Minuteman Project: Week 4
If anyone has any question as to the intention of the illegal Mexican invasion, this photo says it all:
(Translation: "Your City. Your Team.")
So, that's why I go to the border. One interesting conversation I had with someone this last weekend involved discussing the difference between "Mexican" and "Hispanic." Mexico is a country. A Mexican is any citizen of that country, regardless of their race. "Mexican" is NOT a race. Technically neither is "Hispanic," it is an ethnic group. But for the purposes of this post we can consider it a race. After all, discriminating against an ethnic group is just as much "racism" as discriminating against a race.
I have a problem with not only Mexicans but citizens of any other country living in my country without permission. I do NOT have a problem with Hispanics living in my country, as long as they are either Americans or they are here legally. The Mexicans (i.e. citizens of Mexico) living here illegally are slowly but surely replacing the American population in the southwest, literally taking over the country. And to top it off, if a Mexican gives birth in America, the new little Mexican baby is both technically and legally an American (even though he/she will most likely grow up loyal to Mexico), so the Mexican family is legally allowed to stay in the country!
Soon there will be more Mexicans (i.e. citizens of Mexico OR, in my opinion, their children) than there are Americans (i.e. citizens of America, regardless of race). The Mexicans will outnumber us, and be able to out vote us in our own country. This IS an invasion.
On Friday I went to the airport to pick up Rosanna. Her father was Mexican. He immigrated to the U.S. legally, and taught Rosanna English. Rosanna's father is an American, and I was proud to see his daughter, Rosanna, as part of the Minuteman Project. Rosanna could only be at the Minuteman Project for a couple days, but she flew down from Illinois to be a part of it. In my opinion, it is people like her who help this project speak to the nation with such a loud voice. Even though she could not stay the full month, she took the time and spent the money to add to the voice. The illegal immigration problem is most unfair to people like Rosanna's father, who took the time and effort to come to the U.S. legally, and who swore allegiance to America. They cheat the system, they cheat our country, and they cheat people like him most of all.
Rosanna was thrilled to be there! She worked mostly in the comm center so she could stay out of the sun (good idea, I have been burned every weekend). She was nice enough to let me take her photo by the Culpeper Minuteman flag at MMP headquarters:
I slept behind the Trading Post again for the night. This weekend I was going to work day shifts on the Naco line at the actual border. Here is a photo of the border. It's hard to see it, it is an imaginary line about 10 feet in front of the camera. The imaginary fence is about three feet closer, but it's even harder to see.
Here is one of the border markers. Those holes look like bullet holes, but I can't be sure. I was told that this particular post was infested with Africanized bees.
I parked my car and raised my Arizona flag:
Now nothing feels more 'Murican than sittin' in the back of a Jeep, your state's flag overhead, a Beretta 92 on your hip (the o-fishal sidearm of the U.S. military), guardin' the border of your country while smokin' fine tabakee grown in the state of Vir-jinnee. Even if I did buy the tabakee at Walgreens...
Most of the day I spent with an OTM, Other-Than-Minuteman. (Ok, that was a LAME joke you'd only get if you spent time on the border.) He was a "concerned citizen" from San Diego. He stayed for a while but when he realized that the media was blowing the blood and guts out of proportion, he got bored and left back to California.
Not too long after he left, a new Minuteman volunteer from California showed up to help me at my post. This is Sam, his mother was a legal immigrant from Italy. Half of his family is also of Mexican descent. Sam was a great guy to work with, I hope we can keep in touch!
Now since the Minuteman Project started, only one group has tried to penetrate the Naco line. It is believed that it was actually to test us, to see how we would react. Go figure, there was no bloodshed, and fully-automatic assault weapons were not unleashed to prey on the innocent illegals. They were simply reported and Border Patrol picked them up within two minutes, just like everyone in the Minuteman Project said would happen. But that was before I got there. Needless to say, with so little activity in the past, I was not expecting to see much.
In reality there was more to look at than at the other locations I had been posted. While no one tried to cross the entire weekend, there was quite a bit of activity on the other side of the fence.
One of the first things I saw in the morning was a Humvee with about ten soldiers in the back. It parked out of sight behind a hill, just on the other side of a railroad. Shortly after it vanished behind the hill, I started to see soldiers roaming the area:
They did not seem to be watching us. I never saw them looking through binoculars or even really watching our direction. They were however placed in locations where soon-to-be-illegals might pass by in order to get to the border. My guess is that they were there to try to warn the soon-to-be-illegals to cross elsewhere. I consider that aiding and abetting.
I also saw a lot of Groupo-Beta, a Mexican government group who are officially there to make sure that Mexican citizens are not dying of hunger or thirst out in the desert.
They had quads:
And trucks:
It is rumored that Groupo-Beta is not only warning the soon-to-be-illegals to cross elsewhere, but also driving them to better locations. I also consider that aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to commit a crime.
This suspicious truck wandered back and forth along the border for a while. It looked like they were looking for a place to cross, but could not find one with all the Minutemen everywhere.
Groupo-Beta talked to them for a bit, then they drove off. Suspicious again, but they stayed on their side of the border so I was happy. I was told later that it was very likely that they were simply picking up trash from the area. It's possible...
Every once in a while a train would drive by. What happens is soon-to-be-illegals will ride the train to this point and jump off. The train was always going slow, but I still don't know how thrilled I'd be about jumping off of a moving train. We never saw anyone jump off, but shortly after a train went by at one point there was a person out in the field between the train and the border. He never tried to cross the border.
Here is something interesting. Groupo-Beta decided to spray paint something under the train track. It said "!PUENTE EL DUNDY!" I think. Might have been DUNCY. Or something else... Puente is "Bridge." I have no clue why they did that. If you have any thoughts leave a comment...
Things were exciting on our side of the fence as well. Nearly every Border Patrol truck that drove by waved or gave us "thumbs up."
Now this is a job I could get used to. Riding quads, playing with night vision goggles at night, and wearing a gun at work. They get PAID to do this!
Here is a Border Patrol truck watching the valley:
Law does not allow Border Patrol to build permanent watchtowers. This is one of their mobile units on a hill:
And if you really want the high ground, helicopters are the way to go:
That night I packed everything into my car, locked the doors, played Neverwinter Nights for a while, then went to sleep.
I slept right there on the border. Since there were other Minutemen very close by, and since the border itself has seen so little activity since we got there, I thought it was a good idea. What I failed to take into account was weather. About 1:00 I woke up from what I thought was someone shaking my car. The hail pounding the roof of the car let me know that no one in their right mind would be outside trying to break into my car. Unless they were trying to get out of the storm... Oh, the things that go through your mind when you are still half asleep. As I woke up I realized it was wind.
I flipped on the radio and heard the section chief warning all of us to stay in our cars and don't drive. Flash floods are common in the area. It was difficult, I half expected to see Auntie Em fly by. Or worse, end up in Oz myself...
Here is a shot looking through the window as lightning hits. It's nothing spectacular, the storm had died down quite a bit by that point:
By morning the storm had passed:
The wind kept the flags blowing all day though:
I had a two-ton steel "tent" to sleep in. I was surprised to see that this poor guy was even still "in Kansas":
As I got out of my car in the morning, I saw that someone else had arrived at our post. This is Mary. She is one cool lady. She even packs a pistol at 77 years old, and has more energy than I do! And I have to give her a lot of respect- she made sure to leave in time for Church, then quickly returned.
Mary watching as the train arrives:
After the cold and restless night our sector chief, Ed, was very kind and brought us some nice hot strong coffee.
He also brought by a local resident from Sierra Vista who in turn brought us some Dunkin Donuts. He asked not to be photographed so I photographed the donuts.
Then who else would show up but Rosanna! She was taking a break from the comm center to visit the border.
Rosanna helped me out. We were looking at something in the field that we thought MIGHT be a person sitting on a log. Here is Rosanna helping out:
...and here is what she was looking at (the image quality was a LITTLE better in the binoculars):
We decided that it was just a part of the log and not a person. Even if it was a log, as long as it stayed on that side of the border I was happy.
Not too long after Rosanna left we had someone from Flagstaff (I believe) show up, just to thank us for being there. He was absolutely thrilled to meet us and told us he planned on joining the project.
Shortly after he left, who would show up but the local residents whose land my brother and I were at the weekend before!
We continued to watch the area for a while, but all we saw was Groupo-Beta and soldiers. Sam got bored and decided to call Mom from the border with a satellite phone he had rented. He said that he paid for it, might as well pay a few more bucks and use it.
And of course there was the wildlife. This little guy looks a lot bigger in the photo than he did on the ground:
I almost had to call the Border Patrol on this one:
This bird was pretty big. He hovered directly over us for a bit but I was too slow getting my camera.
Every once in a while we'd feel like the wildlife. I swear- the sheer terror on the faces of these ACLU Illegal Observers as they drove by us rolling tape (or is that pot?) made us feel like animals in the zoo. Can I sue for that? Honestly, they looked like terrified children staring at the exhibits in the "Snake Pit" at the zoo.
One lady in this car gave us the "peace" sign as they drove by at about 2MPH. I resisted the urge to start crying- after all, all the death and carnage was finally starting to get to me.
On the way home from the border, I stopped by the Trading Post to drop off a blanket I had borrowed. While there I heard a rumor that some of the ACLU had finally dressed up as if they were illegals and ran our Huachuca line. They were reported by Minutemen and caught by Border Patrol. There was a brief mention that an ACLU member shoved a Minuteman. Interestingly it's the end of Wednesday now and I never heard anything more on the incident, so I am not sure any of it really happened at all, and I am pretty sure no one shoved anyone. That would have made international news when the ACLU is involved. Besides, by the time it got to me I am sure it was 5th or 6th hand information.
On my way past the Huachuca line I saw this group of people. There were both Minutemen and ACLU, and this is a bigger group than is normal. This is very possibly the location of whatever "incident" happened, if anything happened at all.
I will be going back to the project one more weekend for the conclusion of the project.
Rosanna posted her experiences here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1390888/posts
Sam posted some of the photos he took here:
http://www.yellow-roller.com/pic.html
Here is a satellite photo (Thanks for the link, Sam!) of the area we were at (click on "Satellite" at the top right, and the best zoom is third from the top). We were directly in the center of the screen:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=31.33416,-109.79516
(Translation: "Your City. Your Team.")
So, that's why I go to the border. One interesting conversation I had with someone this last weekend involved discussing the difference between "Mexican" and "Hispanic." Mexico is a country. A Mexican is any citizen of that country, regardless of their race. "Mexican" is NOT a race. Technically neither is "Hispanic," it is an ethnic group. But for the purposes of this post we can consider it a race. After all, discriminating against an ethnic group is just as much "racism" as discriminating against a race.
I have a problem with not only Mexicans but citizens of any other country living in my country without permission. I do NOT have a problem with Hispanics living in my country, as long as they are either Americans or they are here legally. The Mexicans (i.e. citizens of Mexico) living here illegally are slowly but surely replacing the American population in the southwest, literally taking over the country. And to top it off, if a Mexican gives birth in America, the new little Mexican baby is both technically and legally an American (even though he/she will most likely grow up loyal to Mexico), so the Mexican family is legally allowed to stay in the country!
Soon there will be more Mexicans (i.e. citizens of Mexico OR, in my opinion, their children) than there are Americans (i.e. citizens of America, regardless of race). The Mexicans will outnumber us, and be able to out vote us in our own country. This IS an invasion.
On Friday I went to the airport to pick up Rosanna. Her father was Mexican. He immigrated to the U.S. legally, and taught Rosanna English. Rosanna's father is an American, and I was proud to see his daughter, Rosanna, as part of the Minuteman Project. Rosanna could only be at the Minuteman Project for a couple days, but she flew down from Illinois to be a part of it. In my opinion, it is people like her who help this project speak to the nation with such a loud voice. Even though she could not stay the full month, she took the time and spent the money to add to the voice. The illegal immigration problem is most unfair to people like Rosanna's father, who took the time and effort to come to the U.S. legally, and who swore allegiance to America. They cheat the system, they cheat our country, and they cheat people like him most of all.
Rosanna was thrilled to be there! She worked mostly in the comm center so she could stay out of the sun (good idea, I have been burned every weekend). She was nice enough to let me take her photo by the Culpeper Minuteman flag at MMP headquarters:
I slept behind the Trading Post again for the night. This weekend I was going to work day shifts on the Naco line at the actual border. Here is a photo of the border. It's hard to see it, it is an imaginary line about 10 feet in front of the camera. The imaginary fence is about three feet closer, but it's even harder to see.
Here is one of the border markers. Those holes look like bullet holes, but I can't be sure. I was told that this particular post was infested with Africanized bees.
I parked my car and raised my Arizona flag:
Now nothing feels more 'Murican than sittin' in the back of a Jeep, your state's flag overhead, a Beretta 92 on your hip (the o-fishal sidearm of the U.S. military), guardin' the border of your country while smokin' fine tabakee grown in the state of Vir-jinnee. Even if I did buy the tabakee at Walgreens...
Most of the day I spent with an OTM, Other-Than-Minuteman. (Ok, that was a LAME joke you'd only get if you spent time on the border.) He was a "concerned citizen" from San Diego. He stayed for a while but when he realized that the media was blowing the blood and guts out of proportion, he got bored and left back to California.
Not too long after he left, a new Minuteman volunteer from California showed up to help me at my post. This is Sam, his mother was a legal immigrant from Italy. Half of his family is also of Mexican descent. Sam was a great guy to work with, I hope we can keep in touch!
Now since the Minuteman Project started, only one group has tried to penetrate the Naco line. It is believed that it was actually to test us, to see how we would react. Go figure, there was no bloodshed, and fully-automatic assault weapons were not unleashed to prey on the innocent illegals. They were simply reported and Border Patrol picked them up within two minutes, just like everyone in the Minuteman Project said would happen. But that was before I got there. Needless to say, with so little activity in the past, I was not expecting to see much.
In reality there was more to look at than at the other locations I had been posted. While no one tried to cross the entire weekend, there was quite a bit of activity on the other side of the fence.
One of the first things I saw in the morning was a Humvee with about ten soldiers in the back. It parked out of sight behind a hill, just on the other side of a railroad. Shortly after it vanished behind the hill, I started to see soldiers roaming the area:
They did not seem to be watching us. I never saw them looking through binoculars or even really watching our direction. They were however placed in locations where soon-to-be-illegals might pass by in order to get to the border. My guess is that they were there to try to warn the soon-to-be-illegals to cross elsewhere. I consider that aiding and abetting.
I also saw a lot of Groupo-Beta, a Mexican government group who are officially there to make sure that Mexican citizens are not dying of hunger or thirst out in the desert.
They had quads:
And trucks:
It is rumored that Groupo-Beta is not only warning the soon-to-be-illegals to cross elsewhere, but also driving them to better locations. I also consider that aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to commit a crime.
This suspicious truck wandered back and forth along the border for a while. It looked like they were looking for a place to cross, but could not find one with all the Minutemen everywhere.
Groupo-Beta talked to them for a bit, then they drove off. Suspicious again, but they stayed on their side of the border so I was happy. I was told later that it was very likely that they were simply picking up trash from the area. It's possible...
Every once in a while a train would drive by. What happens is soon-to-be-illegals will ride the train to this point and jump off. The train was always going slow, but I still don't know how thrilled I'd be about jumping off of a moving train. We never saw anyone jump off, but shortly after a train went by at one point there was a person out in the field between the train and the border. He never tried to cross the border.
Here is something interesting. Groupo-Beta decided to spray paint something under the train track. It said "!PUENTE EL DUNDY!" I think. Might have been DUNCY. Or something else... Puente is "Bridge." I have no clue why they did that. If you have any thoughts leave a comment...
Things were exciting on our side of the fence as well. Nearly every Border Patrol truck that drove by waved or gave us "thumbs up."
Now this is a job I could get used to. Riding quads, playing with night vision goggles at night, and wearing a gun at work. They get PAID to do this!
Here is a Border Patrol truck watching the valley:
Law does not allow Border Patrol to build permanent watchtowers. This is one of their mobile units on a hill:
And if you really want the high ground, helicopters are the way to go:
That night I packed everything into my car, locked the doors, played Neverwinter Nights for a while, then went to sleep.
I slept right there on the border. Since there were other Minutemen very close by, and since the border itself has seen so little activity since we got there, I thought it was a good idea. What I failed to take into account was weather. About 1:00 I woke up from what I thought was someone shaking my car. The hail pounding the roof of the car let me know that no one in their right mind would be outside trying to break into my car. Unless they were trying to get out of the storm... Oh, the things that go through your mind when you are still half asleep. As I woke up I realized it was wind.
I flipped on the radio and heard the section chief warning all of us to stay in our cars and don't drive. Flash floods are common in the area. It was difficult, I half expected to see Auntie Em fly by. Or worse, end up in Oz myself...
Here is a shot looking through the window as lightning hits. It's nothing spectacular, the storm had died down quite a bit by that point:
By morning the storm had passed:
The wind kept the flags blowing all day though:
I had a two-ton steel "tent" to sleep in. I was surprised to see that this poor guy was even still "in Kansas":
As I got out of my car in the morning, I saw that someone else had arrived at our post. This is Mary. She is one cool lady. She even packs a pistol at 77 years old, and has more energy than I do! And I have to give her a lot of respect- she made sure to leave in time for Church, then quickly returned.
Mary watching as the train arrives:
After the cold and restless night our sector chief, Ed, was very kind and brought us some nice hot strong coffee.
He also brought by a local resident from Sierra Vista who in turn brought us some Dunkin Donuts. He asked not to be photographed so I photographed the donuts.
Then who else would show up but Rosanna! She was taking a break from the comm center to visit the border.
Rosanna helped me out. We were looking at something in the field that we thought MIGHT be a person sitting on a log. Here is Rosanna helping out:
...and here is what she was looking at (the image quality was a LITTLE better in the binoculars):
We decided that it was just a part of the log and not a person. Even if it was a log, as long as it stayed on that side of the border I was happy.
Not too long after Rosanna left we had someone from Flagstaff (I believe) show up, just to thank us for being there. He was absolutely thrilled to meet us and told us he planned on joining the project.
Shortly after he left, who would show up but the local residents whose land my brother and I were at the weekend before!
We continued to watch the area for a while, but all we saw was Groupo-Beta and soldiers. Sam got bored and decided to call Mom from the border with a satellite phone he had rented. He said that he paid for it, might as well pay a few more bucks and use it.
And of course there was the wildlife. This little guy looks a lot bigger in the photo than he did on the ground:
I almost had to call the Border Patrol on this one:
This bird was pretty big. He hovered directly over us for a bit but I was too slow getting my camera.
Every once in a while we'd feel like the wildlife. I swear- the sheer terror on the faces of these ACLU Illegal Observers as they drove by us rolling tape (or is that pot?) made us feel like animals in the zoo. Can I sue for that? Honestly, they looked like terrified children staring at the exhibits in the "Snake Pit" at the zoo.
One lady in this car gave us the "peace" sign as they drove by at about 2MPH. I resisted the urge to start crying- after all, all the death and carnage was finally starting to get to me.
On the way home from the border, I stopped by the Trading Post to drop off a blanket I had borrowed. While there I heard a rumor that some of the ACLU had finally dressed up as if they were illegals and ran our Huachuca line. They were reported by Minutemen and caught by Border Patrol. There was a brief mention that an ACLU member shoved a Minuteman. Interestingly it's the end of Wednesday now and I never heard anything more on the incident, so I am not sure any of it really happened at all, and I am pretty sure no one shoved anyone. That would have made international news when the ACLU is involved. Besides, by the time it got to me I am sure it was 5th or 6th hand information.
On my way past the Huachuca line I saw this group of people. There were both Minutemen and ACLU, and this is a bigger group than is normal. This is very possibly the location of whatever "incident" happened, if anything happened at all.
I will be going back to the project one more weekend for the conclusion of the project.
Rosanna posted her experiences here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1390888/posts
Sam posted some of the photos he took here:
http://www.yellow-roller.com/pic.html
Here is a satellite photo (Thanks for the link, Sam!) of the area we were at (click on "Satellite" at the top right, and the best zoom is third from the top). We were directly in the center of the screen:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=31.33416,-109.79516
posted by Calan at 18:36
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home