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Cause and effect?

So "the fence" that everyone said "could not be built", is going to be built after all! Well imagine that! It must make my Grandfather proud to know that the same country that created the Panama Canal, Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams and the Tennesse Valley Project still has enough construction and civil engineering cojones left to create a simple fence.

I guess there's still hope for us yet...

Will it keep people out? If it was me on the southside of the fence wanting to go North, hell no, but thats not the point. The point of any fence isnt just to say "stay out" but also to say:

"Mine"

I think that's the more important message that is being sent with the the fence. This is our side, that is your side. If you want to keep an old Chevy on blocks in your backyard, thats fine with me but this is "our side" and we want a Jacuzzi and a brick barbeque unit in our backyard and the wife is real particular to what she looks at in the backyard and as much as I personally admire the fine design styling of late 50's-early 60's model Chevy's I'm afraid your 1959 "cats eye" Chevy Impala with the bondo fenders that you have on your porch doesnt quite cut it with the wife, she's all hung up with this "flower" obsession of hers and she just wont let go of it. So I have to throw up a few thousand dollars of formerly majestic tree materials as a boundary between our two places of residence.

Sure, you can jump right over it if you really wanted to and yes, you can buy a ladder thats taller than the fence, but the point is that once you cross a fence in that way there's no mistaking what it is you are you are doing. Theres no way to politely look the other way at a neighbor "accidentally" jumping your fence with a ladder, and the genuine sweetness of your purpose at the time really doesnt matter.

By doing that, you have stepped into that thing called "Mine". Its universally seen as a "bad thing" and is frowned upon, well, generally everywhere.

Oh, you can come over for a visit us anytime. Just use the front door. The way the new fence works is this; you knock at the front door, we answer, and if we are feeling up to company, you come on in and we have a grand old time.

People respect clear boundaries. If you don't make an effort to mark your territory, then its not your territory for long. Even Dogs and Cat's know this, so it must be true...

So I'm disappointed that we need a fence, but I'm happy that our governmental leadership finally recognizes the basic facts of "National Sovereignty". You either protect and defend your borders or you are just a "big Belgium" in no time at all.

That being said, I do have to wonder if our recent outbreaks of "E Coli" are due to a change in the standards of those picking vegetables for the rest of us. A change that has occured due to the unintended effect of our doing a more complete job of "protecting our borders".

"The law of unintended consequences" does pop up in the funniest places sometimes, doesnt it?

First -
You slow the migration of illegals immigrants.

Then -
The supply of readily available low skilled farm workers falls.

Which -
Causes farms to reach lower into the available labor pool...

...Resulting in the use of people who really shouldnt be involved in any way with the production of food. The final result is that more people die of a very simple, yet all too common, third world hygene problem right here in the "first world".

Cause and effect? maybe.

But I still like the fence. I guess it just makes me feel good and sometimes that's enough.

UPDATE: A thought occurs. When I need to build a fence between a neighbor and my house, I usually get my neighbor to kick in half the expense. You think theres any chance of getting Mexico to kick in for half?

Posted @ September 29, 2006 10:26 PM | Current Affairs

Posted by: Ernest F Andreas at October 6, 2006 03:00 PM