Posted on 12/21/2005 12:21:23 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
The presence along the U.S. border of uninvited volunteer monitors inspires misgivings - and underlines a crisis.
The Minuteman Project - the outfit that has taken it upon itself to organize impromptu border monitoring operations - has, predictably, become a flashpoint for controversy.
Its critics, whose numbers include civil libertarians and Hispanic activists, among other interested parties, insist the Minuteman activists have no business shouldering their way into an extremely sensitive mission.
The Minuteman volunteers reply that they do not interfere with aliens or make citizens' arrests. (More than mildly worrisome, however, is the fact that some - not all - of the volunteers pack firearms.) As to the suggestion they could actually hinder the Border Patrol in its work, the Minuteman border-watchers point out - correctly - that federal border-control efforts have been utterly ineffective.
To date, there have been no instances of Minuteman volunteers touching off bloody altercations along the border. But their interventions remain an irritant. Critics say some adherents to the movement are driven by a xenophobic mentality. One observer, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, suggests "there are real strains of racism and anti-Semitism in this movement." But he also concedes that there are members who are extremist neither in their views nor their actions.
And so the controversy drags on. It is useful, though, in that it underlines an intractable reality that Americans - and their leaders - have too long ignored. In a time of continuing terrorist threats from any number of directions, our borders are still effectively out of control.
Ours has been and remains an open society. We like it that way. And we don't like to think about the enormous cost of bringing those borders under control.
Up to now, we've muddled along, looking the other way as illegal aliens arrive to take the low-paying, back-breaking jobs the vast majority of American citizens neither want nor will take.
But we don't have that luxury any longer. The status quo grows more precarious by the day. Its fundamental weakness is demonstrated by the ease with virtually anyone can make it across the border.
Considering the determination of the terrorist movements that have targeted us, and the gaping holes in our security, change is an absolute necessity. And we can't, and shouldn't, look to the Minuteman Project or other ad hoc outfits to get the job done.
Who would have thought it?(/S)
Sure, thats my hot-button issue. All those pesky Americans wandering around the national border... if we don't do something soon the illegals might stop invading our country and then what?
Oh bull. I could just as easily say that "there are real strains of bestiality and necrophila in Mark Potok's closet". Nice reporting, shill.
To date, there have been no instances of Minuteman volunteers touching off bloody altercations along the border. But their interventions remain an irritant to drug and alien smugglers.
One biased observer, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, suggests "there are real strains of racism and anti-Semitism in this movement."
For some actual "strains of racism and anti-Semitism", please see aztlan.net.
snip
What a load of tripe!
ping
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
Gee, they're an IRRITANT.
I forgot, where exactly does the Right to Not Be Irritated come from ???
Minuteman Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
bttt
Ahhhh.... My city fishwrap.
The Minutemen are doing exactly what they wanted to do, shine a spotlight in the border crisis.
The REAL worrisome fact is that drug smugglers and human smugglers are also packing firearms, and so are the Mexican military, and they don't hesitate to use them!
I guess they want us disarmed to make this invasion even easier for them.
Mexico is making America sick.
They took that quote from a recent AP article called "Vigilante Anti-Immigration Group Gaining".
2005 Man of the Year!
(men)
Jim Gilchrist
Chris Simcox
One observer, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, suggests "there are real strains of racism and anti-Semitism in this movement."
What the hell? Are we being over run by Mexican Israelies?
I had no clue that the coyotes spoke Yiddish. Mr Potok needs to quit looking for the boggeyman amoung the Minute Man Project, and start looking in his own Socialist/Progressive/Communist circle.
Up to now, we've muddled along, looking the other way as illegal aliens arrive to take the low-paying, back-breaking jobs the vast majority of American citizens neither want nor will take.
Teenagers used to do this very work as a rite of passage into adulthood. *Now* what?
Without reading the rest of the article I get the idea the writer is a pantload. Was I wrong?
Minuteman activists have no business shouldering their way into an extremely sensitive mission.
More than mildly worrisome, however, is the fact that some - not all - of the volunteers pack firearms
But their interventions remain an irritant
driven by a xenophobic mentality
strains of racism and anti-Semitism
the enormous cost of bringing those borders under control
jobs the vast majority of American citizens neither want nor will take
we can't, and shouldn't, look to the Minuteman Project
All the sniffling runny-nose wimp bogeyman buzzwords and catch-phrases one has become accustomed to from anything from the communist agenda liberals. The Minuteman Project model works very well and is EXACTLY where we should be looking.
But somehow they've got no complaints about "uninvited volunteer border-crossers".
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