by Gianni Risper
Who invented borders? The invisible lines that the governments of the Earth have drawn on her lands have long since drawn the hostility of man. Who determines these walls that don’t exist, why should it matter? The point of it is that man must have a piece for himself that no one else should have or he will feel empty. Everyone wants something for themselves, and nothing falls short of carving up the planet, carving up empires, carving up leaders of empires for more land, more resources, more ways to benefit what they are doing. Since the beginning of time, conquests have been led where human life has been held in the lowest regard and the only thing that matters is victory. What is the Iraq war, but a conquest for resources?
The dictionary defines an alien as being a foreigner or adverse, hostile, or being opposed to. In the movie “Signs” it is said that there are two kinds of aliens, those who come in peace and for intellectual reasons or they come to drain what they can and enslave those who live I the aftermath. What kind are we? Are we both, with democratic relations on one hand and military operations on the other hand.
What is the source of this violence, this inhumanity against man? What makes us heartless and what lets us live with ourselves. Why do we look past the horizon but not past the borderlines were created by man?
The borders the cut the world apart seem to do more than that. These borders cut peoples awareness. Why should you know what’s happening past what you know. But this sense of ignorance should not be our mindsets. Actually its what happening at our borders that should have us worried.
There are groups who have set themselves up to supposedly eradicate one of the nation’s greatest problems, illegal immigration, but instead of doing it the right way, they resort to violence. This group of men are known as “Minute Men”. The Minuteman Project founder is Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, a froth-mouthed racist agitator masquerading as a reasonable man, or so he’s portrayed. The group turns away illegal immigrants at the border and sometimes resort to unsavory methods.
Reports of violence and killing immigrants come from the border. How far are people willing to go to protect an imaginary line?
If these so-called “minutemen” care so much about illegal immigrants, what about the border to the north? What about the Canadians who come through to Detroit and dumping their garbage in the bay? What about the Americans who go into Canada to buy alcohol? Why are the Minutemen focusing all their energy on poor Mexicans who don’t have any money? It’s plain racism. The very thing we should be trying to stamp out.
Gianni is 15 and a student at Eastern High School in Lansing, MI.