"I do not doubt that this feeling is real, only that it can be termed a right. Regardless of what it's called, I find it disconcerting. Isn't this the path that leads to such wonderful conditions as you find in places like the Middle East and Yugoslavia?"
It won't in this case, no way ... there is not the religiously-inspired hatred, for one thing ... the great majority on both sides of that border are peaceful practical people who just want to get along, get fed, get housed, get laid ... and there are so many connections, families on both sides of the line - i have many stories on this, like the guy in BCS who pressed me into celebrating his 65th birthday with him one time [we had a deal going on which he was going to finance with his first US pension check, he had been thirty years in the Teamsters in (Alta) California] [and had also played in movies, once with Sterling Hayden] ... his kids were born in the US, one is a lawyer with a house on the beach and a Mercedes, they're all quite successful, and they're all quite 'americans' ... still latinos though, very much so.
Check the casualty lists for all the recent US wars - you'll find a lot of spanish names ... in WW II there were thousands of mexicanos trained for the US air force at Brownsville Texas, the man who introduced me to my wife was one of them, he was walking down the street one day in el DF and saw a poster, on the wall of the US embassy i expect, he packed his bag and left.
No question that there is tension formed around that line by idiots, but they are very much in the minority ... that article you posted which began this conversation, of the guy who offered a reward for the shooting of a border patrol - nobody supports that ... no way does that guy have the support of 5000 as he claims ... and on the US side, i'd be surprised if more than a handful were shooting mexicanos, and if more than a few hundreds of cross-burning twits supported them ... no, that sort of thing won't spread, imho ... it will get stomped on, hard, as it should.
Btw, Dubya speaks spanish and counts Zedillo among his friends. This goes some way to alleviate my fear of the foreign policy hawks in the Republican party ... at least as far as M‚x-US relations are concerned ... it remains to be seen how they treat the people ...
Anybody willing has my full blessing to shoot the narcotraficantes and various mafioso types concentrated on that border, though, and i'd appreciate the opportunity to chip in for ammunition ... they are a small minority, and not doing anybody any good. |
