George Trapp
When the author talks about how they are taught to look for signs in nature when they are looking for people it makes me think of the fact that some of the skills and things we learn about life and our jobs/professions are just not taught and/or learned in the classroom. Some things are simply learned first hand on the job. Experiences in life.
It must be hard for a border agent to balance/separate work from family life. It made me think how strong of a person they are and how we all need to be strong to survive in our world. Mentally, physically and emotionally. It really makes me think how tough it is in life to make decisions, let alone life or death decisions. It will either make you stronger or weaker as person.
George Trapp is an independent political activist currently living in Ohio.
James Kass
I will focus on the reasons why we should accept some refugees and immigrants gracefully, and stop the harassment and evil behavior we are currently exhibiting towards them. The author mentions in the very end of the book how we are loosing good citizens who are willing to contribute to Making America Great Again (more than just talking about it). He emphasizes how hardworking Jose was and what a good family man he was and how he was passing these values on to his children along with emphasis on education, and he was taking care of his mother. I have read a similar news item a year ago about a woman in Ohio who was grabbed at a traffic stop on her way home from work and deported to the most dangerous city in Mexico (so the article said) in about 2 weeks. She left behind her legal husband and 2 or 3 legal kids and 20 year of work there. I do consider ICE and the border patrol terrorist organizations. All rogue regimes need is to focus the people on hatred for someone to distract them from what is really going on. Look at North Korea, at most Arab states, at Nazi Germany, at Turkey in the 1920’s, and oh yes, did I mention the USA now.
I had serious problems with the way we treated the children coming across the border 4 years ago here in Texas. These were really refugees, and we could have made good citizens of them if we had tried. I read that their trip up through Mexico was full of terror, most of the young girls were raped en route, and some of the kids who carried money were robbed and killed. The Obama administration did not take this opportunity to do some really positive, long-lasting, international good-will building. I have read that it was because the unions were not supportive of immigrants. Those kids would have gone home in 10 or 20 years talking about how good Americans are. Now, what will they tell their neighbors about us? At least we did not put them in cages then; well jail perhaps. I attended a presentation here in Austin, Texas by one of the lawyers and several others involved in the legal proceeding of 4 years ago relative to these children. Kangaroo court was the word they used. One judge who allowed too many to stay was fired for not throwing more out. They were not official judges, just appointed by the government to process these kids. The state prosecutor got him fired. The kids were too young to really understand what was happening, the lawyer told us, some older ones did perhaps. And the ones with mothers along were jailed near Austin and tried near here in groups of 25 or more at a time (to speed things up).
Anyway, we messed up that chance for positive outcomes, but not as bad as we are doing now. The author’s comments about the warrior gene really struck me. I had never read about that before. The gene itself seems harmless unless there is trauma at a young age. Well, what do you call taking children away from their parents and putting them in jail run by for-profit corporations? How many of these kids will become violent adults now, no matter where they grow up?
Yes, I understand not all who cross the border are good people, but probably most are. Yes, I understand we cannot accept everyone from south of the border into this country all at once, but the picture Mr. Cantú painted of Mexico after his visit to Jose in the border town was just awful. Part of the problem is due to Americans buying the illegal drugs, so we are somewhat at fault for the problems down there too. The political corruption and the disparity of income are not our fault, but the power of the drug lords is. In fact, I have read that the cartels buy some of their guns here in Texas with their drug money (I have read that there is only one store in all of Mexico that sells guns). Moreover I have read that 90% of those kids had family here who would have supported them if the government had let them go to these relatives. So instead of giving money to for-profit corporations, we could have saved most of the money to give clothes or food to the kids. Oh well, too late now, but repeating the same mistake is called stupidity.
We need a real and humane immigration policy that recognizes refugee status, family groups, and long time residents. We need some education of all immigrants on our values (if we still have any) and our laws (no honor killings are tolerated) and how to get jobs and open bank accounts, speak English, etc. I don’t think Mr. Trump’s latest immigration policy statement will help much in any of these important areas, and today’s proposal from Lindsey Graham is even worse; more kids separated for longer.
James is from Texas and is supporter of Independent Voting. James describes himself as “a computer software programmer that got interested in politics after I retired and had some time. It has not been a happy path on that interest. Others were much better.”
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