Well, the bulldozers are busy now building a 135 mile "fence" (looks like a wall to me--tall steel panels) along the Rio Grande. The governor of Texas, for whom I have no abiding affection, thinks this is a great idea. President Bush thinks this is a great idea. They want a wide area of scorched earth for the military to patrol up and down. They think this is a matter of urgent national security. So, of course, did the East Germans.
It would be bad enough if this were only an ugly fence and bare strip off in the middle of nowhere that menaced nothing but common sense and common plants and animals. It's not. This fence and "bare strip" they want is destroying a unique habitat, where rare and endangered species survive because they have access to the river's water (which the fence will cut off) and native brush (which the bare strip will destroy.) Already, bulldozers are working close to a butterfly preserve in Starr County, in Roma. Rampant development in the Border area has already destroyed habitat on both sides of the river...there is no place for many of these plants and animals to go.
Now I grew up in that area, down the river in the next county. I love that country, and the people (on both sides of the river.) Yes, trouble can come out of Mexico. But so has a lot of good, and we have dumped a lot of our troubles (like polluted water in both the Rio Grande and the Colorado) onto Mexico. The vast majority of the illegal crossings are honest people who want to work, who want a better life for their families--the same way my ancestors did when they left Europe (or the other ancestors did, who left NE Asia and crossed the land bridge.) I hate this fence, the whole idea of this fence. I do not want to lose either people or the unique and irreplaceable habitats that lie along the Rio Grande, with their unique and irreplaceable plants and animals, just because we have an Administration and state governor exaggerate dangers to manipulate public opinion in favor of their schemes.
