Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Minutemen Then and Now

Lexington, Massachussets, April 19, 1775: English troops numbering in the hundreds marched into Lexington to capture Patriot leaders. About 70 local "Minutemen" ambushed the British, fired "the shot heard 'round the world", and the Revolutionary War had begun.

Fast forward to today. So-called vigilante patriots calling themselves "Minutemen" patrol the Arizona-Mexico border on the lookout for illegal aliens. A founder of the minutemen movement, Jim Gilchrist, will tomorrow abandon the vigil, apparently out of boredom and a sense of completion, and will appear next week before the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus in Washington.

I'm not sure what to think of this blogger's take on the minuteman issue.
Gabriel Thompson feels that the minutemen share a victim's insecurity complex.

I would certainly watch this and similar immigration/border security issues in the future. We may be observing the incipient beginnings of a hugely contentious debate in months and perhaps years to come.

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