The editorial The Roughnecks (April 6) tells me that the executive editors of The Post are so out of touch with national affairs that they ought not attempt opinion pieces on such subjects. Furthermore, they need to consult a dictionary now and then. My Encarta World English Dictionary gives this for roughneck: Roughneck... 1. Hired thug. Somebody who is violent, especially a hired thug (informal); 2. Coarse person. Somebody who behaves in a rough, bad mannered way; 3. (Industry) Oil field worker. An unskilled worker on an oil drilling rig.
I assume the term was used to fit the second definition above. The problem is that these Minutemen don't fit that definition. There are doctors, lawyers and pilots -using their own private planes -among them as well as ranchers whose properties have been trashed by thousands of illegal immigrants trespassing.
The Minutemen know that controlling the border is flawed by shortcomings of manpower and funds
but unlike you editors, they know why. They are simply trying to call attention to the fact that this is due deliberately to the refusal of the president to do his job according to the Constitution, to see that our nation is safe from invasions. Bush did authorize the hiring of 2,000 more border guards in December and then simply refused to sign off on their funding a month later without explanation. His executive orders have specified that local law enforcement officers (sheriffs, police and state law enforcement officials) are not to be allowed to inquire of the citizenship status of anyone and not to report any illegal aliens to the federal immigration officials, including the Border Patrol officers.
Worse yet, President Bush has referred to the Minutemen as vigilantes when he knows full well that they are not vigilantes. Vigilantism is illegal in America. Vigilantes take the law into their own hands by arresting, trying, sentencing and punishing what they see as criminals. If he thought they were vigilantes, Bush ought to call upon federal marshals to arrest them immediately. He hasn't done that so we know that when he calls them vigilantes when he is addressing the public, he is simply lying to all of us.
The editorial has it right. Patrolling border must be U.S.'s job. The editorial has it wrong by assuming that by simply announcing the obvious, that the need will be addressed. The Minutemen are trying to call attention to this huge gap.
-James Lee is an Athens resident. Send him an e-mail at jamesalee@earthlink.net. 17
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