Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Borderline Psychotic


Woke up to yet another day of Trump-bashing in the Times and elsewhere. So satisfying to read, and I'm sure to write.

Likewise the many expressions of amazement that the rest of the Republican presidential lineup can't bring itself to deplore and denounce the Donald. What a cynical and spineless bunch, right?

I mean really, Is there anybody who knows anything about Mexico or the real issues connected with border security who doesn't just shake their head and pile on when the subject comes up in conversation?

Well, actually, it turns out there is.

A visiting relative of a neighbor who joined us for our July 4 block party last week handed me one of those moments I've mentioned before in which you blunder into social calamity by assuming that the truths you hold to be self-evident aren't shared by everyone.

She was a woman in her 30s who works for Customs and Border Patrol in Tucson. In the most matter-of-fact terms, without a trace of argumentative emotion, she said Trump's description of illegal immigrants from the south struck her as pretty accurate.

Even more remarkable, she said the controversy took her completely by surprise. Trump's comments didn't seem outrageous or even especially noteworthy to her. She sees or hears about criminal scum crossing the border every day and assumed everybody knew that's why we employ her and thousands like her to guard it for us.

And more remarkable still, she was raised in a Spanish-speaking home in El Paso herself by parents whose forebears were Mexican.

It certainly gave us something to chew on with our hot dogs, watermelon and tricolor cupcakes. Meanwhile, we did what you do in these situations. Somebody changed the subject.

3 comments:

  1. "Somebody changed the subject." Wonder who that might have been? Discretion always has been the better part of valor; right, Dave?

    P.S. First rain in PV today after weeks of blistering heat and humidity that feels as though you might drown in it if you take too deep a breath.

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  2. P.S. Love the " f u " visible behind Trump. Whoever cropped the photo got it right.

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