Forest Fires and Tear Gas<\/p>\n
This weekend the President of the United States got what he wanted.\u00a0 The \u201ccaravan\u201d of migrants arrived in Tijuana, Mexico.\u00a0 Five thousand men, women, and children; fleeing their homes in Central America, all seeking asylum in the United States.\u00a0 The President has ordered the \u201c\u2026border held at all costs!\u201d\u00a0 He must feel very proud, defending our nation and using that old dog whistle to racism \u2013 \u201cAmerica First.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the migrants stack up in Tijuana, already one of the most dangerous cities on the continent; some have decided to try to cross illegally.\u00a0 Trump has rallied the border patrol to stand against them, preventing the migrants from getting to stand in the US to ask for asylum.\u00a0 Men, women and children (children) were first confronted by the Mexican police, then when they rushed the border; US \u201cforces\u201d fired tear gas at them.\u00a0 Thirty-nine were arrested in Mexico, forty-two made it across the border to be arrested in the US.<\/p>\n
The pressure on the border is going to continue to build.\u00a0 With thousands of migrants in Tijuana without shelter and with nowhere else to go, there will continue to be outbreaks of violence.\u00a0 Sooner or later, someone is going to get killed.\u00a0 The US is trying to force Mexico to move the migrants away from the border, to take charge of them as they are slowly processed for possible asylum.\u00a0 Mexico, reasonably, thinks this is more the US\u2019s problem than theirs, and wants the US to get to the root of the problem in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala rather than deal with people at the border.<\/p>\n
The United States cannot solve the migrant crisis at the border.\u00a0 As Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama all realized:\u00a0 the problem is what\u2019s going on in Central America.\u00a0 The US has to impact the gang violence and poverty and try to change the conditions where the migrants live, rather than wait for them to show up at the Southern Border.\u00a0 But making the migrants want to stay home is a difficult task, requiring America to commit to solve the problems of others; other brown people.<\/p>\n
It is similar to the Administration\u2019s approach to the forest fires in California and rising tides on the coasts.\u00a0 President Trump states that if we \u201craked the forest floor\u201d we could avoid the conflagrations that are becoming so commonplace.\u00a0 He ignores the real problem:\u00a0 extended drought, high heat, continuing winds; all caused by the shifts in global climate, the real cause of the fires.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t find some way to alter those changes and reset the \u201cworld,\u201d then we will continue to face this destruction, as well as rising tides, and extreme weather throughout the nation.<\/p>\n
Sure, California can use more fire fighting planes.\u00a0 Sure, many parts of Florida will need to build up their dunes to protect the coast.\u00a0And sure, we need more judges to adjudicate asylum cases at the border (rather than troops and tear gas.)\u00a0 But all of these are not solutions, they are only temporary band aids that will ultimately cost more and do less.\u00a0 We need to reach to the heart of the problem.<\/p>\n
But California is the \u201cGreat Blue State,\u201d voting Democrat through and through.\u00a0 Is the President really committed to helping a state led by Jerry Brown, with Diane Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff all representing them?\u00a0 Or is he OK with letting them burn?<\/p>\n
And then there is the final, more insidious question.\u00a0 The racists\u2019 echoes in \u00a0\u201cAmerica First\u201d leads to questions about our current President\u2019s motives at the border.\u00a0 Does he want to solve the migrant crisis, or does he want to encourage more confrontation with \u201cbrown people?\u201d\u00a0 Does he have an interest in making the world \u201cbetter,\u201d or is he only interested in encouraging his political base by demonstrating his \u201cresolve\u201d\u00a0 against an \u201cinvading brown horde?\u201d<\/p>\n
Like it or not, the President of the United States represents us all.\u00a0 We \u2013 yes we \u2013 are firing tear gas at the migrants:\u00a0 we are creating this confrontation at the border.\u00a0This, and the ridiculous Administration stand on global warming, and the clear choice of money over morals in the Khashoggi case, is what the United States is today.\u00a0 What WE are. That is the real challenge going forward for all of us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"