TRUTH IN POLITICS

A Sight To Behold
For many years I lived in Los Angeles area, from 1958 to 1989, watching it descend into a city of crime, gangs, drive by shootings, rape, car-jacking, school drop outs and man’s inhumanity to man. I watched graffiti appear on everything from city buses to freeway overpass abutments and even on school buses. Nothing was sacred to the gangs that proliferated the neighborhoods and it was not consigned to just the Ghettos and Barrios or the black  or Mexican gangs. Even the rich kids got in on the game, as though it was their right of passage into manhood. What was once a clean, orderly group of cities in the Los Angeles basin, slowly  became garbage filled, dirty streets that were littered with the thrown off trash of the gangs, and  by the people who lost confidence and followed suit.

I was there when the Watts riots took place and saw the burned out buildings, the trashed, gutted stores that were left in the aftermath of the destructive riots that gained nothing for the residents of the area. I remember when it became unsafe to drive into Watts when you were Anglo; to deliver goods to the area was like running a gauntlet. Trucks were hijacked for the goods they carried and people were beaten senseless for no reason other than the color of their skin. This was accepted in time as a norm and as residents of the basin we lived with it, thinking all the time it would get better.

The Mexican and black gangs began to grow in strength, the police began to avoid certain neighborhoods in fear of attack and people went on with their daily lives as though it wasn’t their problem. I watched, as did thousands of others as more and more people went on welfare during all this, creating a further problem for the basin.

The saving grace was that many people decided to do something about it and began to harass the police into patrolling the neighborhoods that had been abandoned and turned into crack-houses. They formed neighborhood watch programs and groups that patrolled their neighborhoods as vigilante citizens intent on cleaning out what had become drug infested areas.

The Cause
When the Democrats under the Johnson administration created more social programs, the economy went bad and it was an easy way out to go on welfare. I saw women who had never been married getting pregnant, just to have another baby that they could add to the welfare line. One woman, (who had never been married) in particular, had ten children, and with the open hand of the welfare she was making more money than most working people and receiving more goods to support her family’s needs than the average worker could afford to buy, while the honest working man was who was too proud to live this way, and many were not continued to wrk and raise his family the correct way.

Corruption is like a disease that attacks everything we hold dear and like a disease it spreads throughout the society like a wildfire. Soon their were police that were cutting corners, then taking money to look the other way, then state officials decided they should get theirs also and became corrupt in union with the police. The one group that seemed to be immune to the graft and corruption was the California Highway Patrol (CHP) who took pride in their organization and upheld the law as best they could.

The Sheriff’s Department of Los Angeles County was not so lucky, it began to acquire officers that rose through the ranks with just one thing in mind; how much can I make out of this position without getting caught with my hand in the till. At this progression of corruption, came the violence by the police, sheriff’s deputies and against them by the gangs and criminals seeking retaliation. I am sure many of the people remember the televised beatings by the police and the gang related shootings of police during that time.

When we release the devil upon the land we reap the evil that will overtake our entire population or at leas a large part of it. There will always be a few that will stand up for what is right and try to change things for the better, but they fast become a minority. Remember that violence and corruption is a disease that carries its germs to the honest people around it, until like a sick body, all is contaminated. This is what we are allowing to happen to the Mesilla Valley by the passage of SB 1689 Wilderness bill.

It is summed up pretty well in the letter written to the Las Cruces Sun-News yesterday, March 8, by Sid Brannon. I have included it for the edification of the people of southern New Mexico to read, because it sums up very well the problems that will arise from the bill. It is as follows:

SB.1689 Wilderness Bill
February 15, 2010, Wilderness Hearing Testimony by City Councilor Sharon Thomas, I quote “I’m honored to represent the City of Las Cruces and our over 90,000 residents.”  She does not speak for me and countless others in this city.  Mr. Jim Bates testified that he has been and is associated with a number of hunting associations and testified I quote “I believe I have a good understanding of the issues and concerns of their members.”  He may have the understanding of some in those groups, but does not have the understanding of a great many hunters and sportsmen that I have talked with.

With the nation wide Wilderness land grab currently going on by our government ask Bingaman and Udall to stop this bill and allow these 8 areas to continue being treated as currently classified.  That current status will certainly well serve this area

If these 8 proposed areas become Wilderness, Southern New Mexico will immediately be impacted by the following:

Flooding: Hatch, NM, 2006 flood immediately comes to mind.  Constructing dams requires heavy mechanized equipment, prohibited in Wilderness Areas.

Border security: It  will be greatly affected if this bill passes.  We learned this in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and Pajarita Wilderness in Arizona, pictures and videos taken show what is happening there.  It’s an appalling catastrophe!  Illegal aliens, drug trafficking in these areas prove we do not have the necessary where with all to stop these breaches of our border.

Jobs: The Gila Wilderness had operating ranches.  As of this writing not one remains.  Putting New Mexico Ranchers out of business doesn’t pass the common sense test.

Wildlife: Ranchers that supply water for cattle supply water for wildlife.  Let’s keep both.
Learn from the mistakes in Arizona! STOP   Senate Bill 1689

by: Sidney Brannon


Stopping The Cancer Before It Spreads Further
If we do nothing to stop the cancer that is growing in our society, we have no one to blame but ourselves, for we allowed it to happen. To open the doors to drug smuggling and illegal activities that will come with the passage of SB 1689, is opening ourselves to the cancer that will eat away at our society from within. Once a cancer has begun, it is hard to put it into remission, but it can be stopped cold, if it is caught soon enough and prevented fro getting started by cleaning up the system.

Look at the cancer that has grown in Los Angeles and has spread to the far reaches of the Yosemite Park. We have Mexican gangs that have taken over the growing of pot and are organizing it at a high level. Before it was just small plots, now it covers thousands of acres of our public land. Look at eh Organ Pipe National Monument and what has happened to it in the years since it was designated as a Wilderness Area. It is now closed to the public, because of the danger the drug smugglers have placed on it. When will we ever learn from out mistakes and not allow these things to happen again and again? When something becomes a detriment to mankind, shouldn’t we take warning from it?

As the price of properties rose in the Los Angeles basin so did the number of Muslims, buying up the properties at an alarming rate, along with the banks and other lucrative businesses. The barrios are filled with illegals from Mexico and the streets are as dangerous in all of Los Angels as they ever were, and the crime rate in the whole basin has reached a new high. Could this be from the influx of drug bodies that have filled much of the gap left by the decent citizens? Where does this once safe and beautiful city go from here? Does it remain a Mecca for the working classes of a cesspool for the criminal elements?

The cost of living in California is so high now and the properties so inflated that the only people who can afford them are criminals and the oil cartels and they are eating away at them.

Now that the Mexican gangs have moved into the backcountry of Yosemite and other areas of the land and taken over the hidden marijuana growing, most of the towns and cities near them will become areas of crime and violence. This is the future of our nation unless we do something to stop the flow of illegals and drugs that are undermining our economy, our way of life and changing our children into addicts with their drugs. Does this national problem hit Home?  Are you ready to give our country to the criminal element?