Currently amassed along the border between Arizona and Mexico, are a significant number of disaffected vigilante types, calling themselves the “minutemen”. This modern day group of ex-military, militia wannabe retirees are standing guard in the desert trying to prevent illegal Mexican immigrants from crossing into the United States. If it weren’t for their earnest seriousness, it could all be mistaken for some bad attempt at comedy. In fact, it is deadly real and the repercussions of their actions could be the first salvo in a conflict that could engulf this hemisphere.

The reality is that because we live in a free society we will always have rather porous borders. This stems from our right to move about our country as we please. We will also have illegal immigration as long as we have jobs that Americans can’t or won’t do. I don’t know of too many people who would sign on as migrant workers or as sweatshop employees. Someone has to do it, and unfortunately, these people are willing to do this work, because it is better than anything they had going for them in their homeland.

So now we come to the current situation. America has the jobs that these people want, and they are out there in such vast numbers that the already overburdened Border Patrol cannot intercept them across such a geographically vast area as the desert southwest. To add insult to injury, it has been rumored that Al-Qaeda thinks that the Mexican border is an easy way to enter the country. Overwhelmed and on a limited budget, the Border Patrol is at the breaking point.

However it gets better, especially when you count the large number of heavily armed civilians, with itchy trigger fingers and a pissed off attitude at authority, that are waiting to catch themselves some Mexicans. If we are not careful this could become a firefight. Right now, the Mexicans are unarmed. What if they decide, with justification, to protect themselves, and try to cross? All it will take to enflame the situation is just one of these gun-toting lunatics to let fly and kill some poor Mexican (who is just hoping to earn just enough money to support his family back in Mexico) as he tries to reach the U.S.

Instead, what if the Mexican returns fire, and in the ensuing firefight throws the hemisphere into turmoil. Why? Because the largest minority in the United States is the Hispanic population. Plus, more people in this hemisphere of the world speak Spanish, as a native language, than English. Finally, because Emma Lazarus had her poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty, and nowhere in it did it say admission was only open to those who are white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant.

These “minute morons” have the wrong idea. If they want to defend this country’s borders, join the U.S. Border Patrol. If they can’t qualify, then that’s a whole different matter. It is almost 2006, not 1776, and in the 21st century, we must be the haven to those who do not have a haven. We must open our arms to everyone! We cannot just say to the world, “Sorry, but if you don’t have a PhD, and can’t wait 3 or 4 years to apply, you’re not welcome here.”

That is not what this country was founded on. It isn’t what I was taught by my family. When my ancestors escaped from Eastern Europe, one step ahead of the Cossacks, they didn’t have time to learn the Declaration of Independence. They had to run as fast as they could to get away. If we are truly the world’s superpower then we must have room for the world at the pluralistic table: that is America’s greatness. It is why the Islam fascists will not win.

So, if there is to truly be a Pax Americana, and a true global civilization, then these idiots in the desert must go. The true “minute men”, stood for freedom for all, and they fought the most powerful army in the world, so that we could be here today. These pretenders who claim the name “minuteman”, are not patriots. They are merely misguided bigots and hate mongers. And they insult the very heritage that they claim to preserve.