If You Are Not A Minuteman, Why Not?

Undaunted by the blazing sun and relentless winds, Minutemen volunteers arrived in Palominas, Ariz. over Memorial Day weekend to help build a fence on ranchers’ property along the Mexican border, proving, once again, there are no jobs Americans won’t do.

Minuteman fence project starts where it all began
They don’t hang cattle rustlers anymore
By Linda Bentley

PALOMINAS – Hundreds of Minutemen from a variety of states showed up in Palominas, Ariz. over the Memorial Day weekend to volunteer to build a border fence, beginning with a 10-mile stretch along ranchers’ property in Cochise County. They set up base camp at the Palominas Trading Post on Highway 92, just three miles from the 13.5 miles of border Palominas shares with Mexico.

Ranching is the lifeblood of Palominas, where, on Saturday, the wind was relentless and judging from the wind-ravaged buildings around town, not uncommon.

Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox said they’re starting the fence at the same location where they held their first border watch back in November 2002 and after working all day in the unforgiving wind, he called it “mildly annoying” compared to what ranchers at the border endure on a daily basis.

Cattle ranching goes back a long ways in Cochise County and it’s always had its share of troubles. The famous shootout in Tombstone in 1881 erupted after Tombstone Marshal Virgil Earp suspected Ike, Phineas and Billy Clanton along with Tom and Frank McLaury, who sold livestock in Tombstone, of stealing the animals from ranchers in Mexico, while Wyatt Earp suspected the Clanton brothers had stolen one of his horses.

One of the volunteers working on the fence said, rather convincingly, “Arizona still has laws on the books that allow ranchers to hang someone caught stealing cattle from their ranch.” He followed with, “Look it up!” I did, there isn’t, and it doesn’t appear there ever was, although history indicates shootouts, such as the one in Tombstone did occur, or suspected cattle rustlers, such as Johhny Ringo, were simply “found” shot to death, which may have pre-empted the need for any such a law.

In any event, cattle rustling has never been well tolerated. In fact, the first recorded execution for a criminal act in the colonies occurred in Virginia in 1622, when Daniel Frank was hanged for just that, stealing cattle.

These Cochise County ranchers have suffered enormous damage by the tidal wave of illegal aliens streaming across their land. All anyone needs to get across the border is a pair of cheap wire cutters; snip, snip, snip and they’re in, although, looking at the fence along this particular stretch of the border, wire cutters are really more of a luxury than a necessity. It goes both ways; snip, snip, snip and cattle can also wander in and out. The ones that wander in from Mexico have the potential to contaminate an entire herd with disease, as can illegal aliens with what they track in on their shoes. The cattle that wander out into Mexico are never seen again.

Fence repair is not just a daily routine, it’s often required several times a day. Although the stretch of fence they started on Saturday is a modified version of the double 15-foot high fence with trenches and bales of concertina wire the Minutemen plan to build along other sections, barring the use of a catapult, it should still be pretty close to impenetrable.

While watching the volunteers working on the fence, one thing became abundantly clear, there is no job Americans won’t do. After all, here they were giving their all, for free, with the same can-do attitude of Americans who built this nation. This group of extraordinary people refuse to sit idly by as elected officials plot to sell their country out from under them.

The Minutemen are living, working proof that Americans have the desire and the moxie to retain the sovereignty of this nation and take back control of their government. While the Minutemen were busy “doing the job government refuses to do,” they expressed plenty of outrage about the amnesty bill passed by the Senate not to mention the bill’s requirement to “consult with the Mexican government” over any border fence or wall design.

A volunteer talking to Simcox during the wrap up, asked if when he goes to the Capitol to speak, “Do they just let you in to speak?” Simcox was very matter-offact with his response, “Sure.” adding, “I look at it this way. Those are my buildings and those people work for me.” The disconnect between citizens and elected officials has broadened beyond the size of the United States to the president’s globalization agenda.

However, citizens are arming themselves, not just with firearms, but with a great deal of knowledge for the November election. And, from the sounds of it, name recognition will most likely get people booted out of office rather than re-elected. Then, on Memorial Day, when President Bush told Americans they should honor their war dead, Bob Park, who founded Veterans for Secure Borders (www.veteransforsecureborders.us), agrees wholeheartedly but as his website states, “Mr. President: They didn’t die for open borders.” In the interim, as the president’s ratings continue to plummet by insisting on amnesty for illegal aliens against the will of the American people, the Minutemen provide hope, once again, that this country is not up for grabs and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening, even though some of their planned weekend operations were scaled back due to the “103 Fire,” a wildfire that began Saturday in the Huachuca Mountain range in the Coronado National Forest.

While the Minutemen have raised about $500,000 for the border fence, their goal is to raise $10 million to continue the fence. Ranchers along the border are more than willing to help stem the tide of the illegal invasion, which has increased noticeably since the Senate voted to pass a massive amnesty plan.

Ask yourself, if you are not a Minuteman, why not?
For more information, to volunteer or donate money, visit www.minutemanhq.org.http://www.sonorannews.com/headline2.html

Red State Patriot: The day will soon come when true American patriots will be identified by their unrelenting support of the United States Armed Forces and the Minutemen. And Linda Bentley will be remembered as a real American.

Posted June 1, 2006 02:17 PM
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