The Pendragon's Hall

I guess I'm going to have to say something about this. There's an article here dealing with the lapse of justice in the US and I think, for one, they are right on. About this whole minutemen thing: I at least am glad the Left did not exist in this country till the 1960s or America would never have existed either. For those of you who haven't been following, these minutemen are American citizens who have decided not to wait for the government to fulfill its long-neglected promise to protect our borders and have volunteered themselves to serve without pay as unofficial border guards. All that I have read says they have not threatened or harmed anyone. They simply stalk the illegal aliens stealing in and report them to the actual border guards who then make the arrests. They are roundly condemned by the government of Mexico and even President Bush has referred to them as "vigilantes" as if what they are doing is somehow extra-legal or even illegal. Nor will he, at least according to this article, refer to the Mexican invasion as anything illegal in and of itself. Stand back, folks, this one's going to get ugly....What is your problem, President Bush? Your administration has done nothing to stop this problem. Instead you've been championing ideas of allowing illegals to become legal after the fact regardless of how they got here. How is this different from Clinton? These people are just getting very fed up with the worthless job their government is doing to actually protect them from illegal immigrants. And you call them "vigilantes." The Mexican government is not our friend, and their people pour over the borders every year. And everytime people cry to the government, they get the same answer: "We don't have the manpower or the money." Well, you can't use that excuse anymore, can you? Maybe that's why you don't like it. By all means, condemn excess--if a minuteman gets over-zealous and shoots an illegal, rein it in. But peaceable activity to do what the government should be doing and isn't should be encouraged. This all part of the active, informed citizenship that you will need and say that you want to protect this country from terrorists. I worry about this failure on the part of the current administration. I worry about longterm consequences too. If Republicans do not step forward now and actively govern the way the people concerned want them to govern, they will need to watch out in 2008 because we could end up with a one-issue third party candidate splitting the Republican vote by taking a strong stand on illegal immigration and, just like last time, a Clinton could steal into the office. Don't risk it.