D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May
2009
The Downward Path
It's time to reclaim the outdoors down along the border.
"I found that though God has made man upright, each has turned away to follow his own downward path."
— Ecclesiastes
As you well know, we have a problem on the border with Mexico and the attendant border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, and it is not going to go away on its own.
Now, I can't speak for the situation in the other states, but I can speak about it here in New Mexico, and I can do it firsthand, not based on someone else's opinion.
I laugh with derision at all of the politicians outside of our fair state who opinionize on our "problem"; they simply don't have a clue.
Back in the mid-nineties, it was my habit to hunt predators every year on a certain ranch, and do it far into the night. I was located at the far end of the ranch in a remote spot and it was near midnight and action was nil, when I climbed into the bed of Ol' White to catch some sleep.
All of a sudden I was brought upright by the loud and menacing sound of airplane engines, and they were quite close! I exited the truck just in time to see a large, twin-engine aircraft take off from the neighboring ranch, and it was totally void of lights.
When I arrived back at the ranch headquarters towards the end of the next day, I asked the lady rancher about it. All that she would comment was, "Don't ask, and don't tell! You don't wanna know about it!" She has now moved on to greener pastures, and I wonder if that plane might have had an influence on her?
Another time, maybe five or six years ago, I was quail hunting about 20 air-miles south of Silver City, when I came upon a group of maybe 12 people hiking north across the desert. As we spied each other, the group ducked and melted into the chaparral brush.
In fact, I cannot remember a time in the last decade when I have gone afield south of Silver City, especially south of the I-10 corridor, when I don't come across some sort of evidence of border-crossers having been there. It is everywhere!
These discards come in the form of empty plastic gallon milk jugs to hold precious water, discarded blankets, coats, diapers and even sneakers. All manner of clothing can be found. Alarmingly, the most frequent articles I've found in the last three years have been empty backpacks.
I find at least two to three of these on every excursion afield nowadays. At one place stands a fallen-down shack; at its base I found a half-dozen empty packs and several blankets. One pack still had several pills in it. Obviously, it was a rendezvous-point for drug mules.
Another trip I even came across the burned-out remains of a car — the result, I was told, of drug runners.
I've come across numerous fence-cuttings where trails of many footprints left their story.
Even the "good guys" leave their evidence in the form of truck and vehicle tracks going cross-country over private ranchland, as they endeavor to find their illegal targets.
For me, the personal rubber-hitting-the-road became a reality just in the last week of March of this year. If you recall in last month's column, I was planning a trip to the Hatchet Mountains near the Mexican border. Well, I happened to be talking to a federal agent whose duty is to protect our border, and he advised against me going there. In fact, he advised against any type of outdoor excursion south of I-10 because of the danger of whom I might run into!
Not only that, but he said it wasn't a good idea to leave my vehicle in such areas because I might come back to find it gone, or broken into, or vandalized! Not a pleasant prospect.
Fortunately, when I do go south, I have ranch headquarters to leave my truck at, and then I venture forth via foot or ATV. But as far as venturing on federal lands? Forget it! I just will not take the chance any longer.
I always carry personal protection when in the outdoors, but to be truthful, I do not relish the thought of ever having to drop the hammer on another human.
The sad thing is, your and my freedoms have been and are being severely limited when it comes to utilizing the outdoors to the south of our state from Texas to Arizona. And it is not our own government doing it; it is the illegal activities of the countless people coming north across our border.
In my humble way, I do have some suggested solutions. Firstly, a tall intimidating fence ain't gonna do it! It will just be violated and in time fall into disrepair.
If I was Grand Poobah of this country, I'd bring all of those troops home from Iraq, and I'd put 'em on the border of the four states, every 50 yards. After all, if we're paying folks to be full-time Army and Marines, let's utilize them full-time in doing what we're paying them for — to guard us and our country. And I'm not talking about the National Guard, who have to earn a living at other jobs. Let's use the professionals!
That would effectively stop all traffic crossing the border by land, and it would allow us to utilize our land resources once more.
By the way, it would also stop the firearms traffic from going to Mexico, too, without more anti-gun laws and bans. We have the military resources, why not use 'em?
Secondly, and this might surprise most of you, I would legalize all drugs and strongly regulate them, thus destroying the flourishing black market.
Remember Prohibition? It didn't work! So we repealed it. When you ban a substance or thing, whether it be alcohol, drugs or guns, you create and cause a huge black market to flourish and the bad guys will prosper. So legalize and regulate it!
Thirdly, I'd institute capital punishment for each and every drug dealer caught and convicted. Forget about putting them in jail or putting the user-victim in jail. If you cut the roots off, the tree will die a natural death.
Harsh solutions? Yeah, but I'm pretty dang tired of being the victim and a semi-prisoner in my own state and country where I can't go where I choose to, when I want to. There is a heck of a lot of country to our south and within our borders that we outdoors-people can no longer call ours!
As always, keep the sun forever at your back, the wind forever in your face, and may the Forever God bless you too.
When not ramblin' outdoors, columnist Larry Lightner lives in Silver City.