The Border is an Imaginary Construct

I haven't gotten to address some of the "big topics" of the last couple months. "The Border" and "Immigration"are probably ones that have gotten the biggest nudge from corporate media. Some say the coverage is just distraction from issues the powers that be would prefer we forgot. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to say we are here and we have the same inalienable rights as you .

I've seen and heard all sorts of takes on this topic, but the one I haven't seen is what I'm writing about today. Borders are not real. They are imaginary constructs drawn up by high level political entities to advance some aspect of a political agenda. Rain is real. Soil is real. People are real. Borders are not. We must remember this! I live in the Sonoran Desert. It is a real place with distinct patterns and types of soil, rainfall, flora and fauna that sets it apart from other distinct ecological zones in the world. We have an invisible, negotiated construct that runs smack dab through the middle of it. I love the place. I was married on top of one of its mountain peaks and gave birth to my daughter in one of it's valleys. But I am not of this place, I am but a migrant though I call this place home. The water saturated dense earth of the lower Great Lakes Basin will always be the place by which I measure all other places--home.

Migration used to be easier here. Rivers flowed. This Old Village released the heat of the day to the night. The Marana Agave Fields grew crops irrigated with water that flowed from the North. Oodham boys ready to become men showed they knew the ways of the world by traveling from here to Mar Bermejo, better known now as the Sea of Cortez and back. But then the Sea was undoubtedly called something else as this was before Europeans migrated to, then occupied, then claimed the area as their own and imposed their own place names. I don't say "we" because my ancestors were busy pillaging the Northeastern Coastal lands of El Norte at the time. And none of my ancestors traveled much further to the west than the Great River the Mississippi.

At some point, if we humans as a species do not want to become extinct, we need to get over the testosterone driven need to claim ownership of places and peoples and intangibles. One of the main hindrances to getting over this possession driven patriarchal tendency is a real Frankenstein called the corporation. The corporation has been given the status of a person, but it is an intangible level of organization, a process, that has no ethics, emotions, sense of well being, and can never appreciate the wonder of a newborn child -- yet it is driving the policies and practices of almost all governments and determining life and death for billions of people. These corporations were constructs created by men of power, the same men that divided Mother Earth into little fiefdoms with political structures that fed on the many to the benefit of the few. Most political systems with weapons of mass destruction such as the nuclear powers on the Earth are in male dominated societies. Just because countries are big or powerful doesn't make their power plays right. Just because men are bigger and are aggressive doesn't make it right to try to bully others. But that is just what men and the countries they have created do. Corporations and borders are creations of such societies .

The really sad thing is that the most pathetic puppets of the corporations are the ones who rabidly support the constructs of the those institutions. The vigilantes, the wackos who have the signs such as "GITMO Rocks" in support of the military recruiters across from the protest that happens every week across . These are the folks who would bequite happy to shop in WalMart the rest of their lives. Sad. They really think that being patriarchal and white somehow magically gave them the potential pathway to being rulers... and now they are pissed that they are powerless and want to kick any any dog they can corner. These folks are no different than the KKK and the John Birchers. They have testosterone and no territory to defend so they mistakenly support and defend that of the political and corporate powers apparently believing that when monarchy and state religion are restored that they will somehow benefit. They will still be slathering dogs gratefully licking the hands of their masters. And when unleashed they will gladly kill. These are the sortof people who do hate crimes. The sort of people who burn the flags of neighboring countries not realizing that the powers in those countries want to combine in order to create a better system of exploitation.

The rabid regular joes shooting off their mouths are Nazis, they are just mentally ill or misguided. The ruling folks are just fascists. Most folks don't understand the difference. The Nazis and the Fascists were allied with each other during WWII but they were not coming from the same place at all. The same still holds true. Lew Rockwell a central figure in conservative, libertarian circles explains below,

But what, in Heaven's name, does any of this have to do with "right-wing" theory? By "right wing," the media can mean one of these killer Nazi thugs, or they can mean someone who believes in private property, free enterprise, and bourgeois social norms. The blurring of the difference -- they are really polar opposites -- is wildly dishonest but obviously purposeful.

I doubt things are as purposeful as he thinks. Most people simplify the world into absurd dichotomies. I was reminded of this at Earth Day. The range of folks there was amazing. Diverse. There were liberals and conservatives, vegetarians and hunters, all sides of the immigration issue. Andrew Weil talking about the need for nuclear energy. People talking about animals as though we aren't animal. Wildlife live in habitats, not countries. We cannot stop animals from moving with shifts in prey, vegetation, and water and spacing themselves in the most optimal manner they can find. We cannot stop ourselves from doing this. If we could I guess we'd all be autralopithecines before any of us did the old out of Africa thing.

Because of these borders animals and people die. Lives are drastically altered and ended. 279 people died on my doorstep between 10/1/2004 & 9/30/2005 because of these human constructed concepts. How many animals would be stopped from migrating as they have for countless millenia if a border fence was erected? These are complex issues that cannot be solved simply and perhaps not at all unless we start thinking outside the box. Maybe only people with boxes can think outside of them. Others are too preoccupied with getting in them and drawing them. Of course not all women think holistically. Many have fallen into the sexist dichotomy thing only in an inverse fashion. Women who will only vote for women. Democratic women who are more corporate than religious neocons.

Constructs, constructs, constructs. They aren't real. They aren't interconnected in a logical or ecological fashion. If we as humans are going to allow our lives to be governed by constructs shouldn't the constructs be good ones. Perhaps all should just live the way we want to and allow others to do the same. Maybe we need to build another system altogether--one that is built upon a near universal, simple and inclusive principle: The Golden Rule. The vast majority of all the worlds religions and spiritual perspectives agree.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someyou will join me and the world will live as one. -- John Lennon

There are those who would have us hate, harm each other, and have us all descend into the depth of darkness they promote. We can be better than that. Calmness and love be with you.