Where will this many-faceted story end, this story that puts to play
the lives of armed agents, property owners, and immigrants?

By María Eugenia Guerra

I had just come home after nearly a week away from the ranch and the office. By the light of my trusty halogen lamp, things looked well, flourishing in my absence in fact, because we'd gotten another inch of rain that turned knee-high grasses into lush, hip-high covers of green.
It was nearly 2 a.m. when I turned out the lights and tried to find sleep in thoughts that raced with the beauty of the photo images of our trip out west. I was drifting to my restful alpha state when Pancho the Ridgeback in my yard and the dogs in the kennel at the barn started barking their "The Serial Murderer Is Here!" bark, a bark that inspired fear and a quick hustle in darkness to load the shotgun and grab the sidearm and the truck keys.
A hundred yards away in the pasture on the other side of the cattleguard nearest my house, a vehicle with its lights on crept along the gravel road. At least the intruder was keeping the speed limit, I thought, as I cranked up the truck and followed it a half-mile into the next pasture. When I pulled up alongside the government issue BP SUV, the driver blinded me with his flashlight and identified himself as an agent of the Border Patrol. Except for the discourtesy of blinding me momentarily, he was polite thereafter. He said he was looking for illegals, which I considered, that if that had to be his job, it would be a job best done in darkness without his headlights shooting warning beams from his point of entry onto the ranch and all across the monte.
If you were the object of the chase traversing the thick brush and hip-high grasses of the monte floor and saw the slow advance of a large white vehicle so clearly marked by its own lights, wouldn't you have plenty of time to move ahead and away from those in pursuit?
Early this morning, just after the sun named the day and right before the oil field traffic began tearing down Hwy. 3169, the dogs barked that way again, inspiring the same fear, only this time instead of the USBP, it was their quarry, the ones they'd missed -- thirsty, terrified people flushed from the monte and out onto the ranch road tarmac that eventually ends up the way and then continues in an unpaved meander to Aguilares and Hwy. 359.
In a cordial conversation later in the morning with USBP Agent Hector Treviño in Zapata, I learned that the agents on our ranch the night before were responding to tripped sensors elsewhere and that the evening sweep had yielded 15 visitors who had been picked up on another ranch closer to San Ygnacio.
I have thought all day about this drama that plays out day in and day out in counties near the international border -- inexperienced armed federal agents carrying out their massive, nearly un-specific mandate on hundreds of thousands of acres of private ranch property to secure the border from uninvited intruders; the private property owner, who in the exercise of her constitutionally guaranteed right to secure the borders of her family's ranch land, understanding all too well that her rights, including that of privacy, now take second fiddle to the over-staffed, poorly equipped, and sloppily executed federal mandate; the hungry and thirsty northbound travelers from Mexico and Central America dodging what waits in the tall grass, rattlesnakes and la migra.
Where will this many-faceted story end, this story that puts to play the lives of armed agents, property owners, and immigrants? What can make its outcome better, more humane, safer, and just for all who have been braided into this one incomprehensible strand of motion?

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U.S. aid to Israel

By Chito Vela

Which country would you think receives the most foreign aid from the United States? Would it be an African nation like the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Ethiopia? Congo's 53 million people suffer from widespread warfare and disease, surviving on an average income of about $100 per year. Ethiopia's population of 65 million was ravaged by famine throughout the 1980s, and today has an average life expectancy of just 44 years. Almost 10 percent of Ethiopian adults have AIDS. Congo gets $22 million from the U.S. Ethiopia gets $58 million.
Are the impoverished nations of South Asia the greatest recipients of U.S. aid? Burma's population of 41 million is mired in poverty. Deforestation is a major problem, as is AIDS. In Bangladesh, 131 million people live in a country about the size of Iowa. One third of the country floods annually, but because of overpopulation, families are forced to build their homes in areas they know will flood when the monsoon rains come. Thousands die each year. Burma receives $6.5 million. Bangladesh gets $133 million.
Actually, the single largest recipient of foreign aid is Israel, which receives more than $3.5 billion per year from the United States government. Israel receives this money even though there is no great need there -- no plague or famine, no earthquake or flood. In fact, Israel compares very favorably to any Western European country. Israelis enjoy a long life expectancy, a democratic government, high education levels, and a modern, diversified economy, with companies such as Intel and McDonald's making major investments there. Per capita gross domestic product in Israel is $18,900, slightly more than Spain's $18,000, but below Britain's $22,800. Despite all this, the United States still feels it is necessary to provide Israel billions in foreign aid. Total U.S. aid to Israel from 1949 to 2000 is estimated at $91 billion.
Israel's six million people receive more U.S. aid than the 1.175 billion people in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined. Israel receives almost $600 per citizen per year, while Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean receive about $1.70 per person. Additionally, U.S. aid to Israel comes with no strings attached. While every other nation receiving U.S. aid is required to account for how those funds are spent, Israel is free to spend the money however they would like. The only limitation is that 75 percent of their $2 billion in military aid has to be spent in the United States.
Why does the United States give Israel so much money? Supporters of U.S. aid to Israel claim that the United States must help Israel defend itself from the hostile Arab armies that surround it. The military reality is that Israel has won every war it has fought against the Arabs, and will likely win any future wars. The Israelis, though outnumbered by the Arabs, have better trained troops, more advanced tanks and artillery, and a superior air force. As Time recently stated, "Almost useless in stopping suicide bombers, downright clumsy in facing stone-throwing teenagers, the Israeli armed forces are much better at doing what they are trained and equipped to do: smash regular forces with superior firepower and skill." Israel also has the ultimate military advantage -- nuclear weapons.
Others say that Israel is a strategic asset whose support is vital to U.S. interests. Though Israel is a close ally, the United States gets very little in return for its support of Israel. Israel hosts no U.S. military bases and will not be involved in any U.S.-led military coalitions, as this would infuriate our Arab allies. Israel has no oil to sell U.S., and is only a minor trading partner of the United States. Diplomatically, Israel pursues its own foreign policy objectives, which often contradict those of the United States. When President Bush recently called on Israel to pull out of the West Bank "without delay," he was ignored by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, undermining U.S. credibility around the world.
Even worse, the Israeli defense industry is exporting American military technology to potential U.S. enemies. Israel is now the second largest supplier of arms to China, providing the Chinese with fighter jets, missiles, and other military hardware. The military technology that Israel sells to China, China often resells to "Axis of Evil" members Iran and North Korea. Some reports even claim Chinese missiles purchased from Israel have made their way to Iraq.
With the U.S. deficit climbing to $155 billion, with Israeli/U.S. political disputes growing, why does the United States continue to send so much money to Israel? One answer is the stipulation forcing Israel to spend 75 percent of its $2 billion in military aid in the United States. Since 1995, Lockheed Martin, a U.S. defense contractor, has sold over $5.1 billion in supplies to Israel. Other companies, such as Boeing, Raytheon, and United Technologies, have sold billions of dollars in military hardware to Israel. Their lobbyists in Congress help make sure that U.S. aid to Israel keeps flowing.
In a 1948 speech given soon after the birth of Israel, President Harry Truman said, "It is my desire to help build in Palestine a strong, prosperous, free, and independent democratic state. It must be large enough, free enough, and strong enough to make its people self supporting and secure." Through its unwavering financial, military, and political support, the United States has indeed helped build a strong, free, and independent Israel. The bonds that tie the United States and Israel are strong, and the two countries will be allies and friends for years to come. But it is time to end U.S. military and financial support for Israel.

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Look at the positive side

By Lily Castillo

Here's looking at all of you baby boomers experiencing the golden years of life, or to quote Frank Sinatra, experiencing "The autumn of your life." Are you ready to be raked into a mediocre existence? As a fellow baby boomer, I say, "No Way!" Until now, and I use the term "now" loosely, responsibilities claimed priority over dating my spouse, dining with friends, shopping leisurely, and fulfilling my lifetime dream of writing. Father Time reintroduced these simple pleasures into my life recently, and I must say I savor them. So, I have a few wrinkles and gray hairs, varicose veins and arthritic joints. I view them as signs of life, not age, shared by most, if not all baby boomers. Realistically speaking, who wants to live the picture-perfect life of a robotic "Stepford Wife?" B-o-r-i-n-g!!!
Looking at the bright side of getting older, we baby boomers fulfilled the responsibilities that came with the diverse hats we wore over the years. We survived the perils of growing up from childhood bugs to cruel kids bugging us, the awkwardness of adolescence from being too skinny or too fat, breaking out with acne just before a big date, or being a wallflower at a dance. As young adults in high school and college, we saw firsthand how hippies rebelled against the establishment by participating in sit-ins to promote their causes, marijuana became a household word, LSD, a powerful hallucinogen, gained popularity as a creativity booster, and the Vietnam War threatened our faith in America and its leaders as it took the lives of our loved ones.
Life transformed us over the years into spouses, parents, confidantes, colleagues, teachers and writers, and any mistakes we made, we chalked up to experience and grew in wisdom.
"We've come a long way, baby," as glamorized in magazine ads for women, but this is just as true for men who no longer exist just to work for their families. Life isn't over yet! As sung in Bye, Bye Birdie, "We've places to go, people to see," and there's no time to mope around to the tune of "yesterday, when I was young." God willing, tomorrow still awaits us. The hard knocks of life paved the way, and at least for now, some smooth sailing is in the forecast. "Bon voyage," my fellow baby boomers! Live life to the fullest!

(Lily Castillo, a participant of the South Texas Writing Project, is a 26-year veteran teacher. After 25 years in Laredo elementary and middle schools, she joined the Vidal M. Treviño School Communications and Fine Arts as a creative writing and English teacher.)