osodecanela | The Poll I responded to on a yahoo group.

There'sa Yahoo Bear-related group I belong to, which is not just sexually oriented. The list owner actually has a political and social conscience which extends beyond his interest in other larger furry critters, and this is why I remain a member of his list. Not that I won't readily admit that I enjoy seeing photos of larger hairy critters. There are tons of places where you can do that when the mood strikes you. Having something that unexpectedly challenges you, makes you think and ponder for a few minutes is most welcome. It's nice having it reaffirmed, that Bears and Bear-dom are indeed multi-dimensional. Yesterday's mail brought a poll from the list owner, a Canadian, as to whether the borders between the US, and Canada and Mexico should remain open or not. I added my vote last night, but the supposition that the borders are 'open' troubled me. Below is my post to that list from this morning.

Hey there-

The poll, which I did cast a vote in by the way, implies that the borders are 'open', which is not something I particularly agree with.

As a 'hyphenated' American, (select the foreign prefix of your choice here, ie. Hispanic-, Afro-, Slavic-, Asian-, etc.), I happen to be the first generation of my family to be a native English speaker. When my family emigrated to the US, only part of the family had documents that allowed them entry. A significant portion ended up emigrating to Canada, and another part ended up in Mexico City (where they have been now for 4 generations, by the way). As a child and young adult, I remember crossing the border either north or south to be no major event. I remember going to visit cousins in Montreal and driving across the border without so much as a photo ID. THAT was an open border. Crossing into Mexico and back was at one time not time consuming, and in the 1980's I remember doing that also with nothing more than my driver's license. It was not nearly so simple for Hispanics going in the other direction, by the way. signs has changed. My last crossing into Mexico, post 9/11 took perhaps 10 minutes to cross into Mexico, and 5 hours to return back to the US.

If you really want to experience an open international border go to Europe and cross EU borders. That's open. It's like driving from California into Oregon or Manitoba into Saskatchewan. The only clue you have that you've crossed over a border, is that the language on road has changed.

All these impediments are supposedly for our safety as Americans, but somehow I for one feel no safer, nor do I find that my country is all that hospitable to those seen as 'not one of us', by those in power, and by the larger electorate who 'helped' to put them there. I cannot even say that the voted this time around to put the current administration into power. We actually have the Supreme Court to thank for that. At the risk of sounding like a rant, let finish by saying, that if we really want to be safer in the world as Americans, the answer lies not in how we monitor and control our borders and who gets to enter, but how we behave as individuals and as a country on the greater world stage. Hatred does not occur within a vacuum. Our actions as a nation and as individuals makes us our friends and our enemies.

Norm McDonald, a Canadian-born comedian, once said, "What's a Canadian? He's an un-armed American with health care!" Tell me guys, those of you to the US's north who also have the means to travel. Are any of you afraid to travel anywhere around the world on your Canadian Passport?

Weaver (standing down from his soap box and ready to dodge the flying tomatoes)