The Minutemen

Dr. Michael L. Ford

24 May 2005

            In early 1775, it seemed conflict between England and the colonies was inevitable. Volunteer militia called Minutemen were training, drilling, and gathering military supplies. They were called Minutemen because they “had to be ready to defend their homes and families upon a minute’s notice.” The core of the reason for the need for these militia was the government of England had failed her subjects as a nation, even oppressed them. In 2005 a new group of people calling themselves “Minutemen” have come into being for very much the same reason. This time it is the government of the United States that has failed to do its constitutionally mandated jobs, and even done ill to its own citizens. And like the government of England in 1775, the government of the United States does not appreciate the Minutemen one bit.

             The flaming liberals do not like the Minutemen either. The ACLU has been out following the citizens protecting our borders where our government will not along with news people hoping to produce a negative story about these patriots. Disliking such patriotic terms as Minutemen, and the picture it still paints for those who managed to learn something of American history beyond the socialist propaganda the National Education Association has put into public schools, the media dubbed the whole thing as the “Arizona Redneck Revolt.” (Frankly, I was long ago disgusted with the journalists who in ignorance or otherwise altered the meaning of the word “redneck” as well.)

            Reporters have made out the Minutemen are the problem along the border. The liberals would give the country away to the thousands who slip into the country every night. They probably do not think of calling the cops when they see somebody breaking the law back in their cities either, that is, unless the victim happens to be them. Americans in the border regions have gotten tired of being the victims of illegal aliens crossing into this country, but the media is ignoring the crimes being perpetrated against them, just as it is ignoring the increasing connection between crime in the cities and the presence of illegal aliens throughout our nation.

            The presence of the Minutemen along the border works. Where they were in April, along the Naco corridor, the number of illegals coming across fell. Yes they went to other places along Arizona's 350-mile-long border with Mexico to cross, but you have to begin somewhere. The impact where they were argues for more Minutemen keeping watch, not less, and for more cooperation from the Border Patrol, since they either can not or will not handle the job.

            Of course the media elite want stories about gun-toting vigilantes running amok in the desert, hunting “harmless illegals” who they claim are only looking for work, ignoring the crime wave we have experienced throughout most of the continental United States because of people who are in the country illegally. You see liberal media is against citizens with guns and for foreigners who break the law in our country. They are not interested in the problems illegal immigration is causing in the border regions any more than they are interested in the harm that is being done anywhere else. They will not be interested unless it happens to them personally and that is unlikely to affect the collective mind think until something happens to an editor or producer with influence.

            Border residents are routinely made fun of and called racist vigilantes. Most are decent people being victimized in the nightly invasion of illegal aliens who cross their land doing damage as they go. One sympathetic local Arizona reporter/resident said:. “Ranchers in hard-hit areas spend the first hours of every day repairing damage done the night before. They find fences knocked down and water spigots left on, draining thousands of precious gallons. And then there's the trash: pill bottles, syringes, used needles, and pile after pile of human feces. Sometimes illegals hammer on residents' windows in the middle of the night, demanding to use the phone. Some even walk right into the ranch house and refuse to leave until the rancher pulls a gun and forces the issue.” They have even been known to rustle newborn calves. In one incident they beat a 12-hour-old animal to death with a fence post, then barbecued it on the spot.

            The claim they are all just coming for work is pure bunk too! In the Tucson Sector alone in January 2005, the Border Patrol arrested 35,704 people, seized 34,864 pounds of marijuana, and impounded 557 smuggling vehicles, all in one month. In case you missed it they got nearly as much marijuana in pounds, not ounces, as they did people. In some places these criminals, because that is what they are, own the backroads at night. Residents know to stay off certain roads because the smugglers, of people and drugs, can cause you great harm either accidentally or on purpose if you are there.

            Border crossing is done right out in the open. Several t.v. specials have shown people crossing the border virtually at will. What thy usually have not shown is the spectacle of hundreds of headlights from Mexican cabs brazenly streaming north filled to the windows with soon-to-be illegals. The enemies of our nation, whether they be in the ACLU, the media, or even in government think we should do nothing.

            You never know if the people coming over at a particular point are basically good people, drug smugglers or enemy agents carrying biological weapons. We do know a lot of thugs have come over and we do have good reason to believe terrorists have also. Ranchers have found Muslim prayer rugs and Arabic dictionaries on their property. And the feds have confirmed the ultraviolent Mara Salvatrucha gang is using Arizona as a gateway into the United States. Bet you haven’t heard about that. The media views talking about such things as politically incorrect. They would rather leave the illegals alone and go after their victims instead. Some of these criminal aliens, which is what all of them become when they cross our borders, have been known to approach ranchers demanding beer. They know their “rights” are protected. Sometimes they poison barking ranch dogs or cut their throats to quiet them, many of the border crossers would not hesitate to do similarly to people.

            The Department of the Interior, and The National Parks Service has been walking over Western ranchers for years, and now their allies are illegal aliens, media elites, and the ACLU. It is very hard for these Americans, who for the most part only want to live simple but productive lives ranching, to get a fair shake from anyone. That is why there is a need for the modern day Minutemen.

            A poll found 57% of the Arizona’s residents, understanding the problem, supported the border-watch project. The liberal editorial page of the Tucson Arizona Daily Star called the number 'alarming.'  They view the illegal crossovers as migrants, not criminals.  A new citizen’s group, the Yuma Patriots, has now been formed that will probably cause the media a 57% increase in depression, but I am glad to see them come into being.

            Watching all this take place for the last few years I have noted that illegal immigration, that is the people just looking for work, has posed a serious drain on the economy of the United States, in addition to the folly of the programs that sent much business overseas. One observer contributed a quote from one of our founding fathers that seems to apply. He said:

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

-- James Madison, 4 Annals of congress 179 (1794)

            And as usual the liberal “church leaders” have been on the wrong side of the matter, siding with the likes of the godless ACLU. These “churchmen” are people who having virtually destroyed their own denominations are going about to do damage to the rest of the country as well. These “ecumaniacs,” people who love everyone else’s religion better than they do their own, have added their own brand of confusion to the matter. Were the media of a sound mind they would not get a second of attention, but here they are running their mouths as if they were successful in the calling the claim to be called to. I will not quote them because frankly they do not have anything to say even worthy of refuting. I merely note their presence because it is another sign of the times in which we are living.

Gov. Schwarzenegger, a legal immigrant to the United States, has verbally supported the Minuteman Project, which consists of citizens patrolling in private vehicles and calling law-enforcement agents when people are seen crossing the border. The Minutemen plan to also start patrolling the California border in August. Apparently the “Governator” has more sense than a great many who have made it their business to interject themselves into the matter. For me, I wish the “girly-men” would shut up, butt out, and let those of us who love America alone to applaud the real patriots in this story, the Minutemen.