Welcome to M14 National Monument, please keep your head down and stay with the group. We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you while you visit Organ Pipe National Monument, where the border is more secure than ever.
Liz Goodwin recently wrote about her visit to Organ Pipe National Monument. About 69% of the park has been closed since 2002, when Park Ranger Kris Eggle was murdered by drug runners.
As Ms. Goodwin notes, things have improved at the park. Since 2009, you can take a van tour to the springs in the park, but you’ll be escorted by Park Rangers protected with bullet proof vests and armed with M14 Battle Rifles. Oh yeah, there will be more officers in the hills keeping watch for cartel members that may ruin your day. Due to increased law enforcement presence, on March 1st, 2012, around 46% of the monument will be open to visitors. Let that sink in. You can’t visit 54% of your national monument because, it’s just too dangerous.
The danger to visitors in Organ Pipe National Monument is even higher than Saguaro National Monument and Coronado National Memorial. The Mexican drug trade to the United States is at least $39 billion per year, and the thousands of weapons trafficked South by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives remains unquantified. We need to evaluate the loss of access to parts of the U.S. and the increase in wealth of certain political elites who fight to make more of our borderland “protected environmental areas”. Certainly, gun control wasn’t the only motivation for the criminal Operation Fast and Furious.
For some perspective, the DMZ between North and South Korea is a safer place to visit. Just remember when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and President Obama claim that “border security is better than ever“, it all depends on what the meaning of the word “is” actually is.
If you think the porous border isn’t a serious issue, just remember, when you eat a cheap burger, admire your inexpensively manicured lawn, or snort a line of cheap cocaine, there is a enormous price paid by some Americans (and Mexicans) for that little luxury you enjoy, while you smugly pine that you are looking out for those less fortunate than you.
