Donald Trump’s Mexican Bogeyman
If the front door to your house is suddenly knocking against the frame, it could be the wind. It could also be a burglar trying to get in. It’s far less dangerous to assume it’s a burglar and have it turn out to be the wind than to assume it’s the wind and have it turn out to be a burglar.
The funny thing about fear is that it does not even exist, we create it. We create fear because we crave stability. Humans are creatures of habit, and although this is impossible to do, we want to have control over everything that happens in our lives.
The human mind in itself is far from weak; the possibilities of discovery and achievement are endless, however, our mind’s ability to create fear is as endless as it’s ability to discover and achieve. That ability is easily manipulated by those who wish to control us like demagogues and manipulative politicians.
This is the famous March 1976 cover of The New Yorker magazine created by Saul Steinberg. It’s entitled “View of the World from 9th Avenue”. The map shows how New Yorkers might see the rest of the world if they faced west on 9th Avenue. 10th Avenue and the Hudson river are clearly shown, but beyond that it’s just a bit of a blur. Canada and Mexico both make it onto the map, sandwiching a very rectangular United States but China, Japan and Russia are barely visible out past a Pacific Ocean that’s just slightly larger than the Hudson River.
This is Donald Trump’s view of the world. It’s the view he would like to use to create fear in the hearts of all Americans and trick us into spending five billion dollars of our money to build a wall he says will protect us from the fear of some Mexican Bogeyman he’s trying to create in our minds.
Following is a picture of the U.S./Mexican border. It extends 2,000 miles from Brownsville TX in the east to Tijuana Mexico in the west. 2,000 miles is two- thirds the width of the entire United States. Donald Trump wants to spend five billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer’s money, our money, to build a wall along the border to prevent “evil people” from entering the U.S. Five billion dollars is more than the combined budgets of the cities of San Antoino TX and San Diego CA both of which are located along the U.S./Mexican Border. In fact five billion dollars is more than the entire combined budgets of the cities of Dallas TX and Denver CO. Mexicans already make-up 25% of the combined populations of those four American cities.
The City of El Paso TX is located directly on the U.S./Mexican border. Donald Trump falsely claimed that El Paso went from “one of the most dangerous cities in the country to one of the safest cities in the country overnight” after “a wall was put up” along the Mexico border. El Paso has never been “one of the most dangerous cities in the country.” According to the Uniform Crime Reports from the FBI, the violent crime rate in El Paso historically has been well below the rate in other big cities in Texas, such as Houston, Dallas and Forth Worth, and has consistently been well below the national average for cities with 500,000 or more residents.
At the U.S./Mexican border there are “twin cities” that are both called “Nogales”. On the US side is “Nogales Arizona” and on the Mexico side is “Nogales, Sonora Mexico”. The two cities share a rich history. As soon as you pass through the DeConcini Port of Entry from downtown Nogales, Arizona into Nogales Mexico, you walk along the most popular way to cross the border into Nogales, Mexico. Many visitors now cross the border specifically to purchase prescription drugs as long as they have a legal prescription issued by a US physician. Florence AZ, considered to be the safest city in Arizona is only 140 miles from Nogales Mexico.
Nogales AZ and Nogales Mexico are separated by the fence in the following picture. Nogales AZ is now condemning the federal government’s placement of razor wire on the fence running through its downtown area as an “indiscriminate use of lethal force.” The Nogales City Council passed the measure unanimously and included a threat that it will sue the federal government if it doesn’t remove the wire.
Residents of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico are all neighbors of Mexico and Mexicans. They don’t have a cartoonish view of America and it’s neighbors like Donald Trump does. They’re not demanding five billion dollars of our money to build some medieval barricade to prevent a barbarian attack.
Following is a picture of New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signing an order to remove the majority of National Guard troops deployed at her state’s Southern border with Mexico. She recently condemned what she called a “charade of border fear-mongering” by President Trump, who has warned of an immigration emergency in the region.
It’s time all Americans told Donald Trump to put down the cartoons and stop the attempts to instill fear in our minds. We all know the difference between the front door knocking against the door frame, and a burglar trying to get in. We all know the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
