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Hyperventilating About The Wall
[DallasNews] BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK - It took years for visitors to Big Bend to once again ride in a rowboat to cross the Rio Grande and enjoy homemade tacos and beer in the tiny Mexican village of Boquillas del Carmen. Montezuma never took revenge on progressive tourists. The 2013 reopening of the privately held border crossing was an emotional moment for residents on both sides of the border after an informal crossing was shut down after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We all feel much safer now. No one worries about bad guys sneaking across the border. Right? President-elect Donald Trump's promise to build a big wall along the 2,000-mile border has residents and visitors alike worried. A wall, locals say, would harm tourism and threaten conservation and renewed efforts to create a binational protected area straddling the border, something critics say in a time of border security concerns is unrealistic. Some of us learned months ago, at Rantburg, that a wall doesn't need to be continuous to be effective.  "The idea of putting a wall up from Brownsville to San Diego can't be discounted," said Shawn Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol agents. "We can look at each sector of the border and decide. Are we able to control an area without a fence? If the answer is yes, then we can look at that ," said Moran. "Security really has to come first." Opponents, however, argue that a wall would destroy the park's scenic beauty and threaten wildlife, including the return of the black bear to Texas. They also say it would do little to enhance security or deter illegal immigration. The park, which shares 118 miles of border with Mexico, is likely to become part of the debate if Trump tries to make good on his promise of a border wall. But we might not need a wall there. Undeterred, The Media plows on. "A big wall in Big Bend would basically destroy the wilderness quality Big Bend has protected." said a member of the Greater Big Bend Coalition, a nonprofit leading the effort to create a binational park or protected area. How about a little wall? Some concertina wire? A minefield, maybe - they don't take much space! The Dallas Morning News in 1938 reported on the Big Bend International Peace Park proposal. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to Mexico's President Manuel Avila Camacho in 1944, the year the national park was created, to say Big Bend would not be complete until "both sides of the Rio Grande form one great international park." Oh, I see. So put the wall on the south side of the great International Park! Posted by: Bobby 2016-12-03 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=474789 |