The Sheetmetal Curtain

I think Duncan Hunter has garnered about "a few more votes than a roll of quarters," to quote the humorist, Stephen Colbert. The Republican candidate, along with others beat the anti-immigrant drum through the campaign, and bragged about their fence building all over free right wing media and had about as big a soap box as anyone movement candidacy could possibly expect. John "Walnuts" McCain's campaign, most identified with "amnesty" for those without green cards was eulogized months ago as anathema to conservative sensibilities, long before any votes were cast.

Xenophobic, chauvinistic, racist fear of brown people, personified by the foaming paranoia and vicious hate of Rudy "9/11" Gulianni, Hunter, and others are seemingly viewed by the public as no more than fringe elements in the dark shadows of the American experience now that three states have voted. Further polling points to a trend in this direction.

Of course I know these guys can show up places to protest where things are perceived to be friendly to Mexicans in numbers varying in sizes from Christian Life pancake breakfasts to Free Republic pro-war rallies; literally dozens. When they have their scooters, oxygen bottles and firearms with them, they can fill up a camera shot, which is all they need. But even harassing people didn't work.

People just aren't filled with hate for their neighbors like they used to be.

And yet:

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered a small border city in Texas to temporarily turn over its land to the federal government so it can begin to build a border fence.

U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum ordered the city of Eagle Pass, on the border about 100 miles southwest of San Antonio, to "surrender" 233 acres of city-owned land. The Justice Department sued the city for access to the land.

The Homeland Security Department is trying to build 370 miles of border fence by the end of the year. A law signed by President Bush and supported by both of Texas' U.S. senators mandated a total of 700 miles of fence along the border. The government had warned the city, which opposes the fence, it would sue under eminent domain laws to secure access to the property, declaring it is "taking" the property for 180 days. AP

They really are building "The Sheetmetal Curtain." Despite local and international protests, lawsuits, and eventual riots, crime and mad bombers, and even though they know it will be an environmental, political, economic, legal, diplomatic, and cultural disaster, they're really gonna build it.

If people around the country could realize that there really is no such thing as a border down here, and that this has been true since native tejanos were planting beans and melons, maybe an understanding that the country will be hurt by this, along with the rest of us down here would soon follow.

You can't break bonds as strong as la familias y comunidad de norteno with a piece of sheet metal. Not in ten thousand years.