I was hanging out with my family this weekend because we were having a rummage sale to benefit cancer research for my aunt. Everyone know's you don't get to choose your family and I'm definitely no different. I got into a brief conversation with one of my cousins and the topic of border security came up. His solution involved placing chain guns at the border that could be controlled remotely through the internet. He thinks it would be a good idea to let citizens control the guns and shoot people that are trying to cross the border and I'm pretty sure he was serious... I was pretty appalled at first and asked, why? His only answer was that it would deter it and as soon as I started a counter argument he just kept repeating,"It would deter it, it would deter it." When I was able to finish a sentence I said, "At what cost? At the cost of human life? That's awful." At this point the conversation ended and he just shrugged his shoulders like I was the idiot that doesn't have the stomach to solve a problem quickly and effectively.
I was thinking about it later and there were a few things I wish I could have said to him but I didn't so I'm going to write it in this blog instead. If I had the chance, I'd ask him if he would punch his kids in the face when they behave poorly. When he says no, I'd say "But it would deter bad behavior, it would deter bad behavior." I'd try to make him realize that just because something is an effective deterrent, that doesn't mean that it is justifiable. Any reasonable person would agree to some extent. Small nuclear bombs at the border would be an effective deterrent as well but nobody in there right mind would suggest that. What scares me is that there are too many people out there like my dumb-ass cousin who are willing to metaphorically swallow a cat to catch a mouse or maybe in his case swallow an elephant to catch the mouse. Point is that killing people for committing a misdemeanor according to AZ state law would be a much bigger problem than undocumented immigration.
I realize that my cousin probably fell off the deep end on the right side of the spectrum and there's next to no chance of this actually happening but it's still a little unnerving that a firefighter who is a prominent member of society can say things like this and think people are going to agree with him or worse, actually have people agree with him. Persuasive people like him and his world view are how some of the most horrible things imaginable happen in a society. Start with a little problem, fix it with another problem, fix that problem with something worse and all of a sudden you're killing desperate people that are so poor they are willing to walk across a desert just to get away.
I don't really know what the point is that I want to make other than that I wish people would take a step back and think critically about their views and beliefs. Try to come up with ideas and solutions that benefit everyone instead of either being the best case scenario for their group or the worst case scenario for whoever their adversary is. Who can't agree with that, huh?
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