We met new friends at the Border Security Conference 2011. And there are some new questions we wanted answered. Let’s see what you think of this. What is it call that you can go to the mall such as those found in El Paso and feel safe? Although safety is a very tenuous state of mind. But compare this to hanging around downtown on the west side around 2am. What is this called? What is it that makes you feel safer at one location over the other? This socio - psychology riddle is at the heart of the border fence discussion. If you can understand the example, you can relate it to the border fence? Questions? Email us.
Are you a border zoologist? We are interested in persons willing to draw, sketch, draft, architecturally design, or civil engineering design simple ideas. We would like to give you a theme and you design it. We will post it on this web site. Contact us for interest and details.
What bordercommerce.com can add to the conversation of border security?
Always on a positive note, our conclusion of the Border Security Conference 2011 is that it is a good and useful public forum. Quite extraordinary is the access to national leaders.
What would bordercommerce.com like to see? That there would be a greater discussion about the future of the urban borderland and border fence (wall). When we asked the mayor of El Paso about the future of the border fence, he told us that it would eventually be removed. Maybe he meant it would be removed under some circumstances we did not search from him. But when pressed twice for an answer about what would replace it, he was reticent.
We may have caught him at a time when he really was not able to respond as the crowd was getting up from the luncheon and he as others were on their way out. It is okay, we are going to ask him again during next year’s Border Security Conference. To make sure he remembers the question, we dropped off at city hall our presentation drawing.
We did hear comments about “the idea” being a good one but that it would not work was also some of the responses. The reason it will not work, it appears from others, is that people feel we are trying to move a mountain. Understandable but we are simply trying to educate and will continue to educate people that an alternative must be thought of in place of the border fence.
Other thoughts about bordercommerce.com approach to the border fence were comments of un-interest and ambivalence. Those mostly came from people from out of town. They simply did not understand that the border fence, as a long term resolution to the borderlands, is not an acceptable final solution. They were not interested in the perception or beauty of the El Paso / Cd Juarez region. They accept the fact of life that “fences makes good neighbors” We would rather paraphrase and adopt UTEP’s president thoughts in border relations and state : We should build bridges and not fences.
A word on the presentation we made which was name the Presidential Gardens at the Chamizal. It was an attempt to show that the land along the border where President Obama spoke nearby on the Chamizal stage is just another example of real estate development to make use of the land, to occupy the land, and to help in the long term beautification of the borderlands. What may not be caught at this point is that the pathway or El Paseo Rio Grande has both a inner and outer glass perimeter screen( maybe fence). If Mexico developed there side as well as required by the principals we set out, they would also have an inner and outer glass screen on their side of El Paseo Rio Bravo.
That means that there would be 4 glass screen walls to attempt illegal crossing versus the one metal ugly border fence that exist now. The view is of the proposed Presidential Gardens structure which can house all presidents’ bios and the history of the United States. You would be viewing it from El Paseo Rio Grande looking North and through the glass screen. We would welcome your comments.