The debate over whether we need a Southern US border wall seems to be making people lose their minds. Arguments against it seem to be more about keeping President Trump from "winning" than anything else. I don't know why people don't understand that, in this case, if he doesn't win, we all lose...
So I'm spending a lot of time these days listening to actual footage of what's going on in government meetings, not what the news says, or my friends say, but the real thing. I want to be informed, & I want to be factually correct when I pass along information.
This isn't gonna be a long drawn out rant, in fact I am focusing on one topic, and two speakers, at least for now.
First, Mr. James W. Carroll Jr. (current director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy), was recently asked about the Border Crisis & by comparison, the Opioid Crisis & allocated spending on both. The person questioning him at the time was Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) - one of the new Democrat Socialists (a whole other topic, I promise), & she asked this in an attempt to belittle the President for wanting to allocate the funds for the wall, and make it seem as if he was unconcerned about the Opioid Crisis by comparing the amounts allocated (or requested) for each. But the answer backfired right in her face.
The information he provided was disturbing enough to stop me in my tracks and listen again.
Let it be known that Director Carroll had to ask to address this issue with the following information, as it did not suit her agenda to be bothered with facts...
Last year (fiscal year 2018) the Border Patrol and other agencies confiscated a total of 432,000 Pounds of narcotics at the various Points of Entry into the US from Mexico. He offered to break down the various drugs by weight, but it was not deemed necessary at the time. Regardless of how much of what, that number is terrifying. And there is still worse to come.
Director Carroll then went on to say that during the same time period Between the Points of Entry (those wide-open spaces in between which have no structure to stop people from entering -the miles & miles of border that no amount of patrolling could effectively cover without increasing agents at the border to an astronomical number) the amount of illegal narcotics seized was 476,000 Pounds!!
Think long & hard about this information, people. 432,000 at the legitimate, legal way(s) in, and 476,000 in the spaces outside - that is 902,000 Pounds of narcotics in one year & that is only the ones who got caught! Almost a MILLION POUNDS OF DRUGS SEIZED How much more got through? There is simply no way to know.
But I bet it's a lot...
Almost everyone I know (including myself) in the US either has an addiction or is close to someone who has an addiction. It is a crisis. And it is tied in to the crisis at our border. The more drugs get in, the more drugs get consumed. It's an irrefutable logic.
Now, after the members of Congress were given this information, Mr. James Daniel Jordan (the current Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee) brought up the seizure at our southern border(just a few weeks ago) of enough Fentanyl to KILL 57 Million Americans. In obvious frustration he asked what it's going to take for Congress to acknowledge that the border crisis is a reality. How many would constitute a crisis, he asked, 58 million? And he is absolutely right.
The points of entry are simply not enough, the amount of agents on the border don't have the manpower to catch every illegal entrant, and our elected members of Congress choose to turn the safety of our nation and it's people into a pissing match with our President.
That is unacceptable, at least to this American. I don't care how you feel about our POTUS, in this case he is absolutely right regarding the need for that wall. Stop for a minute and think of yourself, or that person you love who struggles with addiction, the hopeless feeling you get when you know that no matter where you/they go, the drugs are readily available. The fear that the next time you/they use might be the very last due to overdose or unexpected additions to the drug of choice (like the recent trend of mixing heroin with fentanyl which has caused a multitude of deaths) & tell me, tell yourself that a structure at our southern border that will at the very least, slow down the flow of drugs from Mexico, give border agents better odds of catching the people bringing those drugs is a bad idea.
I'm extremely concerned about our country. I'm extremely angry at the elected officials who care more about winning than the safety of the people who elected them to office.
Please think, and afterwards let your voice be heard.
Staying silent & thinking your voice won't matter is no longer a viable option.
I'm done for now. God Bless us all.
