The Border Wall

First off a disclaimer. I have great respect of Gene O. Morris, past editor and recent prolific columnist for the Gazette. Politically Gene and I sit on opposite sides of the fence politically. I consider myself a bit conservative and vote Republican. Gene, though he has concealed it well over the years, has to be a staunch liberal, progressive, Democrat at heart. I’ll use the term liberal in an attempt to be the least divisive and I honestly don’t know how he votes. Visit with him a few minutes though and ask him his opinion of our current President Donald Trump then hang on for a wild ride as Gene pontificates about what a terrible human our president of the moment is. Satin personified!

To illustrate liberal thinking let’s turn to an opinion piece that Gene wrote and was published on November 6th titled “The Border Wall: Should it be built?”

Gene gives a beautiful description of the countryside they drove through on a little trip he took with his bride Barbara out to Yellowstone Park. Miles and miles of open country nearly devoid of people. Then a liberal conclusion that we need more people to maybe fill that open land to make America great again. We must welcome immigrants of any description because more people of diversified background can only be good. No mention that those wide open spaces are not populated because there aren’t enough resources to make a living when it takes 20 to 50 acres to support a cow-calf pair. So where would all those new immigrants live and work and produce and assimilate? A liberal identifies a perceived problem, throws out his solution and expects everyone else to support it.

A few years back Frank and Deborah Popper proposed a different solution. They wanted this area to depopulate and turn it all back to bison pasture. Buffalo Commons they thought sounded good. Well, we “deplorables” rejected the Popper’s liberal thinking and turned the term into a wonderful festival, storytelling and more, that we host annually.

Gene’s column didn’t sit well with several friends and one Corky Krizek wrote that Gene could step up and sponsor a family or two, see that they have shelter and food in his community, find them jobs and help them assimilate into our midst. Corky, you see, was speaking from experience as she led the welcoming effort of a family that escaped from Cambodia at the end of the Vietnam War. Assimilate they did to become the successful friends and neighbors we know today. Liberals don’t seem to do, they just want others to do the grunt labor to fulfill their dreams of how things should be.

Two other friends in this community wrote good articles concerning immigration. Del Harsh wrote on how the Germans of Volga Russia assimilated into this area and made it the success it is today. Helen Bieker, from Canada, also wrote of her experience in becoming a US citizen so she could vote -- needlessly long and frustratingly complicated!

As a child on our farm south of McCook during WWII, I remember German Prisoners of War working in dad’s sugar beet and potato fields. When the POW’s went home, dad contracted for Mexican nationals to come work hoeing beets and picking potatoes in a Bracero program. Those were single men coming here on work visas to do that contract labor with the expectation that they would return home to Mexico at the end of their contract. Good idea but I suspect that big labor objected and killed that effort to have economical labor through progressive lobbying efforts in Congress.

Since that time and even unto today young Hispanic men have illegally come over our southern border to work in this country. Most have no intention of staying and send money back home for the good of their families. And yes you don’t have to look very hard to find those illegals in our own community. The Democrats like to call them “undocumented immigrants”, instead of the proper term illegal aliens.

Daily on TV, we hear of caravans of Central Americans wending their way across Mexico intent on entering the US. I see estimates that about 80% of those in the caravans are single men and I suspect that their intent is sneak across the border and find jobs here just as has been going on for decades. Now the other 20% seem to be families, men and women mostly with children. That is a whole different story as those will probably ask for amnesty with the intent of migrating, staying, in this country.

The purpose of President Trump’s wall along the border then is to force all those coming to go through the ports of entry so they can be processed and tracked when they come into this country. Obviously, that system is being abused and overwhelmed. Congress is responsible for creating rules for immigration into this country and what we have now is not working as it should. It is then a crying need for Congress to do their job and tweak the system so it can have some semblance of working.

Quoting from Gene Morris’ article: “All things considered, I believe building a wall sends the wrong signal, shouting in a ‘bullying’ way to our southern neighbors that they are NOT welcome to visit or reside in the United States of America. If very clear and fair immigration rules are in place, I hereby offer to be among the first to sign a petition which strongly encourages state and federal members of the legislative and executive branches of government to prohibit the building of a wall along our nation’s southern border.”

Well, Gene, it is the US Congress that is responsible for making immigration law and the states really have little say in the matter. The President is responsible to carry out the laws duly made by Congress and his idea of a border wall, concertina razor wire works too, will just help guide all those intended immigrants to go through the port of entry and abide by our laws. Somehow the progressive (spelled Democrat) members of Congress don’t seem to want orderly to happen. I’d encourage you to sign your petition Gene to encourage your Democrat representatives to do their job instead of fighting Trump at every step of the way.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail