Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Mexico is a little upset by a proposal to add up to 700 miles of fence along the US-Mexico border. The ignorance of Mexico on this issue is surprising. Let's listen in:
"Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit, and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall," (Mexican foreign minister) Derbez said.

It's hard to underestimate the ill-feeling the proposal has generated in Mexico, where editorial pages are dominated by cartoons of Uncle Sam putting up walls bearing anti-Mexican messages.

. . . many Mexicans felt betrayed by the anti-immigrant sentiment.

Mexicans are outraged by the proposed measures, especially the extension of the border wall, which many liken to the Berlin Wall.

"Our president (Vincente Fox) should oppose that wall and make them stop it, at all costs,"

Naturally, I couldn't just copy the whole thing, and for my purposes, these are the relevant quotes. Thing is, who suddenly decided that Mexico has the power to determine what we may or may not do on our side of the border? The whole point of a border is to show where one nation's power stops and another nation's power begins. So that's quote one. Quotes two and just show that Mexican editorial cartoonists and many Mexican citizens in general are also ignorant, as we shall show below. Quote four shows that Mexicans are ignorant of history and unable to make analogies. The situation would be analogous if we were building a wall to keep our own citizens in. Quote five shows the confusion of a young man who thinks that the president of Mexico is somehow also the president of the US. Well, maybe that's a stretch, but if he said Fox should make them (the US) allow doctor assisted suicide, wouldn't we agree that that is ridiculous? Or that the US stop or start fluoridating water, also ridiculous? Just because the fence issue is a subject dear to Mexicans doesn't mean that they have any more of a right to "make" us do something on this issue than they have on any other issue. They can complain all they want, I suppose, but "make" us? Hardly.

Now, for your enjoyment, I shall quote the use of all forms of immigrant, in context, from the article: keep out migrants, anti-immigrant sentiment, counter growing U.S. concerns about immigration, Mexican migrants, the proposals could stem migration, anti-immigrant sentiment, migrants, immigration backlash, issues like immigration, defense of migrants, migrants, migrants, Immigrant, immigrants right organizing, immigrant communities, activists and immigrants.

Notice a pattern there? Anything missing? Like the word illegal? Bill Maher once said republicans are good at "framing the debate" and gave an example of the estate tax being morphed into the death tax. So that's one example, but we clearly are failing on this issue. I may be mistaken, there may be exceptions, and please feel free to educate me, but I truly believe that no one can honestly say that things like the border fence are intended for any other purpose than to stop illegal immigrants, aka criminals. As you can see with all the references above, the issue is being framed as an attack against legal immigration. I believe that people who make the case in this way are being deceptive and dishonest, and they are doing it deliberately.

Illegality was mentioned in the article. Let's look at those examples: unlawful presence, illegal entrants. And there you have it. See how divorced these terms are from immigration? If I step in my neighbor's yard, it's an unlawful presence. If I signed up for a woman's marathon, and I'm a man, I'm an illegal entrant. Please, spare me.

We need to get control of this issue; we need to address this sort of blatant dishonesty. Frankly, I can't believe this issue got as far as it did by passing the House. I won't hold my breath for the Senate to grow a spine about it. Although, in the spirit of Captain Ed, I did write back on my last survey/fundraising letter that I am now Missouri: show me. I want to see some progress, some results on this and other issues, or else I'm just throwing good money after bad. We've carried these guys going on six years now, and in a lot of areas, especially on the senate side of things, they're being punked by the democrats. If I knew how to send testicles through the mail, I might consider that as my next donation. Learn about Captain Ed's Not One Dime effort here. Or maybe he's given it up by now. I don't know. I can't believe I had to Google it cause I could not find a link to it anywhere on his site. On a cheesy blog like this, you don't expect a search box, or categories, or archives, but he's a biggie. Somebody write him some code!

Gratuitously tasteless P.S.: Overheard comment on the subject of the border fence, "The Mexicans should be all in favor of the wall. It gives them a chance to practice their graffiti on the way into the country."