Border idea sort of glows
Lee Benson
Rich Evans, a former sports writer friend with a truly acerbic wit — a person who could find irony in an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" — sent this along in an e-mail:
Had this brilliant idea yesterday: Why not kill two problems with one radioactive stone, so to speak, and dump nuclear waste along the U.S. Mexico border? That way Utahns are happy, and no one sane crosses the border.
Genius, eh?
It does have a bit of the Solomon touch to it, and a refreshingly proactive approach.
I'm guessing the National Guard, for one, would give it a big thumb's up.
Better radioactive waste standing in 105-degree heat this summer than them.
In sharp contrast to Rich's low-manpower solution, the proposal to send 6,000 National Guardsmen to patrol the border is the Bush administration's latest high-power brainstorm designed to curtail illegal immigration.
At a length of 2,000 miles, the U.S.-Mexican border divided into 6,000 troops gives each soldier a third of a mile.
On paper, it should work.
Not that it will.
It isn't exactly a cakewalk to sneak into America right now, and yet millions continue to float, crawl, creep, climb, run, tunnel, swim, stow away, paddle and bribe their way north. According to various reports, a sizable percentage of the more than 10 million illegals presently in the United States didn't make it on their first try, or their second, or their third. Some made a dozen attempts or more.
One is because the penalty's no greater for getting caught a dozen times than once — each time they simply send you back where you came from.
The other, and more important, reason is because, no matter how long it takes, the reward is the same: the very real chance of a better existence.
From the southern, down-under point-of-view, the U.S.-Mexico border is a huge sign that spells H-O-P-E.
And since troops and fences can hinder, but never eliminate, hope, the border, in the eyes of those looking beyond it, is destined to remain just another hurdle in a lifetime of hurdles, no matter how impenetrable they try to make it.
The only way to stop desperate people from crossing is to eliminate what they're hoping to find on the other side.
If there were no jobs and no money once illegals got to America, illegals would soon realize they were actually in worse shape than when they left Mexico.
They'd beg to go back home.
If the Bush administration wants to really be effective with those 6,000 troops, it shouldn't send them south to the border, it should send them north to help ferret out those American businesses that are paying under-the-table cash wages to undocumented workers.
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