COMMUNITY

A group of people can all want the exact same thing, but nothing happens.

A smaller group of people within the larger group can take the initiative, and some things will begin to happen.

And in the best case scenerio, a handful of people take charge, and wonderful things do happen.

I am lucky enough to live in an area where this last action happened.

And for once I was NOT one of those take-charge people.

Whew.

THE BORDER SONG

(This is an old Elton John song that I think you have to be a true fan to know. But that's an entirely different posting, isn't it?)

Driving home, where I live three miles from the fence between the U.S. and Mexico, I was passing the regular staged Border Patrol vehicles off the highway, and watched the flood lights on the border fence on the horizon.

And I realized a lot of you don't have any idea what happens down here regularly. So I thought I'd enlighten you.

Large brush fires are set, deliberately, on both the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border to distract from groups of illegals crossing or drugs being packed in. I live in what is called high-chaparal - lots of yucca and mesquite and grasses - and most of it burns pretty easily and pretty fast.

If the fire is is Mexico, it is left alone until it burns out, without any attempt to control. If it's on the U.S. side, it is tackled only when buildings or homes are endangered.

Huge groups of people are sent over from Mexico simply to engage the Border Patrol with processing all of them so a drug shipment can get through some other point on the border.

Drugs are packed into tires, fake gas tanks, truck shipments and diaper bags to get across regular check-points.

People,  who have already been walking for days to get to Northern Mexico, cross the border, ill-prepared for summer heat, winter freezing, with no water, little food and often abandoned by their coyote (human smuggler). So much of the time they are relieved to be caught and sent back.

The Border Patrol use trucks, helicopters, drones, and horses to track what comes from Mexico. They work all hours, day and night, get shot at, are physically attacked, have rocks thrown at them, and are subject to all sorts of legal actions if they injure or kill someone while trying to defend their lifes.

People come from Mexico cross to work at far-below-minimum-wage jobs, that have no safety inspections, no government regulations, no union backup, no medical or health plan. They live in shacks, or stuffed in small apartments with as many people as can be stuffed into them. They work as many hours per day as they can, with no overtime pay.

And they send most if not all of their paycheck home to feed their children in Mexico.

There is no easy solution to the problem - in fact, I don't think there is ANY answer until Mexico cleans up their government and gets rid of the drug czars... and I have no idea how they can possible do that - every town has corrupt officials, drug traffic which brings in most of the town's money, and people who are executed regularly and their bodies put on public display.

And as long as companies in the U.S. will hire the illegals, and people in the U.S. will pay for drugs, it ain't gonna stop down here.

There aren't any easy answers, and there won't be, regardless of what the politicans promise.

Just thought you'd like to know.

BANG BANG MY BABY SHOT ME DOWN

One of the most feared attacks in the animal kingdom is from a mama bear who is separated from her cub.

And yesterday, my mama-bear hackles were risen (did rise? rose?) when one of my baby bears was put in danger - there was a shooting right outside her apartment.

Joy lives in a apartment complex, which isn't in the worst section of town (which here is anything west of Seventh St.), but it also isn't a very classy place (because I have to pay the rent).

A lot of lower-income, blue collar employees - quite a few military/transient occupants (sidebar here - I hate hate hate the word "transient" - I think I read "Grapes of Wrath" way too many times), so people in and out every couple of months.

But no matter where you live nowadays, there can be drugs being sold or exchanged - people can become violent - and gun-toting-friendly Arizona, there can be shootings.

Some good came from the incident - Joy learned that she should call 911 before me in any sort of emergency - she understands now that when you hear a gun going off, you do NOT go outside on the balcony to see what is happening - and no, you don't get sent to jail for calling the police and then someone does not get arrested.

Mama bear's fur is still slightly ruffled, but my growling is getting quieter.

SCHEDULED INSOMNIA

After years and years of scorn for insomniacs, I am now dependent on a small blue pill if I expect to get any actual sleep.

But now I need to plan for a few nights of staying awake all night.
There are certain advantages, honestly, to being awake all night - such as:

- Hours and hours of stunningly awful grade-B movies, like "Godzilla Meets Vampire Baby" and "Human Zombies At The Prom."

- Finding all the your friends who are also insomniacs on Facebook and writing what will appear tomorrow as meaningless babble but at the moment appears incredible profound.

- The number of infomercial that promise instant youth, immediate slender and fit bodies, erections that may last up to four hours all for never-ending payments of $34.99 a month, payable through any type of plastic, just call our operators in Sri Lanka within the next five minutes.

- The ever increasing weight of your exhausted limbs as the exhaustion grows; it is novel.

- The gradual, almost unmeasurable but beautiful moments of increasing luminous in the east.

- Finally falling asleep just as the rest of the world is waking up, into that deep deep zone of fatigue that hits the absolute bottom of dreamless sleep.

I think I better wait until tomorrow night, however - than I can sleep when everyone else is gone.

CAT EYES

There is a battle going on between my cat and me, and the cat is winning.

Pandora has been banned from my bedroom to provide myself with at least one allergy-free area.

And it's difficult, because you can't simply shut the bedroom door - it doesn't latch completely, and Pandora will repeatedly throw himself against the door until it opens (this is not a small cat - at around 25 lbs he can pack a pretty big wallop).

My dog will lie right in the doorway to keep the cat out, but Pandora can jump over him much quicker than poor old arthritic Murray can get up (which is interesting because Pandora is actually older than Murray).

 
So I have been forced to resort to violence - throwing tennis balls at him.
 
Now, this is a smart cat... much smarter than I am at this stage of my life. So he sits just outside of range, and does something much worse.
 
Simply stares at me.  

It's a battle of wills...

... and he is winning.

GONE WITH THE WIND

Wind is a little bit scary at times.

The weather forecasters can be counted on to predict a 10% chance of showers, and then have a four-day downpour cause massive flooding.

When they call for a week of complete sunshine, the dark clouds begin to move in immediately.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a job where you are consistently wrong and still be employed?

But wind - how can they predict so exactly something that you can't even SEE?

They seem to get it close to the MINUTE it will begin, the speed down perfectly, and how long it is going to last.

It's always amusing to hear the forecast for "hurricane-force" winds here in Arizona, where we are pretty far from any ocean.

Anyone know the secret?

IN MEMORY OF ROB KRENTZ

The body of a rancher, a Rob Krentz outside of Douglas, was found yesterday morning. The last contact with him was a phone call to his brother, telling him that he was helping out some illegal aliens on Saturday afternoon.

It's not that incredibly close to my house - Apache is about 50 miles east of me, NE of Douglas - so I shouldn't be shocked.

But I am appalled - or perhaps horrified is a better term - by the outpouring of e-comments in reaction to this murder... National Guard, armed and ready to shoot, on every inch of the border. Army, ditto. Complete closure of the border (which anyone who has been down here realizes is logically impossible). Everyone armed - militia roaming the border..... geesh.

I am extremely sorry rancher was murdered. It was a horrible, tragic event.

But I am also painfully aware of how many illegal immigrants have died right around where I live during the past ten years - exposure, dehydration, robbed, killed by drug dealers, by the coyotes (human smugglers) who bring them to the border. Sometimes their bodies are found right away - many weeks after their death. Many are never identified - their families never know what happened to them.

Sorry, guys, I am fully aware that there is no easy solution down here at the border  - but please, let us acknowledge the loss of not just U.S. citizens lives, but the people so desperate for a better life that they lose the one they have.