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if we could start over and do it again
My name is juan and i would like to share some reflections on my experience at the border camp and some ideas that might have made the camp even more successful than it was. first off i would like to say that i whole heartedly include myself in the critiques that i'm offering up.
I'm always talking up the hugely successful "Root Cause" march from Lake Worth to Miami Florida which lead up to the FTAA protests. I think that it's a good event for others to compare themselves to because it went so well. A big part of it's success was the coalition building that went into the infrastructure of the march. There was a strong leadership and participation from people of color and a diverse set of groups w/ a diverse set of agendas were involved in putting it together. from what i recall there was the miami worker's center which advocates for worker's rights and services in miami. There was the coalition of imokoli workers who advocate for tomato growers in imokole and lead successful campaigns against taco bell and mcdonalds. and there was the art and revolution type crowd making big masks and puppets and costumes to make the whole spectacle beautiful to behold.
i know from speaking with some of the folks from San Diego that there were lots of effort and hurdles to jump over in order for coalition building to take place and that it didn't work out so well in the end but as a participant it definetly felt like this element was missing from the border camp. this could have added a bit more guidance in terms of what sort of actions to take and could have also amplified the levels of diversity in the camp in terms of race and age.
the other critique is where i wish i would have stepped up more. the camp and the march seemed to remain largely invisible to it's immediate surroundings. the initial march from the parking lot to the sight was not in a very visible place in calexico. it might have been better had it snaked around downtown a bit more than it had and could also have done the same on the mexican side of the border. it would have been good to have some handouts to give to onlookers to explain what the march was about. i wasn't at this march but it sounded like there was some confusion as to what our message was. Then the march that took place at the end was also in a very isolated part of downtown calexico. i know that it was symbolically on both sides of the fence but in hindsight it would have been great had it gone through downtown with a bit more beautiful spectacle because it was a busy day that day but not where the march was taking place. it could have then returned to the fence so we could be on either side of the fence again.
i was thinking that a cool visual for a march like this would have been lots of monarch butterfly wing flags. monarchs migrate north from mexico every year and also represent the souls of the dead returning for the day of the dead. i work with a group in austin that did a puppet show about monarch butterfly migration that would have been good for me to bring.
lastly there was the idea of doing more workshops and such at parks in calexico but i think it would have been better to bring workshops downtown. imagine waffle's slide show about immigrants in arizona on the streets of mexicali or calexico in the evening. or if i would have done a beehive collective presentation there. that would have been great! and things like this would have made the camp much more visible and culturally stimulating for the communities that were our nieghboors during the days of the border camp.
thanks to the organizers of this encampment who worked so hard to make it happen. it's hard to get things right the first time. i for one am really inspired by what we didn't do so that we can make it a better event next time.
Comentarios
Juan,
Well Juan, I have to admit you are the first member of the no borders camp that has spoken with any maturity and intellect. However, I think your theories are flawed. I am also a first generation United States citizen; my family immigrated to the United States Of America in the 1960s. My family worked hard to become good citizens of this great country. They learned the language, obeyed the laws, worked long hours and eventually becam naturalized United States Citizens. I don't see that same committment in a majority of the illegal aliens that are flocking to the United States today.
Recently we have seen marches and protests throughout the United States where the people are waving Mexican flags. If these people are so proud of that country then why do millions of them risk their lives to come here? Why do they protest our government and not theirs? I have spoken with literally thousands of illegal aliens in the past few years and their responses are very consistent. I ask them why they are coming to this country and the response is always for work/money. Many of them state that they love their country but can't earn a living there due to taxation and low wages. I always ask them what they are doing to try to make their country better. The answer is always the same. NOTHING! Don't you think that the answer to the problems in Mexico or El Salvador or China must be resolved in those countries. If litteraly millions of them are unhappy with their finacial and social situations why don't they start a revolution in their country? I'll tell you why. Because illegally immigrating to the United States of America is the easy way out. These people know that even though they are unskilled, uneduacated and have no loyalty, the government of the United States of America will still honor thier civil rights. We will still take care of them when they are sick or injured, we will feed them when they are hugry, we will allow them to commit violent crimes and rape our economy and give them the same legal rights as United States Citizens.
You think our government is oppressive? Look at the corruption and injustices in Mexico. Is it not normal for the police and government agencies in Mexico to be hoplessly corrupt? When illegal immigrants get robbed, raped, murdered and abused on the border in Mexico who do you think they run to. I'll tell you who. The United States Border Patrol. When the greedy, theiving human traffickers (these smugglers are almost entirely fellow citizens of Mexico) abandon them in the desert or rape their wives, or beat and rob them who comes to the rescue? The United States Border Patrol. Ask any illegal alien who he has more repect for: any Mexican law enforcement agency or the United States Border Patrol. I bet you know the answer.
I am the F**KIN MIGRA that has been insulted and assualted by your No Borders group. These poor kids haven't a clue of what really happens on the border every day. Do you? Do you live in a border town? Raise your kids their? Work their? No, huh? Then why do you all think you are experts on this subject?
I know hundreds of Border Patrol Agents and guess what? I don't know a single agent that has ever killed and illegal immigrant. However, just about every agent I know has risked his or her own life to save the life of an illegal immigrant. Does this sound like the behavior of of Nazi racist faciast pigs? The United States Border Patrol is most likley the most diverse law enforcement agency in the world. Just look at the video. Look at the faces and names of the agents.
These No Borders people were way out of line with their insults and threats. But to physically assault federal agents that risk their own lives on a daily basis to protect our country? I am just glad that no one was seriously injured or killed. Whoever is brainwashing these poor kids should be held responsible for their actions. They should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of these kids to make themselves feel more important.
Many of these No Borders people talk and act like they are experts on the border situation and on illegal immigration. Like you pal Waffle that had one experiance in his entire life that had to do with illegal immigration. I know for sure that a majority of those people were not immigrants to this country, did not live in border towns and have no right to make judgements on something that they know absolutely nothing about.
Where were all the local people from the Calexico/Imperial Valley/Mexicali area? Did anyone bother to ask them how they felt about these issues? You can't make this into a race issue either, becuase most of the people in this area are of hispanic descent. And guess what? They support and respect the United States Border Patrol.
Juan, can I give you a bit of advice? If you want to further your cause you should find a different group to do it with. Or start your own group. It wasnt hard to tell that most of the No Borders people were just there to have some reckless fun and to start a riot. It deeply saddens me that they accomplished that goal and didn't even help a single illegal immigrant in the process...
ya know, what you guys are
ya know, what you guys are doing is not fair to those people in countries who really are attacked by the police there. you need to stop playing your childish games and grow up. you are just underminding the plights of those who really have to fight for their civil liberties due to really atrocious conditions. you weaken their cases every time you come out and satrt sh**, then completely lie about it. I'm pretty sure that you really do believe in your cause, and thats cool, no matter what your beliefs, they are yours and in this country you have the right to voice them, but dont lie. dont abuse your rights, thats how you will end up screwing it up for us all. no more theatrics, PLEASE?
Re: ya know, what you guys are
over 4,000 documented deaths have occurred in the boarder region since 1994 because of cross border economic warfare against the poor and then the subsequent militarization of the boarder... By comparison under 100 died attempting to cross the Berlin wall.
Direct actions always risk escalating abuses by the state. But this must be balanced against the injustice that the state & corporations are perpetrating.
People are being attacked and killed by the militarization of the boarder every day in this country!. How you can not see that as "atrocious conditions" is beyond me.
This goes hand in hand with the devastation NAFTA has wrecked on the poor people of Mexico and is the key part in creating these atrocious conditions. US corporations have pushed millions into starving desperation in economic warfare flooding their markets with US-agro subsidized crops, pushing people from their lands so corporations can extract the resources, eliminating local industry with cheep foreign goods, and subquent downward push on labor wages as the corporate maquiladoras become the only game in town. Free from traditional organized labor constraints in a global marketplace added with the complicity of a corrupt state supported by transnational trade agreements that have near zero human or environmental conditions a very ugly picture emerges.
In this context in which traditional strugles for improvement of labor conditions is near impossible to sustain so naturally we have an influx of migrants...we must stand in solidarity to build a better world ;) these downward pushes on labor rights will continue to spill over regardless of how high and wide of a wall is built for people while capital flows without constraints for human rights.
Grow Up
Do you really believe that open borders is the best thing for the United States? What about the criminals and diseases that would flood into the United States? Do you care about your country? If you care so much about other countries, go live there....
You call on me to act on a freedom that you seek to deny others.
The border militarization is "criminal" and has been killing lots of people. Its only because its a particular race and class of individuals having their human rights violated that their complaints are disregarded by many living in the US.
As attempted to communicate in the previous post they face low intensity warfare on their economy with hundreds of thousands of farmers out of work. I don't care about "my" country I care about the livelihood of all humans. An the US supports injustice "over there" it will always create injustice here.
Clearly their are valid concerns of the US population about downward pressure on wages that open borders would create. There is an easy solution would have been not to undercut key sectors of the Mexican agricultural economy when the trade laws where established and to put in more labor rights into trade laws. The corporations fought to make sure that did not happen. Now these corporations lean on racism to cast the migrant as a criminal when it when it was their criminality in establishing the laws that pushed millions into poverty and subsequently motivated mass migration.
Your concern about "criminals" entering could also be alleviated with more liberal migration quotas that would help regulate instead of criminalize... this would also protect the us from the much more common crime in the US which is abusing immigrant labor resource because of their questionable immigration status. Again by protecting the rights of others we would protect ourselves in eliminating black market labor and associated downward pressure on US wages
Your concern about disease would again be addressed by proper enforcement of labor regulations so that the issues of malnutrition, make shift housing, lack of medical care could be addressed.
In the long term we should acknowledge that Its human nature to migrate when you face poor living conditions. We should not build systems that restrict freedoms of movement it should not be a crime to survive and peruse prosperity.
Explain this....
Ok, I'll listen to your view for a second to propose this....
You state that a more liberal immigration policy with higher quotas would alleviate the criminal elemant from coming into the country. How? Let's say we set the quota at 10 million a year. What happens to the 10,000,001st person? Guess he is shit out of luck....at some point a number must be set; our social programs cannot handle an infinite amount or people in need. Also, how will increasing the quota keep a criminal out? If he is a criminal and realizes he will not be allowed to illegally enter the country, he will then sneak in. So, how do you propose we stop criminals and drug smugglers from sneaking into the country?
Those of you on your side of the argument need to realize that no matter how many we allow in legally, there will still be those that have no choice but to sneak in because they are legally not allowed or wanted in this country (child molesters, rapists, murderers, etc..) How do you propose that they are prevented from entering?
I think a large majority of you need to spend a little more time in classes relating to the subjects of Economy, Government, Civilization, and History and less time kissing through a hole in the fence. This issue for me has absolutely nothing to do with race; it has everything to do with me not wanting to give ANYTHING I worked and sacrificed for my entire life to someone that has done nothing to earn it.
crime confution
First off immigrants commit crimes at a lower or equal rate as natural born citizens this has been shown over decades of research. A small sample of such studies available here. So if you wanted to reduce crime resources would be better spent inland. As for the small section of immigrant criminals they will be easier to identify when you don't have millions of honest hard working people lumped into the same category.
Second, what I meant by more liberal immigration quotes is that you bring people into the legal system. This lets people live within law. There is not an infinite amount of people that want to leave mexico for the US... for many years we did not have a militarized boarder yet people where happy to live their lives in mexico. The influx of immigrants is a result trade policies, and globalization ... not people simple deciding on a whim to move countries to spite you and what you worked for.
Adjust the trade policies so that the disparity of wealth is not so dramatic and you will fix the immigration "problem" much more effectively.
WAKE UP!
Heres a thought. If you want to come to the US, do it legally.
LIKE MY FAMILY AND I DID.
We came to this country in 1976, and I have lived here ever since. I have been serving A/D in the Military since 1990. I love this county dearly, and will defend it from threats, both foreign and DOMESTIC.
You people aggravate the heck out of me. You think that everything can be sunshine and daisies, everyone living together in peacefull freedom and harmony.
I am sorry to have to break the news to you: Not everyone gets to grow up and be an astronaut. not everyone gets to grow up and have their needs fufilled.
There are people who will grow up without food every day, or without shoes on their feet. We cannot alllow every Tom Dick and Harry to come into the country as they please. As someone previously mentioned, the influx of criminals and disease would cripple the country and kill thousands (sounds silly and overly dramatic, but no more than the tripe being thrown around supporting an open border).
I guess we can't blame you, the college student for being so blind to the bigger picture. Tunnel vision happens very easily. There is a quote that fits here:
“Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.”
It is time for you all to grow up, wake up, and see the big picture.
"Life sucks, get a helmet"