President's Message
By Ruth Ehlers
August 18th marked the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which gave women the right to vote. The effort to get this passed began in 1848 was only accomplished after many women suffered a great deal of hardship. Now, 90 years later, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and Jan Brewer are names that spring to mind when we think of strong women in politics. And - closer to home - we have Rep. Laura Bradford, who just returned from meeting with Gov. Brewer, and made a trip to the Arizona Border. I’ve asked Laura to use the balance of my space to give a brief report on her eye-opening trip.
This past week – August 18 through the 21st, I was part of a delegation of Republican legislators sent to Arizona to participate in a meeting with Arizona legislators to discuss their recently passed law, SB 1070 – the illegal immigration bill. There were five elected officials and 4 soon to-be elected officials—like Ray Scott, who will be our next state representative from Mesa/Delta County that attended. We were hosted by four legislators from Arizona, at their state capitol in Phoenix.
Our discussions included budget issues that both states face, due to the cost of illegal immigrants straining our public resources. After six hours of discussion, we were taken to the Maricopa County “Tent City” run by the notable Sheriff Joe Arpaio. It’s a remarkable sight – and they have prepared a new section to host the incoming “1070 guests.” More county jails should be run like this one.
Then we headed south to visit with the volunteers that help the Border Patrol with the Interstate 8 corridor, west of Casa Grande. This is the single most dangerous area in all of Arizona, and even the southwest. Due to the terrain and pressure on areas where fence has been built, this is a very heavily traveled area for the smugglers – drug and human smuggling. We walked about in the desert and saw the trash, the empty burlap bags used to haul marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
The next day we drove to Nogales and met with members of the Citizen’s Advisory Board, which interfaces with the local law enforcement and the Border Patrol personnel. At noon, we were in Sierra Vista and met and had lunch with two woman ranchers and Gail Griffin, candidate for state senate. Sue Krentz is the widow of the rancher who was murdered in March on their property by illegal immigrants. We listened to her sad story. Then on to the border on Glenn Spencer’s ranch. He has started a web site that photographs the border on an on-going basis – check it out by Googling American Border Patrol. He is a courageous man and has spent a lot of time and money photographing and filming the conditions, just one mile from his front door. He treated us all to a steak dinner.
Friday was spent with local rancher and veterinarian, Gary Thrasher. He knows the residents in the area on BOTH sides of the fence and works with the cattle industry to keep infected cattle from Mexico entering the USA. Imagine diseased cattle infiltrating our beef market! We were glad to show our support for the Arizona legislators, learn about the SB 1070 bill and how it relates to Colorado current state statutes and meet the people on the ground fighting a dangerous and seems like – thankless job for all the rest of us.
There is no doubt that the United States is being invaded on a daily basis and our federal government shamefully, is doing nothing. |
