Well, I guess that it had to happen sooner or later. You don’t think that writing a bird-watching column would be all that controversial. Sure, I’ve had people who wrote or even called me to tell me that was just wrong about something I said in a column. And, yes, most of the time they are right. It doesn’t bother me–much. And a little embarassement is good for the blood circulation. And I knew before the story ran that I was venturing into deep water by presuming to have an opinion on a serious subject. But you can find a whole list of former teachers, bosses, and wives that will tell you that I’m a slow learner. And I’m sure that my mother would have something to say on the subject.
Well here is the saga of Mr. Homeland Security, Don’t Build This Fence!!
Letter from Tom the Fifth Generation Texan
I just read your naive little piece in the SunHerald and it must be nice living 1k miles from the border…but don’t fret they’re headed your way as well, and we really don’t care how much you enjoy the wildlife and the excellent birding in the Valley. Perhaps you like to visit there because the valley has about the same percentage of schooling as does Mississippi.
If the fence is a bad idea what would be your idea of a good one…my idea is punji sticks and claymores, but idiotic tourists(I’m not saying who) might stray across these as well, and that could get messy, not that I would care.
Please, in the future keep yourself and your nancy-boy ideas in your “liberal” Ha Ha, haven Mississippi.
Tom, a fifth generation Texan.
Ron’s Reply
Tom,
If you don’t stop jerking your knee at all us Liberal Mississippians, you’re liable to hurt yourself.
What do I think is a good alternative to the fence? I personally liked the electronic virtual fence idea. I know the test stretch proved laughable, but just because a bush was identified as a illegal immigrant doesn’t mean you should trash the whole project. Hey have you ever tried to chase down a tumbleweed on a windy day?! Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan rely on electronic sensors as do embassies around the world, but we can’t make them work on the border? Our continued reluctance to hire more border patrol officers assures that the future of this fence will be a 3 million dollar per mile support to hand sensors on. Why not just work on perfecting the virtual idea NOW.
–punji sticks? In my last mystery novel (Spite, from Lulu.com) one my characters ran afoul of a bamboo whip–punji stick to the chest. I can’t imagine that this would be popular with the border patrol.
Fact is, I expected to get some hate mail for this column. But I expected it to come from the Midwest where the fence has its strongest support. Maybe they’re just slow to react. Of course those guys want the fence to run along the Ohio River instead of the Rio Grande.
Do you think that we don’t have an illegal immigration problem in South Mississippi? We just had the largest illegal immigrant raid in history at transformer plant thirty miles from my house. And I live in an area that has one of the highest concentrations of chicken houses and processing plants in the country–guess who works in those plants? AND, surprise- surprise, several of the tens of thousands of guest workers who came to South Mississippi to work in the clean-up and rebuilding after Katrina missed their bus back home. I don’t know where you live in Texas, but unless it is in the Valley or in South Houston, I bet we’ve got more Tiendas per capita than you do. Not that I’m complaining about that. I do love Texican cooking.
I didn’t just decide to spew ignorance around on a whim. I spent a long time researching my story. And I’ve got friends and relatives in Texas, including a few in the Valley. Now, my relatives are much more likely to share your views than mine; but they’ve got an excuse–they are originally from Mississippi where fear of change is a tradition. But my birding friends in the Valley don’t support what they call the wall. The Texas Governor doesn’t support it. No Texas legislator from the Valley supports it. No Valley Mayor supports it. No Valley city council supports it. No Valley chamber of commerce supports it. I must say, that Hildago is taking the project much better than other places, but I think that’s because Hildago got the Feds to use and improve their existing levee system and old fencing–no disruption, no destroying parks and recreational land and free flood control (sounds like a good deal if you can get it).
I believe that controlling our borders is essential (by the way did you MISS that part of my column?), but I don’t think that relying on some joker sitting in Washington with a map and a magic marker is the way to do this. The miles of fence to be put up was arbitrary. Who decreed that what we need is 700 miles of fence on the 2,000 mile border? I expect that it was the same guy who promised that all 700 miles would be finished by January, 2009. The fence path was so poorly drawn that it would have put one of the buildings on the UT Brownsville campus on the Mexican side of the fence.
I’ve been trying to kick my libertarian habit for thirty years and learn to accept that the freedom-sucking Federal government will have its way, but when the Feds show up in your town and and say we’re going to cut your property in half an deny you access to the southern half, how will you like it?
You say that you’re a fifth generation Texan. I find that interesting because many of the ranchers whose land is being sliced in two are also fifth generation Texans. And some of these families owned the docks that Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy brought their first steam boats up the river to Brownsville. The Valley is not a stranger to legacy and opportunity. Think about it. If you have worked on a long-term project–say planting a stand of hardwoods and rehabbing the pond that your grandfather dug on the property–maybe even put up a couple of wood duck nests. Then one day you find two guys and a transit and level messing around your pond. You go down to tell them that they must be lost, and they tell you that, no, they’re not lost. They are shooting the path of a brand new four-lane highway that’s going to cut your land in two right at the pond. They say that this will be an important road so that gamblers can get to the coast faster and lose their money. (This kind of thing happened here recently just north of Gulfport.) It’s for the public good. How would you feel about that?
Do you really think that building this fence, in this haphazard way is going to reduce the number of illegal immigrants butchering chickens in South Mississippi? If you think so, just use google maps to look at the fence that they’ve actually built along the Arizona border. I hear people in Yuma actually like their piece of fence, but it hasn’t been too popular anywhere else. The fence shows up as a nice black line, but you can also see the thousands of trails through the brush, along the ridges, and in every stream bed. I’ve traveled along a good bit of the Arizona border–yes looking at birds– and I can tell you that there aren’t nearly enough deer out there to make those trails.
Tom, I’m sorry you don’t care that I enjoy watching wildlife and eating great food in the Valley. I would be happy to see you come to one or more of our casinos on the Mississippi Coast. But please make sure to spend lots of money while you’re here so you can balance out us birders going to Texas. A 2003 a study by Fermata inc.(http://www.fermatainc.com/ttt_trail.html) estimated that birders traveling to Texas had an economic impact of almost $4,500 per birder (I certainly hope that I don’t reach that average, mind you). And I can’t imagine that the hunters and fisherman spend any less.
You may be a fifth generation Texan, but I’m at least a tenth generation redneck–no brag, just fact. There is a story around here that I find hard to refute. Folks say that Blackwells always think that they’re right, regardless of the facts. We Blackwells say why would we ever think that we’re wrong? I tell you, being right all the time can be a burden. Truth is, I’m stubborn as the day is long. And I want what I want. And what I want is more woods and swamp and scrub and mountains and less concrete and four-lanes and fences. Is that so much to ask? Hell, by the time they get though covering the land with strip malls, and highways, and fences you won’t be able to tell a Mississippi swamp from a Texas prairie and it won’t matter what generation you are and where you’re from.
So, Tom, whenever you get around to coming over to spend some that Texas good money in Mississippi, drop me a line, and we’ll go to the swamp and I’ll show you some Mississippi birds. Then we can go find a Tienda and argue about Mexican food.
I do thank you for taking the time to read my work,
Take care,
Your liberal, Long-haired Redneck, Nancy-boy, Libertarian, Nature Nut,
Ron Blackwell
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