Posted on 05/04/2005 5:44:23 PM PDT by Chris_Shugart
Minutemen: The Liability of Results
by Chris Shugart, May 4, 2005
Volunteerism in America is supposed to be a good thing. But when U.S. civilian volunteers calling themselves the Minutemen started patrolling a 20-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, they managed to ruffle a few feathers in the process. Given the outstanding initial success of the Minutemen's efforts, it's easy to understand why a few people would get rubbed the wrong way.
Just imagine how you'd feel if someone showed up at your place of work and started doing your job. And to add to the insult, they did it better than you and for no pay. You might get pretty irate over something like that.
I'm just making a guess here, but anytime you draw negative attention to some government bureaucracy by demonstrating how inept they are, you're sure to get a little criticism. Government employees get a little nervous when their jobs come under the sort of scrutiny that the Minutemen have generated.
President Bush tried to put a little spin on the affair by referring to the Minutemen as "vigilantes." The President's poor choice of words was appropriately ironic. Historically, vigilante groups emerged in the American western frontier in areas where there was no functioning law enforcement or where the law enforcement that existed had become corrupt or ineffective.
Maybe the worst thing the Minutemen did was draw attention to the sad fact that our U.S. Border Patrol is indeed ineffective. For all of their lack of results, they may as well not be a functioning agency. It's a compound offense. Not only are they compromising national security, they're spending tax dollars perpetuating the incompetence. And making matters even worse, liberal apologists give us this Bizarro World scenario as a solution: Instead of deporting illegals that sneak into our country, we should just give them driver's licenses!
Our lawmakers, all the way up to the President have reason to be embarrassed. Rather than dismiss the efforts of volunteers on our borders, maybe they ought to take a lesson from all of this: We know now that there are demonstrable ways to tighten our borders. The Minutemen proved it with results that show that their efforts were effective. Are politicians that averse to creating a government that works?
"Are politicians averse to creating a government that works?"
So it would seem.
When all is said and done, the Minutemen were essentially baby-sitters -- and very fine ones at that.
Of course there are going to be some red faces in government over that.
Exactly!!
I've stood under the beam where it is reputed that the Plummer gang was hanged by the neck until dead. ( The plummer gang were road agents preying on miners in 1860's Montana. Henry Plummer was also the US Marshal.) Folklore has it that the number 3-7-77 was the symbol of the vigilantes.
ping
ping
False statement, the border patrol haven't been permitted to do the job to the best of their ability, it isn't that they can't do the job to a better extent IMO.
It's not just the Border Patrol. Their agents are busting their butts trying to do the impossible with nothing.
It's every LEA in this nation's job, yet many refuse to do this work - they refuse to protect our nation. Try to imagine the old USSR during the Cold War, and it was your job to sneak in and raise Hell there. Do you think for one second that if you were to get over the border by just a few miles that you would be safe from then on? Hell no. Fast forward to today. If an illegal makes it over the border, chances are no one will ask anything about where they are from. No pressure to learn English, lots of Epanol speakers never bother.
Those who went through the process to immigrate legally to the US deserve better than to see their sacrifices spit on by the administration and the illegals. It is the illegals who are not going to assimilate - why should they?
I'm deeply disappointed in the administration. No, ashamed would be a better term.
I do the same with their postage paid envelopes. On the inside, I write all sorts of things like "We'll send money when the border is secure." and "deport the illegal aliens", etc.
Bingo!
Someone's got to fill the vacuum.
See it with your own eyes and believe, folks.
I write the same things on the ones I get. They need to get several million of these, maybe they'll get the message.
"For every solicitation I get from the Republican party I tell them no more donations until President Bush apologizes for calling the minutemen "vigilantes"."
Join the new movement "Pesos for the Party". Send 10 Pesos (MX) to the RNC or individual republican senator or representative that maintains we have no options other than to allow the unchecked flow of illegal aliens into the USA. 10 Pesos is about $1.00USD and can be picked up at almost any construction site or lawn services company.
When I receive a call from the Republican Party for a donation I tell them I donated to the Swift Boat Veterans and in the future I will donate to the Miniutemen because these are the people accomplishing what Americans believe in. They sometimes say "Well, you must understand what your party believes in..." and I cut them short by saying, I believe in the American people who are taking action and not a policital party that is doing nothing.
bump and thanks!
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
That billboard should raise the ire of every American citizen!!!!
"Our lawmakers, all the way up to the President have reason to be embarrassed. Rather than dismiss the efforts of volunteers on our borders, maybe they ought to take a lesson from all of this: We know now that there are demonstrable ways to tighten our borders. The Minutemen proved it with results that show that their efforts were effective. Are politicians that averse to creating a government that works?"
Amen to your article!!!
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