HispanicVista Columnists
The Mexlin Wall
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By
Sal Osio, JD - From the Publisher's Corner
- October 15, 2006
- The Mexlin Wall
- By Sal Osio
- At the end of the day, it will cost us an additional billion dollars to take down the wall and admit in a more somber time that our politicians made a horrific and expensive mistake. Although not quite as bad and costly, both in dollars and in human life, as our unjustified invasion of Iraq, the Mexlin Wall, if built, will be remembered for generations to come as the colossal blunder of our times.
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- Sal Osio is the publisher of HispanicVista (www.hispanicvista.com) Contact at: SPOsio@aol.com
To the colossal $6 billion budgeted double 20' wall to be erected along the border with Mexico, in this publication we assign the moniker "The Mexlin Wall" in dishonor of the infamous Berlin Wall.
The current 'do nothing' Congress came out of the shadows in this election year, and in response to the Lou Dobbs media led, fear generating, increased viewership motivated, cowardly, reminiscent of a lynch mob mentality, ordained the erection of the Mexlin Wall. So much for the Statue of Liberty. So much for good neighbor diplomacy. So much for respect of the Southern neighbors in Mexico and throughout Central and Southern America.
The weakness in our democracy is the political mentality of our representatives. Defying common sense, principles of equity and justice, morality and diplomacy, politicians embrace bad laws that at the time meet the political expediency litmus test.
A politician does not ask: What is right and what are the long term consequences of a particular policy?
Rather he asks: What position should I take in order to stay in office?
Based on demagogues who sell their prejudice by disguising their motives in seemingly protection of the citizenry from terrorism and doom, laced in patriotic rhetoric, the politician goes with the wave of an emotionally charged and misled electorate.
A politician is not a statesman. He does not stand above the fray to do what is right and best for our country. His only concern is elect ability.
The colossal wall project is matched only by its colossal stupidity. As a practical matter it can only be built with the significant participation of undocumented labor. We only need to look at the reconstruction of New Orleans where undocumented workers constituted the core of the work force.
What does this tell us?
We need labor intensive low cost labor. This economic truism applies to our construction, service and agricultural industrial sectors. And if we cannot find this labor resource within our society, and we cannot, we have no choice but to import it. Even the cowardly politicians and ratings driven media realize this!
We are all in agreement that as a nation we must control our borders. This publication has taken this position which is also the consensus of the vast majority of Hispanic Americans. But the idiocy of erecting the Mexlin Wall? Please!
We invite our readers to review several of our articles on the issue of U.S.-Mexico immigration. And, more recently my commentary "The Immigration Exchange" wherein I propose an immigration exchange of our retired who seek to 'move up' with limited resources into a higher and more exiting social life style, for Mexico's younger, labor affordable, work force who also seek to improve their economic status. In our many commentaries dealing with this issue, we have proposed reasonable and feasible solutions to the immigration challenge. Why can't the politicos and the media driven ratings demagogues, follow our lead?