When the two ranchers started talking about their opinions of the border I liked how they clearly stated that they understood these were their own biased opinions and they weren’t trying to tell us what to believe. They explained what they felt about the border control and the people migrating north, but instead of firmly choosing a side, they showed they agreed with certain parts of both sides. Unfortunately, the only experience they really had with immigrants were those who left traces behind: broke their fences, took their water, left trash, and constantly left them feeling unsafe. But I’m sure there were even more people that had merely passed through, never intending to hurt the ranchers, who only made it so far on their hopes of earning money to send back home. Because of the ranchers’ opinions of these people, they decided to allow border patrol to install a camera and sensor on their ranch. But the camera often failed to work, so they felt the border patrol showed no purpose or solution. I did feel offended by how they kept referring to those migrating north as “wetbacks”, and would occasionally rant on repeating themselves about how horrible they thought our government was. But the truth is they were the first people so far who honestly told us they knew their opinion was biased, and even offered several solutions to the many problems surrounding this issue. I appreciated being able to hear their opinions today.
-Lauren Heath
Wow Lauren! You are having an incredibly educating experience. The older I get the more I realize there are no right or wrong answers, just more shades of gray. Our world has so much to learn. I am looking forward to you all sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, please tell Sam Saathoff, Happy Birthday from his family. And tell him Caslin, Amy, JD, Uncle Bob, Uncle John, Aunt Donna and Uncle Fred will all be here for his birthday dinner on Saturday. And I texted Caslin she could come over once Sam had unpacked on Saturday!
Thanks,
Patti Saathoff