I wrote a diary yesterday trying to present a balanced and honest assessment of Sen. McCain’s statements on the fires. This is a pure opinion piece, which I almost never write. I like to present evidence to my arguments, having been a graduate of journalism.
Maybe people don’t want balance or honesty.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I lived on the border for over ten years and a very short distance from the Monument fire. My husband owned land near the Chiricahuas, where the Horseshoe Two fire started. I know this area, and its problems, intimately. These are two major crossing areas for immigrants because of the enforcement efforts having narrowed the options of crossing points. I used to get immigrants passing by my house daily.
We moved off the border in 1990 because it had by that time already become what we called, “a war zone”.
It did not become that because of the immigrant problem, but because of the drug war. As the drug war heated up so did the border. As the border was locked down, the immigrant crossing problem increased.
Most of the time I lived there both sides crossed back and forth every day and thought nothing of it. There was no animosity about race. We considered it a third zone, Baja AZ, if you will. It was a fact of life on the border, and we all liked having the best of both worlds.
McCain and company, the other Republican reps who toured the fires, also laid blame on environmentalists and their “powerful lobbies in DC as McCain referred to it, that prevented logging in the White Mountain area for the Wallow fire. These other accusations were ignored by the media in pursuit of the more inflammatory immigrant comments.
Most land management experts realize that managing the forests is not as easy as clear cutting or logging old growth trees. Their efforts have been modified with the scientific evidence. I guess people don’t like evidence.
It is very likely that McCain will be proven right about the two border fires, and it is unfortunate that facts do not seem to matter to those who chose sides. I have nothing against immigration. I love the Mexican people I have known.
The problems of immigration and forest management are not as simplistic or one sided as the arguments of people who are not familiar with the problems would have them be. I cried this morning for my state. Where is the Arizona I used to love?
10:37 AM PT: I would like to add that I called McCain's statements (in my diary yesterday) "irresponsible" because the cause has not yet, and may never be, truly determined. I am not letting him off the hook.