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| A Canal On The Border! Jan. 12, 2007 There are many problems facing this nation and its citizens, but three of the most referenced are illegal immigrants (including terrorists) crossing our borders, the threats of terrorist activity and our involvement (war) in Iraq. All three are, to some extent, inter-related! Mexican citizens, and citizens of other countries, often cross into the U.S. in search of work. It is difficult to critique someone who wants to have a better paying job - but when they enter the country illegally, they create problems for this country and it’s taxpaying citizens and workers. The ease with which they can cross the border becomes an open invitation to would-be terrorists who are intent on doing harm to our nation. Building a fence along the border might slow things down, but it won’t resolve the problems. Building a shipping canal from Brownsville, Texas to San Diego, California would benefit everyone - and it probably wouldn’t cost as much as we are now spending in Iraq! We built the Panama Canal so commercial shipping could avoid the long haul around the southern tip of South America - and we did that at a time when we did not have the sophisticated equipment and technology available today. The Panama Canal paid for itself but it finally reached a point where it could not handle many of the huge ships that now transport goods and oil. A U.S.-Mexico Canal could be large enough to handle today’s tankers, freighters and even our aircraft carriers. And the benefits would go beyond the commercial and military aspects - it would not only become a serious barrier to illegal border crossings, the construction would, rightfully, create good-paying construction jobs on the Mexico side of the border as well as more jobs for U.S. construction workers. The steep concrete banks of the canal and the security provided for it would make it virtually impossible to cross except at designated locations - solving many illegal immigration problems. Selling revenue-bonds to pay for such a huge canal should not be too difficult - and it would certainly cost less than an on-going war in Iraq, the dissension created by illegal migration and the loss of civil rights by Americans (as the Department of Homeland Security tries to justify the creation of a police state under the guise of “security”). We built the Panama Canal, the Golden Gate Bridge, humongous dams, put a man on the moon and solved untold problems in the past - all without violating the rights of the people to which our nation should always be committed. Can’t we use old-fashioned American ingenuity to resolve the problems facing America today? |