CONUNDRUM

It already IS illegal to enter our country improperly. Can you "square" illegal? Do you get llegal-er?

Everyone agrees that immigration is not a good situation. So then why isn't something done? President Bush kept us safe but did nothing about the border. Why? What motives by elected officials keep the border open? And how can there be so many varied camps in this immigration issue?

There is one Latino in the Senate, New Jersey's Senator Menendez. Last week he called for a Major League baseball players boycott of AZ. He also said "IF there is a greater border presence necessary, it should be in the form of additional border patrol agents." IF, Senator? IF? New Jersey must be a "fer piece" from the border. Or perhaps the Senator lacks the ability to see this issue as it affects the country as a whole.

Then there is President Obama making a joke about the issue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgZ1LWLlko His Attorney General and his Homeland Security Secretary (and others in the administration) spoke vociferously against what AZ passed. Well, they spoke vociferously until someone asked them if they had read the bill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rH1FEcbi4A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIwI1ICYCFE&feature=PlayList&p=EAD4BE57D39D9938&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=4

On another side there are the compassionates. They are good-willed people plus some Open Border people who must think that everyone has a right to live here and the country can accommodate everyone. I wonder if the compassionates' back yards looked like this if they would protect their property?

We've all heard of the AZ rancher who tried to protect his property. He and his dog were killed on March 27, 2010. The fifty-eight year old Rob Krentz (below) was a husband and father and granddad. His land had been in his family for 100 years. What would you do if your land became a drug corridor?

Armed burglaries are commonplace there as the drug smugglers deliver their goods and then rob on their way back through to Mexico. You wouldn't want to leave home for fear they would take it all. You certainly would be afraid to leave your wife at home alone. Rob Krentz had multiple burglaries and he had complained to law enforcement for years. The killer is at large, but the sheriff followed footprints back to Mexico.

Mike hunted back in the 60's with a college friend who had a ranch out in west Texas. Even back then, Mike can remember that they would come up on one of the unoccupied houses on the ranch and it was always unlocked. The policy was to leave it unlocked so transients wouldn't tear up the house getting in...and they left cans of frijoles prominently out on the kitchen table. Mike's rancher friend did the best he could to protect his family back then by basically bribing them to come and go peacefully.

There is another group in the immigration issue, the guilt crowd. Life is good for them and they feel bad that everyone does not share prosperity. Most people DO appreciate the life we have in this country. But if faux remorse swells the number of people and sinks the ship, our opportunity to do good for others goes down, too. America has an immigration plan that has worked in the past. Visit Ellis Island and look at what those immigrants wanted. They longed to come here and share the American experience. They demonstrated good faith by learning our language and fighting in our army and demonstrating their productivity. They wanted to become Americans. Ellis Island also teaches that people were admitted because of what they had to add as citizens. Criminals and people with communicable diseases need not apply. That's a far cry from today.

Our country is generous with her resources. We have always reached out to the poor and the oppressed. If our immigration policy needs to be tweaked, then let's TWEAK IT. But secure the border! We cannot continue to fling wide the door by enticing people to come here with offers of free healthcare and anchor babies and free schooling and sanctuary cities and free housing and free food. It was well intentioned in the beginning. It might have started out with a can of frijoles in the 60's, but you and I live in today's results.

And today the screen door opens, and a duke's mixture comes in. True, some are just people desperate to improve life for themselves and their family they left behind. They may not have any idea of becoming Americans (so they are not "immigrating")...and they endure abominable treatment in the process. Even so, are they the greatest danger? No. Borders must be regulated to protect us from the deadly undesirables - terrorists and drug runners and gangs who kidnap and kill. They hardly fit the inscription on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." NONE of these undesirables yearn to breathe free; they yearn to enslave and kill.

Have we taken leave of our senses? Truly, the enemy is at our gate. Yes, Senator Menendez, we DO need a greater border presence and it will take more than just border patrol. And President Obama, it will take more than that token 1,200 Guardsmen you just sent.

We need to protect our land so America may continue to be the shining city on a hill.

TEXAS ON MY MIND

Mike and I headed west on I40 toward Texas longhorn country for two reasons: we needed some margin in our lives, and Mike wanted to kill a turkey.

We drove 333 miles across the middle of Oklahoma and into the panhandle of the great state of Texas.

They do everything big in Texas, with the exception of the first TX town on I40 big enough for a McDonalds...a town called Shamrock, Texas.

Population in Shamrock hit it's peak in the 30's with 4,000 folks, but they have half that today. Because the town is also on old Route 66, there are some really neat old restored gas stations in town.

State Hwy 83 runs north and south through Shamrock. Mike has hunted for ten years in that area. A rancher friend has property close to two nearby towns on Hwy 83. Wheeler is 17 miles north of Shamrock...and Wellington is 26 miles south of Shamrock.

Those two small towns each are county seats and both have nice courthouses.

You may remember Wheeler, Texas. That is where George Bush announced his candidacy for the presidency. He was having lunch at Maxie's when he made the announcement.

We ate at Maxie's and it was chocked full of people with straw cowboy hats and shiny buckles and iPhones...and the parking lot was full of pickups and Escalades.

Wheeler is oil country.

The town to the south, Wellington, has to work harder for their identity. When Mike and I pulled into the RV campground outside of Wellington, we parked under huge cottonwood trees beside the fork of a river. The helpful camp hosts (Austin and Patsy) had lots of information to help us settle in.

They told us that we were in an area without TV/cell phone coverage. They told us about the places in town to eat. Wellington has less than a half-dozen restaurants and they all close at 2pm, so you have to be purposeful.

Patsy and I talked a long time about their community and she explained that they were important because of Bonnie and Clyde...

In 1933 Clyde Barrow was barreling north on Hwy 83 (then a dirt road) going 70 mph (at night) in a stolen v8 Ford that could outrun every one of the "laws" that tried to catch them.

But that night, Clyde didn't see a detour sign and he plowed through a barricade, went airborne, and landed upside down in the Salt Fork of the Red River where Mike is wading.

If you would like to read more about Bonnie and Clyde, I would recommend the book ("Go Down Together") that the camp host shared with me. It came out in 2009 and was diligently researched. Because it had history about the founding of Dallas...plus history of the 30's...it was interesting. Bonnie and Clyde's lives were not the lives portrayed in Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway's 1967 movie.

https://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-9781416557067-0

After lunch in town at the Taco Shack, we headed back to the motor home. Mike was going hunting and I was going to read my borrowed book.

Mike left and I began reading and enjoying having the windows open and the breeze blowing. Then the wind picked up and the coach began rocking. After about an hour, I realized I was hot (think beaker frogs) and checked to find it was 91 degrees inside. Boy, I WAS into my book. I turned on the air conditioner and looked out at a brown sky. It was dark and there was a dust storm. We had noticed as we drove from town that farmers were disking to plant their cotton. My book was talking about the Dust Bowl in the 30's, and I could EASILY understand how that happened. I wondered how the farmer down the road could plant when most of his dirt seemed to be on my teeth...

Now my mind was multi-tasking (reading and watching the sky). Plus I was remembering the camp host's admonition about the increased rattlesnakes this year. My husband had worn his high snake boots, but he was out crawling around in shin oak underbrush. And also in this 35-40 mph wind, how was he even going to get a shot off that hit the mark?

I didn't stew for long...in 90 minutes Mike was back. When I first saw him, I figured he had given up hunting because he wasn't able to see 20 yards in front of his face. But no, he quit because he had a turkey. My husband is quite the hunter/gatherer.

Later, when Texas was in our rear-view mirror, Mike and I missed the longhorns and the big country. But we had claimed our "space" and our turkey. And now we know a little about Texas history. Someone said that travel broadens one's horizons and reminds us that there are other worlds out there. Texas did seem to be another world. A big one.

But an even bigger world is coming when we hear the trumpet sound...

"Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying: “The kingdom of the world HAS BECOME the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11.15 NET

Didn't someone named Handel write a song about that moment in time?

FROM GORISM TO MOTHER'S DAY

Are you familiar with the word "Gorism"? I read a piece by Victor Davis Hanson @ http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/thoughts-on-gorism/ that explained the term. Here's how Mr. Hanson began...

"We all know that Al Gore has become a near billionaire through tirelessly warning the Western world that our daily habits have ruined the planet and nearly doomed us. Gore argues that what we take for granted - the too large homes in which we live, the carbon-spewing cars that we drive, the superfluous vacations and energy-hogging appurtenances that we enjoy - are all pernicious to the environment, and unsustainable."

So, what's a Gorism?

First you have to set aside the fact that the ex-Vice President has become almost a BILLIONAIRE from the global warming business. And forget that he thinks OUR homes are too large. Forget that to commute between HIS four luxury homes, the jet he rides might give off more CO2 than our rides combined. Now...we can enjoy the absurdity of Mr. Gore throwing caution to the wind and buying a California ocean-view 8.8 million dollar "villa" (see pictures @

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/05/exclusive-estimate-carbon-footprint-of.html )...

while warning US of the rising sea levels.

A Gorism, then, is saying one thing and doing another. Mr. Hanson gave some other examples of this hypocrisy:

...the kazillionaire George Soros decries capitalism while making his moolah in currency

speculation

...John Edwards talking constantly about how America was two nations, yet he built what Mr. Hanson called "a Neroian Golden House" (note from Susan: that ain't all of the great divide between what Mr. Edwards was saying/doing)

...Jeremiah Wright spewing sermons on "white man's greed runs a world in need" while living in

a mostly white, very expensive golf course community

...and, of course, our President who earns $5 million (expenses picked up by us) lamenting out loud about why rich people seem to want even more money that they don't need

These examples are left-leaning, but duplicity has no political party homepage. Think Senator Mark Sanford in South America; think Senator Larry Craig in the bathroom stall. Let's face it. Hypocrites are some hard folks to love. Abraham Lincoln said a hypocrite was like a man who murdered both his parents and then pleaded for mercy because he was an orphan. They really have the chutzpah.

What do Al Gore or Mark Sanford or John Edwards have in common? They put self first while sanctimoniously denying others the same privileges. Isn't that self-exaltation...to assume the rules apply to everyone but them? What does God think of folks who self-exalt?

"My hands have made both heaven and earth, and they are mine. I, the Lord, have spoken! I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word." Isaiah 66.2

Yet He LOVES them. He says ALL have availability to His love. Then walking His talk, Christ volunteered for the ultimate self-abandonment. His choice to love others more than His own life set the bar high. Wouldn't "selfless" be the opposite of a person full of himself?

Who do you know that is selfless?

Would it be a missionary? A soldier? A dad who dies to self and works more than one job for his family?

A mother?

On Mother's Day and every day, we should thank the Lord for the selfless ones. They are a rare breed.

Here are two wonderful mothers that Mike and I are giving thanks for: