in Tamaulipas state across the border from Texas, said such extreme security measures would violate immigrants’ rights.

He again called for the easing of U.S. immigration laws to benefit millions of undocumented Mexican fruit pickers, waiters and janitors working north of the border….

Señor Presidente, una idea, por favor. (“Mr. President, an idea, please.”)

Treat the illegals on your southern border as you would have the US treat illegals on its southern border.
How about easing your immigration laws to benefit those Central Americans entering (and wishing to enter) through your southern border?

Perhaps you should show the US how it’s done.

Just a (wild) thought.

DISCLAIMER: I have no ill-will for Mr. Fox nor his countrymen (there or here). For the record, Mexico is the land of my infancy, childhood and youth, though not quite of my nativity. I also served there five years as a missionary. I love Mexico and her people.

Food Fight (and More)!

In Hong Kong:

A transatlantic row on food aid boiled over and anti-globalisation protesters clashed with police on Tuesday as troubled trade talks got under way in Hong Kong.

Tension between the United States and the 25-nation European Union burst into the open as the meeting got under way, with European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson calling for “radical reform” to the U.S. system of food aid for developing nations.

Meanwhile, another marriage chapter begins to open in the US and Canada (and elsewhere also, no doubt:

“Polygamy rights is the next civil rights battle.” So goes the motto of a Christian pro-polygamy organization that has been watching the battle over homosexual “marriage” rights with keen interest.

Oh, and speaking of marriage, here’s a story from Northern Africa somewhere:

Four American women — a missionary named Molly*, a journeyman named Susan* and two volunteers — sit among a dozen or so African prostitutes in a circle of mismatched chairs and a couch. They all listen intently as the Old Testament story of Joseph and Potiphar plays from a cassette. From the hall outside comes the sound of Molly’s toddler, Joshua*, playing with African friends.

In a home across town, Molly’s husband, Mike*, pulls dishes from the cabinet and sets out two pans of lasagna to thaw, getting ready for the evening’s house church. Christopher*, the couple’s 3-year-old, throws a ball outside with a neighbor.

And while we’re focused on family, some public school parents may have had a rude awakening in Hillsboro County, Florida:

In a districtwide survey, nearly half of high school students and one in five middle school students said they have had sexual intercourse, and a higher percentage of high school boys than girls reported being physically hurt by their “significant others.”

Before we leave Florida, there’s this from West Palm Beach:

They could be called the other “anti-abortion” photographs, if photographer J. Scott Kelly could stomach those words for only a moment.

Instead of trying to persuade people not to do something with what he describes as gruesome “shock and awe” pictures plastered on buses and the like, Kelly decided last spring that he wanted to sway expectant mothers from abortion by exhibiting the tenderness of parenthood in poster-sized black-and-white studio portraits.

North Carolina is (back?) in the ACLU crosshairs:

In an effort to end the Bible’s monopoly on the swearing-in procedure in the courtroom, the American Civil Liberties Union is now suing the state of North Carolina.

A lawsuit has been filed in Superior Court in Wake County, N.C., on behalf of the organization’s statewide membership of approximately 8,000 individuals of many different faiths, including Islam and Judaism.

And in a Florida courtroom:

For a third time, a court dismissed claims in a lawsuit against Jews for Jesus prompted by a woman who complained she was defamed when the group called her a “Jewish believer” in its newsletter.

This time, Florida State Circuit Court Judge Edward Fine in West Palm Beach dismissed the entire $1 million suit with prejudice, meaning none of the claims can be re-filed.

And in a courtroom in San Diego:

A federal judge on Monday lifted the final legal barrier to completing a border fence meant to thwart illegal immigrants in the southwestern corner of the U.S. The project comprises 14 miles of additional fencing in San Diego.

And in El Paso, Texas, today . . . .

Two national presidents set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border and ending a century-old dispute. President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. In 1964.

Further away (I assume), in Adwar, Iraq . . .

Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole — two years ago today.

And in Los Angeles, Tookie Williams finished his 26 years (or so) in prison. He left San Quentin a little over seven hours ago. Lying down. In plain sight of a few people. I wonder what he is learning wherever he arrived after that.

“Laughed as he told his friends
how the victim gurgled as he lay dying”

I spent way, way, way too much time at this! 🙁

Borderline Parallel

The Miami Herald’s headline for the story is interesting (Remember Berlin Wall? Now, think Mexico) yet deeply flawed as an historical parallel.

My recollection of the Berlin Wall is at least three-fold:

It was an intra-national wall.
It was built by the government whose people were “voting with their feet.”
It was there to keep people in.

So when should anyone think of the Berlin Wall when a US-Mexico border fence is discussed?

When the thinker believes the US-Mexico national distinction should not exist. In said case, the thinker would see the fence as an intra-national fence rather than an inter-national fence.
When the thinker believes the fence is to be built by Mexico to keep its oppressed people from choosing freedom in the US.
When the thinker believes the purpose of the fence is to keep people in the United States.

In my view, the parallel the Miami Herald expounds is borderline at best.

If you haven’t yet, at least scan the article/editorial. Notice the words and expressions that serve to plant and foster and anti-fence bias.

Oh, and why should a conservative Anabaptist care about the issue?

Good question. 🙂