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From the Arizona - Mexico BorderFeo, Fuerto y Formal July 09 I hate Andy Rooney, fun summer reading....And you think Andy Rooney is funny, do you? Have you actually read any of his books in the last five years? I have and through the last couple, it has become more like work. Just two days ago, I hid out at Barnes and Noble curled up in a corner sucking down my favorite Latte' while nosing through this weeks selections for summer reading.I picked up Rooney's latest called " ...out of my mind." When you look at his picture, he's not far from it. I'm off Rooney for good. He, like "comedian" Steve Martin is no longer funny. Admit it. It's like sports shoes that cost a fortune that you regret buying. They weigh a ton, you hate 'em, but force yourself to wear because you paid a them than heroin and now you feel guilty...so, you hate yourself for it. So, you still wear them. These comedians were funny once, but no longer. Guilty, too, you still read them, still watch them, squeezing out a laugh or two - like separating the fly poop from the pepper. It just ain't there any more, folks. I picked up a copy of the book,- know what I found? Sixty three ways of yelling- I HATE GEORGE BUSH!! This guy spent hours pasting refrigerator notes counting the ways he hates Bush. The Prez is now responsible for bad family planning, late fees at Blockbusters and tooth decay. Ok, so Bush has not been the Rhodes Scholar we all hoped for, he's no orator, he's stubborn as hell, and he cannot talk bees out of trees. But, if you paid attention, we all knew that going in. So - big deal, it's almost over, hold your breath, and it will be Christmas, then New Years and a new Prez, and you won't have to put up with this incessant drivel about WMDs or Bush lied to my gardner died, it will be all over. Old Andy is honing his skills as an old time Nixon hater for the 21st century, and I for one, have better things to do with what little time I have left on this planet than to waste my precious life reading his dumb book excoriating a lame duck president who won't matter a twit 24 hours after Inauguration. In short - LET IT GO. tHanks to lovable (?) Andy, you will read about how GEORGE & Co. have done everything to foul our existence on the planet from tooth decay to salmon shortages. I never knew one sputtering economically disavantaged Texan could be so responsible for so much damage. My solution? Let it go. Just let him - The current President, wander off into the sunset, alone, and into history. Look folks, he's a lame duck, we all know it. Andy, Mr. Bill Maher, and the likes of Adrianna Huffington spill venom of the worst kind of person vitriole since the anti-Vietnam war movement. Let's the President just fade away. It's over. He has served his two terms and soon, he leaves. All the damage they have tried to do, has not succeeded in bringing him down. He will leave under his own power, forever, in January. Even Richard Nixon, leaving after a resignation, made a political comeback and served his country as a stateman on the world stage years later. Any further irritation, will only prove out people like Andy Rooney, Bill Maher, Adrianna Huffington, as shallow, vindictive people that they are. ### September 12 CALLING ALL ENVIRONMENTALISTS -EMERGENCY!! YOA!i WON'T BORE YOU WITH ENDLESS DETAILS: UGLY ISN'T IT? Fellow environmentalists, guess where this trash dump is? South America? The Rain Forest? The killing fields of Venezuela? Castro's Cuba? Nope. There were lots more, different photos of four thousand littered, abandoned clothing, backpacks, water jugs, ....well, you can see them. No, wait, let me add one more -- GO TO THE PICTURES IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER OF THE BLOG. CLICK ON THE ONES MARKED DESERT ILLEGALS, THEY WILL ENLARGE. ....WHAT A MESS. TWENTY YEARS AGO, I WANDERED OVER THAT SAME GROUND AND IT WAS A PURE, DESERT, COVERED IN CACTUS. GO BACK IN FIVE YEARS AND I'LL BET MORE JUNK WILL BE THERE, MAYBE EVEN A BODY OR TWO.
see what I mean? There are half dozen, DIFFERENT pictures more to see, but no need. They were taken in the Arizona desert, just 15 miles south of Tucson. It is a place the "coyotes" call a jumping off point. When they ferry illegal aliens up north from the Mexican Border in large lots at night, they stop in these gullies, they shed the extra gear they are carrying, they under cover of night, they load up in trucks and get shuttled up into America into your neighborhoods.
Now, you environmentalists, you have something more to demonstrate about, don't you? We need you in the streets, on TV, raising hell with Martin Sheen and your favorite whacko Senators to stop the mess you see in these photos.
Please, help us out, we need help cleaning up this clutter. PS, by actual count, over 4,000 pieces of clutter, dropped by the illegals. Oh, by the way, as of last Thursday, you can thank Bill, NAFTA Clinton for allowing Mexican truckers WAY INTO the US. Before, they were only allowed about 25 miles into the US, now they are making deliveries of 'God knows What' in those large trucks.
Have a good night sleep.
Roger on the border.
August 18 American Cities that Harbor Foreign Criminals (?)It is a confusing time. At the beginning of Iraq I remember an old internet Joke that went like this: I am a confused American, the most famous rapper is white, the best golfer in the world is black, Germany doesn't want to go to war, the French think WE are insolent...remember? Well, I am back to being confused. Sitting on the sidelines in Yuma, Arizona, maybe I don't see the "big picture," but here is how I size it up.
We ship jobs off to elsewhere in the world and they are NOT coming back. Salaries are falling through the floor, Toyota now is #1 car maker in the world, many school kids don't care if they lights are on let alone what grades they get, mothers and fathers race each other to annihilate their families, the stock market collapses while we "break" for a commercial message for Cadillac SUVs, and we can't wait to see the special tonight on the airhead Paris Hilton.
Is that about right? Did I miss anything? Below is a list of American cities that harbour illiegal aliens some of whom commit crimes against American citizens. It is the avowed purpose of these city governments NOT to turn these illegals into the national ICE authorities for arrest and deportation.
Remember Newark NJ. Two "suspects" shot and killed three American citizens about to enter college. The suspects had been in and OUT of jail several times. Judges and authorities FAILED to notify ICE b'cause, like, it was a 'sanctuary' city. Soooo, a judge frees them on bail to roam the streets ya see, count three more Americans dead in our streets.
I suggest you boycott their cities by not spending one dime in tourist money,write their mayor and council, do something...anything. Do what your conscience tells you, folks.
some of the sanctuary cities hiding illegals
San Francisco/San Diego/Fresno, Seattle, Anchorage, Katy/Houston/Austin Texas, Santa Fe, NM
Madison, Wi, Marion County/Gaston/Ashland,OR, Portland, Me, Baltimore and Takoma Park, MD, Albuquerque, NM,
Cambridge/Orleans, MA. Newark* and Trenton, NJ,
August 05 *--An Array of Things That are Driving Me Nuts
July 19 Illegal Immigration for Dummies This morning, bending over my coffee, thank God, not at MacDonalds, I read a story in my local paper that an Arizona businessman was moaning about the new law in this state making it punishable by stiff fines if he did not verify every new employee as a citizen of America before he hired him.
Let us harken back to the 1986 flood of illegal immigration and the AMNESTY that we granted back then. Remember those days? I do. The talk then was, aw c'mon, let's let everyone in, grant them amnesty, we'll punish employers for hiring illegals (we didn't, right?) make everyone in the country who shouldn't be here, a legal citizen, and all is forgiven.
Lotsa illegals lined up everywhere. I remember the long lines, you did too. We all went back to sleep. Meanwhile 12 million more illegals later, American employers still hiring them (news reports, TV footage to fill the void to the moon and back to prove it) we all know what happened. Prez Bush to Yuma (where I live, twice in the meantime, yadda, yadda.
Arizona's own governmor Janet Napolitano, hearing the hew and cry of it's citizens, saw the English only law passed, saw the federal troops on border with Mexico, takes pen in hand and signs the law that says, Corporations, hire an illegal, and ....well, it will get ugly.
Basically, it's the same as the 1986 law that the FEDS should have been enforcing, but walked away from. Now our trusty governor has grown a set of big ones, stepped in and is doing the job.
You would think that would shut off the faucet, Arizona companies would now, not hire illegals, the ray of sunshine now spotlighting them as lawbreakers. Civic minded good corporate citizens all, American loyalties shining forth, stepping up to the plate, they would do the right thing. RIGHT?
Wrong.
This mornings paper reports a story in Phoenix that the McDonalds franchise holder for the state a "Mac" MacGruder is mounting a campaign AGAINST the law just passed, hoping to bring it down. Get this: he wants to strike down the law that makes him stop hiring illegal aliens because he says, it will "hurt Arizona's economy."
Standing behind him, were other like minded, business suited white guys who I presume also run other fast-food franchises here in the state. Our Governor, God Bless her, has the demeanor or a Marine Division hitting the beach. Roughly quoting her, she replied that they will have to obey the law, give it time to settle in and watch the results on the state's economy.
Mr. Macgruder's website, " Wake Up Arizona," is at odds with his seemingly unAmerican stance of breaking not on state law, but running afoul of 90% of public opinion which is NOT in favor of him making a profit with low, cheap, illegal Mexican labor, at the expense of American jobs, it seems. Now he wants to block the law at the state level that would clean up the problem here in Arizona.
Again, Mr. Macgruder according to the Yuma Sun press reports, is heavily invested in MacDonalds in the state of Arizona, in and around Phoenix. Holding on to illegal immigrant labor would obviously benefit him and other Arizona fast food outlets, he hints. That may weigh heavily on your next hamburger visit.
June 24 Talking about ‘Big Brother’ apologizes to Mexico - REALITY TV - MSNBC.comQuote
June 14 A Father's Day Wish for America -- For All of UsAs many of you know, I sit on the border, about five blocks away from Mexico, in Yuma, Arizona. I first warned you in this blog two years ago about the impending illegal immigration fiasco, that if things were to break open- it would happen here.President Bush came here twice inside of a year. Net result? Not a lot. After all the smoke from Air Force One cleared off Yuma runways, we got this: a promise of a fence from sea to shining sea. 500 miles budgeted last year. less than 10 miles built. We are the New Orleans and Katrina of the desert."Troops" on the Border. Remember? Sure, we got them. National Guard from around the states. No guns, they build some of the fences, but largely they were for show. What you DID NOT hear was they sat guard duty along the boarder WITHOUT ammunition for their rifles, being protected by the Border Patrol, when they were actually there. (sometimes not). Now the Feds are secretly recruting our local Border Patrol for positions in INS.Mexican incursion into the states..yes, you read right, according to the FBI, happens alot - and here, recently approached our unarmed troops within a hundred yards until the Border Patrol rescued our own Army troops on US Soil. No shots fired, thanks God. You don't read about that, I'll bet. The children coming across the border coming to American schools to be educated on our dollar--YOUR dollar. We are not allowed to ask where they are from. Understand, I am a school teacher, part time and I love all these children. I patiently teach all of them. At the end of the day, I'd like to take them all home. They are adorable, respectful and are more attentive than most American children. They learn more, faster, and are more appreciative. About two thirds of the classes I teach are all Mexican or Mexican American. I have no problem with those children or their pareents. I do have a problem with President Bush who plainly says one thing, then does another. We cannot enforce the borders as his public statements suggest while I watch busses and private cars from Mexico pull up to an American school and Mexican children disembark who cannot speak a word of English. It is the big white elephant in the living room down here that no one wants to talk about. Go figure. Boy, am I getting tired of the two faced injustice. The folks comihng across the border, going to our local hospital, getting fixed up, then skipping on the bill, and hot-footing it back south of the wire, not paying. I have an outstanding bill with that same hospital, and they dog me for $80 bucks like I was Bonnie and Clyde. We, the uninsured US citizens on this side, pay double, sometimes tri9ple the costs, to make up for the skips that head south. Not in your newspapers I'll wager. Now, look closely at the pictures on the upper right hand corner. See the Islamic militants? Notice the signs are in ENGLISH? Doesn't that bother you? Does me. The Border Patrol agents who have coffee right around the corner from where I live and the local newspaper, tell me that 60% of the illegals they arrest are Mexicans. The other 40% are somebody else. One BP mechanic said that during one week, they captured a handful of Yemenis. Now, what the hell are Yemenis doing sneaking through the Yuma, Arizona line? Flash, our unemployment office in Yuma will be glad to cash your checks ina variety of foreign languages, so the sign in the office says, one of which is Farsi, the language of Christ. To my limited knowledge that is a 2,000 year old language not spoken anywhere else except the middle east. (?????) Or Yuma. Here in the border city, housing developments are growing like weeds, most in the 100,000 dollar + range. Chamber statistics tell us the new residents are white, anglo saxons from around the US. Border Patrol information dispensed locally says that illegals are traveling deep within the US and are showing up in Hazleton, Pa, central Florida, Illinois, and rooting anywhere else, except border towns. At this rate, US News and World Report listing Yuma as one of the 10 top retirement cities for thrifty destinations will turn this town into the next Tucson: an Aspen in the desert and home for overpriced real estate and destitute Mexicans. Want a laugh? How many Americans live along the Mexican coastline in Retirement? -- 10 million. Peace...........Roger December 18 One Week Before Christmas - Lower Your expectationsHow is this for non-serious, as Woody Allen would say, "extreme heaviousity" (NOT), just one week before Christmas? Take the stress off as one mobster said in a movie, relax. Have a drink. put your feet up. This is the time of year where you have to take stock of what is REALLY important, and what is not.
How many times can you see Miracle on 34th Street? Do you absolutely want to see the inside of the same stupid Mall at the end of block and pay 125% for that pair of socks for Uncle Jordie? C'mon - who needs the stress. The day after Christmas, everyone will be depressed, bummed out or have the usual hang over anyway.
I read in our local daily rag that the suicide rates in my city are down - somewhat. For somewhat, the sunshine city in the sunshine state, that's saying something. Don't know what's going on up in Oregon where 100 mile an hour snow storms are pretty common this time of year, and besides, it's pretty common about now. So, I say, sit back, heat up your favorite cup of grog and slide through this holiday, LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS because it's not going to be as good as you hoped it would be, and just be happy with what you get.
How does that sound? I sense among the electorate a great frustration...a sort of mass malaise. No one seems to be able to affect anything within the realm of the Republic these days. There is much thrashing about within the walls of Fortress America and very little progress towards a unified happiness to anyones' happiness.
Too bad. A great tiredness seems to fall over the realm. We all need this holiday to rest, relax, exhale, watch the skies for the Star, the Sleigh, the horizon for a St. Bernard hauling a truck load of Jack Daniels....something. So I close with a season good wish to all, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist, Agnostic, Republic, Democrat, whatever.
Happy Christmas, Merry Holliday, stretch your legs out across your carpet, have a drink, enjoy your feast, fall gently asleep into the night and dream your dreams of the next year, and pray to the God of your choice that the guys driving the bus don't screw it up next year.
###
July 12 Illegal Immigration -- From Ground Zero, Yuma, AzOk, I warned you, didn't I? I've been carping on this subject since fall of 05 and I said when it breaks, it will be from here -- Yuma, Arizona. Prez Bush makes the speech, and comes where -- here, Yuma. He comes, speaks,rides in a Border Patrol (BP) golf cart, takes in the press, and calls in THE TROOPS.
Warned you.... now, interestingly enough, since the first Army troops have arrived thought you might like to hear some observations from your very own first hand observer -me.
I don't know what is getting out nationally in the media, (bet not a lot), but here's the scoop: since the Army got here, illegal crossings have dropped 25% and are holding steady. The Army or the BP doesn't know why. We all guess its just word-of-mouth. The Army is NOT actually chasing illegals, they support the BP by building maintaining roads, fixing infrastructure. They are freeing up the BP guys to do their jobs. Since the Troops arrived, we have gotten another infusion of more BP agents. Money is good in that job.
PS, the coyotes with the guns, rushing northward? Gone. Funny how a platoon of well-armed riflemen from the US Army throws a damper on that. Oh, the sporadic incursions northward by the Mexican Army and their occasional helicopter flights?? Also gone. Funny thing happens when you protect your borders.
Next, don't let the media fool you on this one -- the FENCE. It has its good points and here is a good one. You only run the fence through heavily populated areas and out of town for a dozen or so miles. No one expects the government to run a fence from one end of the country to the other. The object of the game is to force illegals out into the desert, not through the city. They are easier to spot and pick up.
Now, they easily blend into the towns and cities and it's tough to pick up. They hide in houses which hold up to a hundred of them. With the fence, they are diverted to skipping around the towns into the country. The BP, Army and Patriots can easily spot and pick them up.
You need to know that the Mexican government is distributing pamphlets to it's citizens who want to enter our country illegally. They hand them out at points just below our southern border just inside the Mexican line. The pamphlet describes everything the Mexican traveler going north needs to know about American Border Patrol posts, where to find water in the desert, where best to enter, a regular, "how to" book if you will on entering the US illegally. Fun, huh? On the news here locally. The information was broadcast regionally here in southern Arizona and the local newspaper printed it.
Teaching.......
There is an old law on the books here om Arizona that children registering for school may not be asked questions about citizenship, only current addresses. Currently the schools that fail the No Child Left Behind Act fostered by President Bush are usually the ones where English has NOT been the predominant language pushed in all grade levels.
Test scores for all the High Schools just came out today for all of Arizona. Two thirds of our kids couldn't pass the minimum qualifications for high school graduation, two out of every three, could not technically graduate out of the school system at the 12th grade.
As a substitute teacher who has floated through most of those schools, I have seen the struggle between the cultures in this border town. The youngest children...these kids are jammed in between the old and new worlds. Many of our little Hispanic "munchkins" go home every evening to a Spanish speaking household -- then come to school the next day to be immersed in a full day of English. It's hard for them. Patience, kindness and walking a tightrope with these kids will get them through it. They really want to learn. ( They call me, Mr. Rogers. )
When they understand you are their TEACHER and their friend -- they meet you half way. When they ask me, " Why do I have to learn English," I always ask them the question in return. Why did your parents come here?
Their answers -- always the same -- and their eyes always light up after they tell me....
" for a better life."
###
June 20 You Can't Go Home, Again...Ever..Was it almost a hundred years ago that Thomas Wolfe,...the real Thomas Wolfe wrote Look Homeward Angel? That young naive boy from the Carolinas who fell in love, had his heart broken, wrote the "great American Novel" and puzzled the whole country with a follow up, "You Can't Go Home Again," then died a horrible death. Young, in his prime, he left a lot of truth seared into the backs of sad, sarcastic people, living, and drinking the message clear through till these days as they still days pack up and try go "home" anyway. Ahm denial, the American Cultural Art Form.
A sad beverage, 'going home.' Best consummed cold. I wonder where 'home' is, with Mom and Dad gone, the family manse a mass of dried kindling wood in some long ago burned out center-city ghetto.
I read everything, absorb facts, statistics, social patterns of behavior, pscyhological motives of people, from married couples to whole groups of people. Fascinating.
In the hotel business, moving around has become a bad habit, and in the dozen moves over my career there has been a constant friend of mine: a black filing cabinet, filled with newspaper clippings. Lots of them.
The great Rust Belt Migration (Americans moving from the Northeast to the Southwest US) in the 60 and 70's was the largest movement of humans in recorded history. Sometime within the next twenty years, sociologists recorded a slow movement of people BACK to their ancestral homes. People were moving back to the places of their birth. Now, they were using every reason they could think of to justify it, but move they did. There was a slow and steady reverse migration. As of this date, 20% have reversed the trend of the great Rust Belt Migration. They go 'home' to die.
Which brings me to my life long friend Al Gasparri of Orlando, Florida. We kicked half balls at each other in southwest Philadelphia a half century ago, went through the airline industry in Philadelphia, bumping into each other as I came through customs on many European trips, and teamed up when both in the hotel business.
In our mid-life we kicked rocks in the Delaware River when we knew we were getting out of PHiladelphia. He went to Florida and I to ....well as it turned out, all over the west, Al to Florida. Now, as it is, Al is returning to the northeast, to "Cheese-Steak Land" as he puts it, after an 18 year Hiatus in Florida, he returns to Philadelphia.
After wandering the deserts of Colorado and San Luis Valley, the sand dunes there look like the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Twenty Miles from where I write this another Sand Dune monument sits where filming goes on for a movie where the original Valentine "Shiek" was shot. I can see it from my front door. Mexico mountains loom from my rear patio, and tequila and guitars are a short distance away. I speak Spanish now and teach their children how to get a long (speak and write English, count money, and find out where they live on a simple map. Many of them, I teach how to spell their own name, which they do not know.) in what they call 'their new world.' I have drawn blood inside the OK Corral in Tombstone, met presidents and vps here, astraonauts, cowboys...been one for a short time. Leaned how to write professionally and been published over 60 times, lived 40 minutes from Canada, 8500 in a cabin in the Rockys and 20 minutes from Mexico.
I'm a Westerner. I can no longer go back to Philadelphia. I would need a gun to survive there and to do so would mean a year in jail. I do NOT need one here, and in Arizona you are free to carry one. Ironic isn't it?
You see, Thomas Wolfe was right. You can not go home again. It will be all changed. Al will learn just as I have that home is only in your head. It is the beautiful memories of Mom, the sweet smell of the apple pie with the vanilla icing she used to make sitting on the kitchen window followed by the crack on my knuckles I used to get for touching it. (My grandmother used to put raisens inside hers). Home was my grandfather slicing Thanksgiving turkey and my grandmothers yummy gravy, and my fathers turkey soup. NOBODY could make turkey soup like the old man. And mom kept that living room c-l-e-a-n, dark,green rugs.
See, it's in my head. That's where home is, with my sisters long, bright red hair, all hanging down ready to go to the prom. She was gorgeous. Those were the days you could walk to school without worrying.
### May 06 Palo Verde Nuke Plant, the FBI...and ME ! !It happened again...something I couldnt rationally explain, like the helicopter incident. Maybe I've been watching too many movies, expecting Robert DeNiro to come popping out of a patrol car, or, leather trench coat, badge and gun, to whisk me away into a dark office somewhere.
I digress.
Early today, May 6th, Sandi and I were poking around the local Yuma Goodwill as we are want to do on most Saturdays, and I plucked out a binder in the used book section of what looked to be an old discarded office book. You know, somebody's throw-away, we've all done it, Denver lawyers, Phoenix hotels, Tucson paint companies, God knows...
You and I have read the countless stories of some joker who accidentally opens an old book in a second hand shop in Philadelphia and finds a rare copy of the Declaration, and retires upon selling the document. Or the woman in Boston who finds an antique dish from 16th century France in a yard sale, etc, etc. Well, I poke around, too.
My luck. What do I come up with? Detailed plans to the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant just outside of PHOENIX> And I mean DETAILED. I know where everything is: water cooling systems, emergency shutdowns, radioactive dump valves, containment areas, command centers, emergency telephone locations and where to cut them off. Entrance and exits, how to get in AND out.
You get the picture. I got a WHOLE book of the stuff. My heart starts beating fast as I'm reading the stuff in the middle of the Good Will in Yuma. So what do I do? Mr. Dudley Do Right? Naturally, I call the FBI, 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Now, keep in mind, this is Yuma, Arizona, two hours from zero's ville. I get the Phoenix office by remote who PUTS ME ON HOLD. Ok...I hold. And hold. And hold ( lucky my name isn't Muhammed.)
He comes on, I explain, he gives me ... Huh? I do it again. He explains that he will have to call an agent in Yuma and that agent will call me back on my cell, " please don't go anywhere." I volunteer, " I won't."
I wait. And wait. And.......wait. About 30 minutes later, what sounds to be an under 30 young man calls me, and, after I start to explain, he interrupts and says, " are the documents marked classified or sensitive?"
I say no, they aren't. He says, well, you don't have to worry about them, you can give them to me next week sometime. I say to him, you don't understand. I have ALL the plans to every floor, every hall way, every door, phone, dump valve, emergency exit, command center in the place, and their instructions on what to do in case of each and every emergency including an attack. " DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO AT PALO VERDE DURING AN ATTACK? If you don't -- I do, I;ve got the plans right here, I said to him.
Lets' talk next week he said, I'll call you for a time to meet. I didn't get his name after he said " Agent."
Sleep well. I'm the guy who told you I witnessed a helicopter incursion into the US by Mexico, watched them pick up somebody, sent that to newspapers and nobody, but nobody ever followed up on it, because on SATURDAY everybody was away for the weekend. JUST LIKE TODAY. Two o'clock on Saturday -- a great time to hit us.
Roger -- Yuma April 19 INVADING AMERICA -- Will Saturday at 2 pm work for you??Ok, we've talked about it, now it finally happened - to ME. Frequently I drive to the border just minutes away to buy pharmaceuticals, drugs, on the cheap, right over the border at a place called Los Algodones, Baja California in Northern Mexico.
I enter at the border crossing of Andrade, California on the Quechan Indian Reservation just over the Colorado River from Yuma. I've written about the Mexican crossings of illegal aliens, the incursions, all of that. That's pretty well documented.
Last Saturday I saw something, witnessed it, was actually there as I was crossing south INTO Mexico, that I couldn't believe. We were invaded. I was standing in the parking lot in California side of the border at 2 in the afternoon on Saturday. A Mexican military helicopter came up from the south, and was buzzing the border fence a hundred yards to the south, in plain view of everone in the parking lot. He buzzed low, maybe down to 5 to 75 feet, just over the fence then disappeared back south over the sand hills back out of sight down into Mexico. We could still hear his engine. This went on for fifteen minutes. As my wife and I made our way out of the parking lot, the helicopter made it's way up and around the far hill into US air space, LANDED north of our position, let out someone, and looked as if they picked someone up, dusted off the tarmac, lifted off and immediately buzzed back south into Mexico.
Clearly the helicopter was Mexican, clearly it was in US airspace, I was there, I saw it. The next part was more interesting. I tried to notify our guys about it.
Two o'clock Saturday afternoon in Yuma, Arizona, I called the local rag, the "Yuma Sun." I tried three phone numbers, voice mail. I called the FAA locally: - voice mail. Frustrated I left a voice mail message and told them what I just told you. As of this writing, NO ONE has called me back for details. (Imagine my surprise?) I called the Marine Base locally and got three voice mails. That did it, I gave up.
I thought about that. Forever the comic, my thoughts drifted to this scenario; what happens if the "enemy" streams over the border to "hit" us in an invasion??
Who the hell do we call? More importantly, do they answer, or put us on hold? If we leave us on voice mail, will they ever get back to us??
Here is another thought next time some anti-gun wacko wants you to sign a petition to remove guns from all US households: -- using my example above, what the hell would you do it somebody came across your border, you called for help, and nobody even answered you? Throw pots and pans at them???
Roger Fulton
Yuma, Az March 29 90 Days into the Year
Peace January 09 Irish, German and other Mexicans - Yuma, ArizonaI was born in Philadelphia in 1940 and as a child of movies and television and a really bad history teacher, my notions of the American southwest are basically built on stereotypes. Bad ones. Cowboys are the good guys. Indians were half nik-d hoopin' and hollerin bad guys who shot arrows in ya. Soldiers, well -- they were the calvary and you're supposed to love those guys... and Mexicans...Messicans as the west Texans call them -- well they all wear straw hats, sit by cactus (cacti) drink taquila,talk funny, and have names like Pedro and Lopez. Right?
Wrong. I've been on the border for most of a year and now this is the second time around for me --I know what I know. The Irish hit Mexico around 1836, the Germans late in the 1800's. I know a guy named Patric McNally, who is a Yaqui Indian from Mexico, speaks perfect Spanish and talks English with an Irish accent. His family has been in Mexico since 1880, longer than mine has been in north America. He dresses like an Indian and looks like Tonto. To the ear, he sounds like an Irishman I knew when I worked for Aer Lingus, the Irish airlines. He has never been out of Mexico. Go figure. The "border" is about 10 miles wide on either side and is a weird place. I know anglo kids that speak English with a Mexican accent but don't speak Spanish. Then there are the Mexican kids who speak English with a Mexican accent -- and don't speak Mexican, but their parents do. Imagine the fights at their dinner table. Phew! Top off the confusion down here, many of the 'border' schools on the American side are flunking state proficiency tests because the kids can't speak, read and/or write English. Guess why. The teachers have a tough time doing it.
So, there is a big push hiring Hispanic teachers from out of town who do NOT speak Spanish (yes, there are a lot of them), to come teach the kids in the border schools. So, the kids now look up to Mr. Lopez, and they try to speak Spanish to him, asking questions about how to spell. Get the point? Lot of friction between the home team teachers and the imports.
I know a dozen Mexicans with the name Guzman or some other derivation of German ancestry. Others with French ancestry. All Mexicans, all look like Mexicans, speak walk the walk,talk the talk. Some speak German, French, all speak smatterings of English are as comfortable on either side of the border as am I.
Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary recruited his army in 1898 off the back end of a railroad car in Benson Arizona, 25 miles north of Tombstone, Arizona, site of the OK Corral, not in Mexico. A lot of his army was made up of Americans, NOT Mexicans.
Stereotypes. You need to re-think what you think when you see CNN showing those desperate people fording creeks trying to get into the states. Nothing is ever as simple as the TV reports make it look, or as black and white as the movies or Hollywood pictures make it feel. It is confusing to me and I know some of the facts. The situation for these folks is desperate and it will not stop. They see a chance for a better life and a stupid fence will not stop them. Something, some system, some compromise will have to be arranged, some humanitarian effort will have to be extended to help them. We cannot look the other way. It is as if the HMS California pulled up alongside the Titanic and we looked amusingly over the side at the struggles of the passengers of the sinking ship, then slowly pulled away. The longer I am here, the more convinced I am that we cannot do that. There are Mexicans 20 minutes south of my church who don't even have running water or shelter from the rain, or a way to wash their own vegetables they pick from the soil. And we want to build a fence to keep them out of our supermarkets.
THAT FENCE: Almost NOBODY down here wants the damn thing. These cowboys have a wide streak of common sense, I'll give them that. The governor sums it up thusly: "show me a 50 foot fence, I'll show you a 51 foot ladder." Pretty smart. Over in Douglas to the east of us, the drug dealers have been digging tunnels for ten to fifteen years.
The Mexican/ Americans and the Anglos here in Yuma have been saying publically that it's a waste of time and money -- they will come and nothing will stop them.
THE ANSWER, as I see it:( Jimmy Carter said it:) Invest in Mexican businesses IN MEXICO. Try to keep Mexican workers there. It is as simple as that. Maybe then they won't have to their kids across the border to be taught in American schools and squeezed through the fence at night back home to mama each evening. Who knows, nothing else has ever worked. Nothing. And building a high fence is insulting.
What are we, East Berlin?
December 18 The Mexican Border -- Tighter Security, they say....??I am conflicted. My home has been within shouting distance of the Mexican line most of this year. Consumption of Mexican margaritas and their good nature has put me at odds with the current debate on talks about border fences.
As of now, I am as comfortable on one side of the border as the other. Sandi and I frequent Algodones every chance we get -- there is a coffe shop there we love, La Conquesta. They don't know us yet by name, but it gives us a chance to exercise our pigeon Spanish, mine is better, Sandi is stepping out onto the street every so gingerly, but trying she is.
The "snow-birds" are here from Oregon, Washington and everywhere else snowy and are jamming up restaurant lines. You can always tell - clean jeans, pure white tennis shoes, $60 hair cuts. Always in fours, they look around the restaurants at the Indians, Mexicans and the locals. You can see the look in their eyes: "If I moved down here, could I live with THESE PEOPLE." I can sense it.
I also see an overworked Border Patrol. They run up and down the main roads with their wagons running, lights whirling. The local Bugle, the Yuma Sun, carries daily stories about the border illegals.
It is now worse than it has ever been. Worse in about every sense of measurement: migration this way, agents hired and trained, those on duty, illegals caught and shipped back, GUN inicidents.
What conflicts me is this: I read from my LOCAL PAPER thus -
Border Patrol will soon be instructed to turn back all illegals to their home countries caught at the border other than Mexicans.
Yesterday, I saw a CNN film clip of a young boy caught by the Border Patrol. He was man-handled and in the back of a truck. He was young and scared. It was just a sound bite, but what he said moved me. " I just came here looking for a job. I didn't do anything wrong. I would never do that." That kid had deep wells of tears in his eyes when he said that and I believe him. I believe him because I'm in Mexico about three to four times a month and I see those people, talk to them. I don't think this fence is a black and white issue anymore. It's not that simple. They are coming for a better life and they think they can find it here, and I don't think a fence is going to stop them. Jobs will. I think we are going to have to re-think this whole thing.
November 25 Mexican Dentists - Over the Line - In another Country !!!Ok, I'll admit it. I was biased. I fought the idea of going across the border to a Mexican dentist. I had all kinds of creepy ideas of dentists over there. I asked 147 people on this side of the border about how they felt about it, and I still had to take a chill pill before I went.
I was foolish. Everyone I spoke to on the American side said - GO. They were right. Dentists on the American side are known as the Bandidos Yanquis. American bandits. The Anerican dentist offices are not very nice, services not so good, prices range from confiscatory up to piracy. Oftimes American dentists make the clients down-pay three hundred dollars before you even sit in the chair. Awful.
Anyway, I digress. The Mexican dentist I chose in Algodonex, Mexico is a woman surgeon. Her office is spotless -- a lot better than three-quarters of the American dental offices on the Yuma side. She had twice the staff who spoke English better than most of us. She did an analysis, prescribed a drug treatment, re-scheduled me for dental surgery in a week, and out the door I went. Now, get this: I forgot to pay her for the first visit. Embarassed, I double backed and saw her receptionist, told her, who admitted that " we looked honest, she wasn't worried, and that if we wanted to, we could pay now, it was ok. $5, please."
$5, please??
I will take her business cards for my next visit and spread them around.
I have absolutely no problem recommending her for a return visit. There are Mexican Dentists every 10 feet or so, just a dozen feet the other side of the border. These fine people are joining the 21st century of modern business, and the world of middle class, education, and a better way of life. And I for one am going to patronize them. I'd like to see that survive.
Roger Fulton
Yuma, Az October 26 Doctors - The New Highwaymen??Yesterday, there was a 93 year old woman, semi conscious in the waiting room of a Dermatology office in Yuma,
Arizona. It was 1:30 in the afternoon, she had been asleep in the wheelchair for about ten minutes. Her attendant told me she had been denied access to the doctor because the admitting clerk wouldn't let her in because she came without her Medicare card.
No Medicare card, no service. " And, I'd appreciate it if you could move her back to the nursing home soon, because I expect the office to be crowded soon," the clerk said.
I approached the 22 year old clerk speaking in a low, even tone, not wanting to disturb other patients in the waiting room, " here is the Medicare number, " I began. She interrupted me, " I don't care, I already have the number. She doesn't get in unless I see the card. Here is her appointment for mid-November, that's when she may come back. Please don't bring her back unless you have all the proper insurances. If you don't she won't come in. That is our policy. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
I understand English very well, I said, and your priorties, too. I will be back then, I told her with the appropriate cards, expecting then, the appropriate medical - which will be my priority - do you understand?
She somehow didn't like such straight talk delivered as an adult talks to a child.
As I backed away, she added, " DON'T get difficult with ME!" She turned to others behind the counter and said, "he's getting difficult." The doctor stood in the back, wide eyed, and didn't get involved.
The 93 year old woman, crumpled up in the wheel chair, semi-conscious and unaware of all this is my mother. I was a good boy, I did not get angry. I did not yell, or even raise my voice or drive my car into the lobby as I had imagined in my dreams of doing. I was really very, very good.
SKIN CANCER IS IN EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS IN YUMA ARIZONA AND THERE ARE ONLY TWO CLINICS HERE WHICH ARE CROWDED AND HANDLED BY ARROGANT, EGOTISTICAL, ROBBER-BARON, MONEY GRUBBING PIRATES THAT NEED TO LEARN THE LESSON OF FREE TRADE COMPETITION, I THINK.
LETS SAY SOMEONE WERE TO READ THIS BLOG WHO KNEW A DERMATOLOGIST WHO JUST GRADUATED, WHO WAS A HUMANATARIAN AND HAD A GRAIN OF COMPASSION FOR HIS FELLOW MAN/WOMAN AND WANTED TO MAKE A QUICK MILLION IN A COMMUNITY THAT HAS THE MARKET FORCES TO DRIVE A QUICK BUCK. YUMA ARIZONA IS THE PLACE TO OPEN YOUR OFFICE.
Onward, We have all suspected that dentists gather together over a monthly luncheon somewhere and set rates on tooth decay, fillings, gold crowns, extractions and such. HERE ARE THE FACTS IN YUMA.
There are about five dozen dentists in Yuma and a ka-jillion retirees. This, in off-season, is known as AARP city. Else-where in the known world, where market forces run free, dentists offer a mild discount to retirees - NOT HERE. I checked. NOT ONE of these GOD fearing, CHURCH GOING bible thumping hypocrites offer a nickle off to anybody on a fixed income. My experience: I asked for an appointment at a dentist office, just walked in and asked for an appointment, COLD. The first thing they asked for was a check for $300 for a
"processing " fee for record keeping. BUSINESS IS GOOD FOR DENTISTS IN YUMA, IF YOU KNOW OF ANY DENTISTS AROUND THE COUNTRY WHO NEED TO MAKE MORE MONEY, HAVE THEM INVESTIGATE COMING HERE.
Five miles away in Mexico, Mexican dentists charge less than half what our American highwayman charge, and the Mexicans are worth every dime of it. Our Mexican friends are in-expensive, reliable, speak English (often better than we do) take dollars, we reach them on the phone, and shop at our grocery stores.
There is much more than anecdotal evidence that most Yuma residents have doctors in San Diego than they do here. Doctors in Yuma most hail from the Pacific Rim or the middle East.
My sister suffers from persistent back pain: cortison shots to the lower back gave her only minimal and temporary relief. A series of 10 shots were administered in a clinic by her doctor at $3,000 a shot. Yup, and, as she told me, the process took ten whole mimutes at 3 g's a pop. The doc had them lined up like cars at the
Octypus Car Wash. He sat and supervised while the staff punctured backs all day, every ten minutes.
You do the math. Hell that a quarter of a million dollars just for the mornings if you did it for just one week.
There, I feel better. Healthcare is in no better shape than it has ever been, maybe even worse. Talk about slipping through the cracks.
Roger Fulton
Yuma,Az
http:.//journals.aol.com/rogdodger1/mindmeld/
October 17 Along the Arizona - Mexico BorderIn the distance between Yuma and the New Mexico border, I am aware of two main American civilian patrols of the Mexican border. The Yuma "Patriots" run close to the town of Yuma, and the other is quite near Tombstone, Arizona.
It is the site of the famous OK Corral shoot-out of 1881, now home to Arizona's only town where nearly everyone straps a six-shooter in the street these days.
The name of their civilian border patrol escapes me for the moment, but I am told by a Denver Post reporter that when they hit the ground running, they are armed, guns pointing everywhere, radios crackling, everyone at the ready for the coyotes and illegals that are sure to flow northward. They are not disappointed.
Not so with the Yuma Patriots westward near the California border. From what I observe, they are more placid, given to campers, open ended tail-gate trucks, coolers, radios, sun chairs and binoculars, lots of cell phones, grandmas out for the weekend, and an occasional motorcycle.
A recent set-to with a local Indian tribe in the Yuma area sacked and pillaged them to a conference table at a nearby hotel where they settled their differrences over which road to use over which piece of land to sit on which the Patriots sat and stared south and west at Mexico, waiting for the rush of illegals into the US. Matter settled peaceably.
To my knowledge, no shots fired anywhere along the border, except NORTHWARD. Yes, you read it right. Any shooting, in so far as I'm aware of press reports and local gossip from the Border Patrol ( " la migra ") has been that coyotes -- Mexican guides leading illegals northward -- have been carrying guns, and as they rush the borders, have fired shots in our direction as they rush across the border. Nothing I have read, heard, seen, or have witnessed in the local, regional or state press indicates we have fired southward. As to the flow of illegals - much heavier here and handled much more peacibly. The highest entry point into the United States, our overworked Border Patrol AND the Patriots snagged well over 147,000 at the end of the just closed fiscall year, an all-time-record. No shots fired, thank you very much.
The point of all this is: if you in the rest of America were to listen to the television programs, watch the crime dramas, soak in the national media coverage and give ANY credence to ANY mention of border "vigilantee-ism" take it from me - one little old on the spot eye witness - it's all over-blown, crap. Not true. Hasn't happened.
Given the hyperventilated testosterone-driven climate in Tombstone due to the OK Corral and the gunfight arena of 1881 (Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are still alive over there and dance down Allen Street every Sunday), that atmosphere still pervades.
How can you draw a civilized judgement in that part of the country where almost ever citizen has a loaded .45 COLT strapped on his hip?? They mean well, it's just a bit over drawn.
October 04 Our Borders are Leaking - BADLYFor those of you back in the mid-west or east coast tinkling cocktail glasses at parties wondering about the rest of the US, or pondering the state of the country, "out west," or even venturing an opinion on George Bush's handling the illegal alien "problem" dig this: our little ship is leaking like a seive.
Yuma, Arizona is the nipple of the far, southwest, got it?You can no further before falling into the arms of California, barely five minutes away, just over the Colorado River. Lose your balance, and you will tipple over into an Indian reserveration or the Baja California - old Mexico. For you in Philadelphia, that's half the distance from city hall to the Delaware River. Or in Denver, downtown to Cherry Creek Mall, or in Wichita, from one end of town to the other. It isn't far.
Hence, the problemo. Yuma, or rather as our Border Patrol calls it, the Yuma Sector, "leaks" the most here along the US and Mexico.
Figures just in: 138,000+ arrests of illegals in the fiscal year that just ended for our Border Patrol. That's 40,000 more than last year, same period. Remember, that's just what we know, that doesn't count what got away, and there is lots of those. About ten million, some press reports calculate.
The statistics-happy Border Patrol will break it down to illegals caught, per breathe, per agent if you like, but, point is, we're running out of agents, and swamped with illegals.
There are so many, they're marching across the border at stealing anything not nailed down, so this morning's edition of the Yuma Sun states. Our "Foothills" suburb has been warned to lock up everything they own and bolt down everything else. The illegals flow is so great, virtually everything in their front yards and back porches disappear, including pets. The sheriff can't keep up with it.
Actual violent crimes, the stuff we worry about, seems minimal. Illegals are just hungry, tired, thirsty, and in flight. New Border Patrol agents are being cranked out and put on line at the rate of 12 new ones a week. At that rate, we're probably loading agents on the Border at a higher RATE than we are soldiers in Iraq.
The point of all this is not anti-Mexican, of course. A lot of need humanitarian help. Recently patrols have done more rescue work, pulling illegals out of dangerous spots, dropping off water, pulling helicopter rescues and such, that left undone would have resulted in their deaths. No civilized American people would have wanted that.
What concerns us all is US border integrety. What is the answer to all this? We cannot allow free access to our borders under the current conditions. We must maintain some civilized, rational control. To continue the present course expecting different results is insane. The current Washington policy has done nothing to encourage change. If anything we have been distracted from solving this pressing issue with other side-show issues.
I fear disaster is near if collectively we do not act in concert to chance an inevitably disasterous outcome. The President seems uninterested in pressing the issue at this time. Someone will have to.
It is only a matter of time before shooting breaks out on the border and when it does, someone will have to say, THIS COULD HAVE BEEN STOPPED.
Think what cocktail party conversation that will be in Philadelphia and Wichita.
##@# September 20 Good bye, Mom...In 1954 I had my first airplane flight. It was in the Manahawkin Fly-In, Drive In off the Jersey shore, about an hour's drive from south Philadelphia. It was a dusky haze, and I had convinced my father and mother to drive my sister and I over to the Fly-in, Drive In movie, park the car, rent a plane, and fly us up and around Long Branch Island for about 45 minutes and back down just in time to see the movie.
Mom wouldn't go. As we loaded into the plane, I looked out at the wooden fence where she stood, all alone. The single prop plane choked to a start, bucking forward, prop spinning and pulling away.
She was all alone, holding onto that fence post. We taxied down to the end of the runway, throttled up, took off, and passed her on take-off. I watched her as we broke ground. I thought, then, if we went down in the sea, she would be all alone.
Today, I loaded mom, now 93, in the back of an ambulance here in Yuma, waved good-bye to her as she shuttled off to a hospital in another Arizona city, four hours away. She was all alone again.
I will join her soon, doctors permitting as she circles the final door, diving in and out of sleep or coma, mumbling over events that happened thousands of miles and decades ago. My sister Pat and I alternate between frustration, grief and outbursts of temper, then repeat the cycle. Sleep escapes us.
Dimentia rips through what is left of her memory. Anger shreds what is left of my mom--little else of her remains of what she once was. A few days ago, sitting in a hospital hallwayunder a shroud of drugs, she laughed so hard, she was back again. Pat and I cried just from watching her. She was back, God, how she laughed. At least, we had one great day. That was something.
But now, at 93, there is little hope of anything else except a sweet, quiet death for our 5 foot, 90 pound dynamite stick that got us through what was "an interesting life" with our father. She is worn out, and deserves the rest. We wait patiently for her to make the final decision. We love and respect her wishes. Once, during the the Second World War ar raids the sirens sent us scurrying under sheets in the bathtub. She would read to us with candles and a book, cover us up, and say, "don't worry, the bombers won't get us."
This is the hardest thing either of us has ever done. September 04 New Orleans, Racism, A ray of Hope and what's going onOk, so America stands alone, again, and we are now up to our hips in water. Our people are drowning in sorrow, hunger and desperation. And flying overhead on the way back from the "left" coast that very day, was our President, nose pressed to the window, to assessing the desperation.
His first impression is this: nuts, it's not happening fast enough.
A keen backstory observation, if I may: anyone who reads papers, goes to the movies, watches TV or reads magazines, knows that New Orleans has the reputation for one of the lousiest police forces in the nation. Ridled with corruption, the city has high murder rates, the department aledgedly has pay-offs, and an out-of-control crime rates meanders all over record breaking charts, it has been deemed by some as nearly "ungovernable" by the Washington press corps. The television press have done "specials" of wide spread corruption within the ranks.
So, why now, when the dikes collapse, the city floods, pandamoniam breaks out and the local cops are overwhelmed, are we so surprised the little discipline that was there in the police department has thus collapsed?? The mayor, reduced to TEARS on national TV, brought to a near nervous collapse, clearly can't handle the situation. (As a side thought, where is the late Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo when you REALLY need him?? A legendary photo of the late mayor taken during a state dinner, mid-riot shows hizzoner with a nightstick jammed in his cumberbund)
After a WEEK of pandemoniom and perfect television coverage, I HAVE YET TO SEE A TV INTERVIEW OF THE GOVERNOR I don't know if Hizzoner is black, white, male or female, don't even know the persons name. Is he/she hiding under their desk? All I see from the "governor" is a crawler on the bottom of the TV screen that says, the governor "estimates the loss of lives to be in the thousands."
Oh, really? Prove it. At least.... show me the governor move their mouth saying so.
News Reports indicate that "the mobs" have robbed every Walmart in the city of every gun in stock.
Which leads to the logical report that rescue crews around the stadium were held back from evacuation because they were taking small arms fire from the city --from the mobs, SOMEBODY was shooting at them, it wasn't the catholic priesthood, I presume....shades of the riots of the 60's and 70's.
Enter Reverend Jesse Jackson today, Saturday and his CNN interview where he accusses the Bush administration of Racism. He deliberately accused the government of delaying rescue of the refugees in the New Orleans area because, in his words, " all the world can see on their tv screens that the overwhelming majority of the citizens were of color." Hence, he continues, the Bush administration and FEMA were not in such a big rush to "save" the good folks of the gulf coast and New Orleans. It all sounds like a poorl, hastily constructed Saturday Night Live Show if it weren't true.
I've always admired Jacksons straight forward talk, off-the-shoulder dialogue. The man is not afraid to shot straight and say what's on his mind. Well, here's my response to that: baloney,Jesse.
We haven't even plugged the holes in the dikes yet and Jackson is pulling a race card. We haven't even completed the rescue, pulled out all the people who still maybe alive, counted the dead and dying, gotten food to the homeless, identified housing needs for the homeless who are still without clean sheets and a roof, and this man is pitching a race charges at the government. And he is name calling - racists.
He further stated it was all because President Bush saved money to fight the war on Iraq, rather than bolstered the natural defenses around New Orleans against storms. I anticipate his next invective will be against the President for causing tooth decay.
I know nothing about New Orleans Mayor, he may be a gem, he may be a tap-dancer. Dittro on the Louisiana Governor.I do know, that it is way to early to start throwing a rope over a tree, when there are too many people of different colors and creeds sick, tired, wet, hungry and pissed off looking for help from anybody, everybody..us.
Now, I suggest we all stop bitching and start doing something about it. I hear from an old friend in Denver, Colorado that the former Lowry Air Force Base in the center of the city has been converted to upscale $1,000,000 homes. (nice, huh?) My friend tells me they have moved some of the refugees into that area at Lowry as I write this.
ATTN: REVEREND JACKSON, NOT BAD TREATMENT FOR POOR NEW ORLEANS BLACK FOLKS REFUGEES - MILLION DOLLAR NEIGHBORHOOD IN DENVER, ISN'T IT?
I used to live in Congress Park about ten minutes away from there. I would give my eyes teeth to be able to live near that neighborhood, right now. If somebody would tell me where the next flood would be, I'd go stand in line, if I know that's what it would take towind up there, six blocks from my old church.
America just had our on Tsunami, lets start acting like it.
Peace out to all of you. Now treat each other with some respect and common sense, and that means you, Reverend Jackson.
### August 24 gunfights along the Arizona - Mexico BorderThis morning's Yuma Sun Edition hit the streets with the headline that the local Dove hunters should stay away from the river marshes that border the citiy's west end when Dove season opens soon. Yuma, Arizona sits about a hundred yards or so east of the Colorado River that meanders on a south western course, heading down towards lower baja California, thence, out to the sea. As is passes between the Yuma city streets and Sonora Mexico, just beyond, there is a wonderful layer of natural marshes that cultivate wetland ponds for annual flocks of doves. Clark Gable used to hunt there every year.
As you drive west on Yuma streets some five miles from where I write this,you park, and walk a hundred yards, nestle yourself into those marshes, set out your fishing gear or shot guns for doves, and be prepared for ANYTHING.
The spot I describe is also the favorite place for Mexican coyotes, or guides for illegal aliens -- traffikers of poor people that pay fees to get them into the US at ANY cost, sometimes their very lives.
Lately, within the last eighteen months, that means shooting at us along that small spot about five miles from where I sit. Go fishing -- be prepared to shoot back. Shoot for dove in the early morning mists and the "Second Mexican Brigade" of Illegals, probably armed to the teeth, shooting back, will come charging across the river at you, firing back. Quick, duck and run for cover. No kidding. So, our Sheriff calmly suggests, stay away, or heavy vests suggested. Where is Clarke Gable when you REALLY need him?
Over a breakfast of Tacos and coffee, I interviewed a stranger not three hours ago and his answer was, "well, I jus don't go dere anymore. Yu see, dey took de shotgun away frum da Phillips kid and beat him senseless wid it and I want no part of dat, so, de sheriff said, don't go dere no more, so I dont." He munched on a bear claw and sluped down his coffee at Goldsboros, a local bakery next to the hospital.
The Border Patrol reports shootings coming our way from the Mexican side almost every night. Not a lot, just a " few shots now and then," some agents said, " nuttin to worry about."
It's amazing, coffee and donuts will work wonders on their break time. The County Sheriff in Yuma "suggests" that the citizeny doesn't carry or use guns down on the river bordering on Mexico when they go fishing or hunging for quail. The news is matter of factly reported by the local paper, the Yuma Sun, wedged in with the latest opening of the Walgreens, and city water report.
The self appointed guardians of the border - the Patriaots LISTEN to him and patrol the border unarmed except for radios. Last night,the Border Patrol shot up a van, arrested all concerned including a load of 12 BRAZILIANS, not Mexicans. No one hurt, thank you very much.
If there were ever a question of closing our borders or at least clamping down, building a strong fence, demanding IDS, profiling, whatever, it would seem to me that it would be now. We are leaking Brazilians, Central Americans and God knows what else, Oregon has Al Queda, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that terrorists are waltzing past the Yuma border, past the overworked Border Patrol, as we speak and visiting you in your neighborhhod now.
MY POINT IS THIS. As I visit my friendly neighborhood pharmacy in Mexico to pick up my Rx for five cents on the dollar, I have to run the gauntlet of customs asking me ridiculous questions about prescriptions when, in fact, we could have people out scouring the fences, looking for armed aliens hoping fences with machine guns,
don't you think??
I thought we would never re-live 1880 here in Yuma, Arizona where we would have to live with a loaded guns in the house, showing my wife on how to use a shotugn:-" Point it, keep pulling the trigger, and eventually, he WILL go away."
It is bad down here NOW, that the MEXICAN POLICE HAVE JOINED IN just ten minutes away across the boarder in Baja California, in a crackdown on their side of the border trying to coordinate all this in helping stamp out all this. Arizona gun laws have not changed much since the Yuma Territorial Prison was open and in the years that it pumped 3,000 of the territory's bad people through it's iron gates.
One may strap a pistol on in public places just about anywhere in Arizona you wish to travel, as long as it is visibile. Then, as now, you are free to protect yourself. Then, as now, if you jerk your pistol out and use it, be prepared to answer a whole lot of questions at the Sheriff's office.
August 22 O.K.Corral, Wyatt Earp in ArizonaI spent a lot of time in Tombstone, Arizona, where the OK Corral is located. For three great years, I was part of the Wild Bunch, a group of cowboy actors who shot it out inside of the OKCorral every other Sunday.We did, among other things a lot of TV, stage shows, live re-creations of the OK Corral gunfight, on the exact spot, and then did it again October 26, 1981 for live television, on the 100th anniversary.
Those we three great years that I just can't get out from under my skin. I still have the chaps, the boots, and duster, I wore, and that was 26 years ago. The pistol is mounted in a mahogany box, welded open, hanging on my den wall.
"In the days when I would arrive in Tombstone, I would always arrive at the Corral office early, sometimes, just to sit in the old stage parked out back, and smell the odors that were left from a hundred years ago.
Some where still there. Other parts of the Corral office you could still feel the odor of wet leather permeate the air and it had been most of a century since a horse had been near the corral, yet, it was not hard to look out the back door and feel the hustle of the surrounding shops crowded with hardware of that day.
The Corral: horses, hardware, noises, clanging, sweat, swearing, and soon - nasty contention. I loved the feel of the Colt in my right hand. The 44-40 was a good counter balance in my hand, I loved it. The pistol was deadly accurate at great distances.
I could knock an apple off a moving horse at a hundred yards. Colts made great pistols. The shorter barreled six shooters kicked way too high coming out of the holsters, threw too much powder out and burned people, even when you missed them. Normally, when the shot went wild, you could set them on fire - -ridiculous.
The OK Corral is folksy. It has rooms for hanging your irons for shoeing your horses and hanging your shoes for doing cowboy business' as they used to say. Some girls would live inside there in tiny houses where the shooting actually did take place. Girls and alcohol and guns, just always seemed to go together. Nothing but trouble.
I've always loved the OK Corral, and the myth, which is baloney. I've read, research and written about the real stuff. As usual, what actually happened to all those people is far more interesting and readable than what Hollywoodhas ever done with it.
For instance Dr. John Henry Holliday never went to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, he and I have something in common: we both graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia - he from Dental and I from Business. He lived in west Philadelphia, so did I.
The real story - that could sell another million books or so. Wyatt Earp's favorite pet? A cat named Fluffy, no kidding. No less a dead-eyed killer, either. Many an outlaw slumped over his gunsights.
There were only ten men in history That walked intot he OK Corral and had a gunfight on that exact spot.
The first was Earp and his crew on October 26,1881. The next and lst crew was mine on October 26,1981. Ten men, just two crews. Amazing when you think about it.
August 06 Men marry their pets. Jennifer and Brad Pitt prompt thisI hate to be trite, especially on such a bright day for me, I had a wonderful interview, and I hold my breathe until Monday when I pray to get the good news, but - it was something Anniston said about Pitt that caught my eye.
No, I don't normally follow these things. I am a more-CNN, Fox news, calling-Head Hunters, check WSJ kinda guy. But now and then, those sad puppy dog eyes of hers catch me and I read "the" article. " the sensity chip is missing in him, " she said.
Yeah, no kidding, I thought. He leaves his marriage to the second cutest girl on the planet and within 30 days spoons up with Dracula girl with reptile eyes, who looks as if she could suck a tennis ball through a straw.
Pitt with a sensitivity chip...you've got to be kidding. Then there's the Mayor of Spokane, the dunce that has been feeding sex advice to young, nubile ladies in his office who have applied to high paying city jobs. Seems if hizzoner personally interviews Mizz Lucious and Mizz Bimbo hisonself, as reporters stories go, for long periods of time in his office, to "check all their credentials, " then, wham, bam, hired for those high paying jobs in CIVIL SERVICE, answerable to only himself.
He's caught, investigation ensues, hizzoner exposed, pants down, wallet out, public wants him hung, and guess what?
HE WON'T quit. He refuses to leave, refuses to admit to overwhelming tsunami of evidence, he stands up and denies everything. "Ain't me," he screams. All this from Bing Crosby Town. Just imagine.
Marion Barry, call your office. We all can recall perpetrator after sinner caught with digital chocolate smeared from mouth to elbow, shaking their heads, pointing fingers at someone else, while lights glare in their faces.
Martha Stewart, Richard Kleindeinst, Ivan "Gordan Geiko" Boeski, Attorney General John Mitchell, G. Gordon Liddy whom I have personally met and questioned about his Watergate involvement.
None of these people have given up the ego trip and unpacked their bags. None have departed the train of self indulgence and self aggrandisment. It brings me to a couple of conclusions: the sentences weren't long enough, punishment not harsh enough, or in someway, society has yet to find a way to impress and/or puncture upon these transgressors that it's not nice to fool around and hurt the body politics.
In other words, I'm damn sick of this,and I don't feel like putting up with it much longer, do you??
July 30 "I'm BACK!!" Jane Fonda...yawnAint she somethin? Jane's back, and nobody reacted. Well, hardly, anyway. Myownself, being an ardent Jane hater, thought the world would blow up about four and a half minutes after Ms Loud Mouth started jabbing fingefs into the air, sat back and assessed the sit-rep.
A week later, the earth is still on it's axis and life goes on.
Tip-toeing away from the 67 year old embarassment are such ardent former friends like John "Fonda" Kerry, Ex-Fonda Ex hubby Hayden, and where is Peter Boyle, Don Sutherland and other anti-Viet back-in-the-day protesters?? Gone to ground, one-by-one, enjoying the new found CAREER$, I'll bet not wanting to tip the $cale$ of their new public $ucce$$, dontcha know??
So, the newly emergent Ms Fonda is out there, in her little row boat in the lake of protest, paddling madly, all alone, looks like, screaming her little lungs out - so far - no one is listening.
God, I like this.
WHEN SHE COMES TO YOUR TOWN, LET'S EVERYONE THROW ROSES....SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.
SO FAR, THIS IS A NATIONAL NON-EVENT AND I'M LOVIN' IT.
Jane Fonda's Farewell Tour, quick somebody - T-shirts.
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