being a native border state guy

Lived in Texas most of my life and in West Texas for many years.
Before 9/11, the culture of the Rio Grande was pretty ambigious. When we went to Big Bend National Park, we used to swim across the river to Mexico. I remember rafting one time and winding up on the Mexican side as we overshot our take out location. People come across back and forth and live in between, the Frontier/Frontera. Frontera in Mexico is designated strip of land along the border. 50 Miles I believe. People who live on the Frontera are different. Mexicans or Americans who are influenced by the other country.

Illegals were part of life. I found shoes made out of tires as a kid that an illegal had made as he journeyed north. I have passed through border patrol checkpoints. Illegals were punchline of jokes. Used the term "wetback" a couple of times in my youth. Shouted, "La Megra?" spanish for border patrol a few times as well. As I have aged, the punch line has come that I have come in contact with illegal immigrants. The jokes have stopped, because they do not reveal reality.

I really hate that notion of a fence. It does not work and will not work. It seems communist to me to have a fence. As a child, I would go to our border look across the Rio Grande and think this is America. I would think of the pictures of the Soviet Union where there were barbed wire fences that kept people out. The notion of a fence just seems so unAmerican. Maybe it is America, post cold war...anxious and fearful. Valuing security and fear over freedom and hope.
Israel put hope in the walls of Jerusalem...and they fell.

I guess that is just the Ronald Reagan in me, a border state govenor who became President who granted amnesty. If we put up the fence and one day10,000 people will just cross it at one point and destroy the border. It will happen, because a border fence is not more secure than the Berlin Wall. Jeez, the Bible tells us that walls do not work.

Just a Texas boy who fears Jesus, not a Yankee. So, I know I have a different view of life.

joy,
Guido