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03/11/09 - A NY Reader Rejects "Briton" Label For Terrorists
From: Stuart Hurlbert (email him)
Re: "Should Americans Visit Mexico"? by Alan Wall
Allan Wall's recent critique of the Boycott Mexico Now campaign of the Americans United to Halt Tourism to Mexico (AUHTM) coalition is a major exception to his usual good commentary on immigration issues. He's lost sight of the big picture.
Mexico is very directly waging a political and demographic war against the U.S. In that enterprise, it has the support of a significant fraction of the population in Mexico and of many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.
The Mexican tourist industry is an excellent position to pressure the Mexican government to reverse its hostile policies toward the U.S. A tourism boycott will "encourage" the Mexican tourism industry to exert such pressure. If it chooses not to do so, then why does it deserve the patronage of Americans?
The Mexican government is hardly the only source of our immigration problems, but it is a major one, and Wall suggests no other way to effectively encourage it to cease its aggression toward the U.S. and the American citizenry.
Wall asks: "Why berate and possibly alienate the 17.6 million Americans who like to visit Mexico?" AUHTM has done no "berating". But no one who goes to Mexico, fully aware of the warfare Mexico is waging, overtly and covertly, against the U.S., can possibly be a person who "might agree with us on the immigration issue".
Understandably, sun-loving, politically naive, American hedonists looking only for a cheap vacation will not be with us.
At least that is true if "us" is taken to refer to CAPS, NumbersUSA, FAIR, NPG, CCN, Population/Environment Balance, Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization, the Minutemen groups, etc.
Allan Wall replies: Despite his denial, Mr. Hurlburt definitely does "berate" Americans who visit Mexico, when he writes: "But no one who goes to Mexico, fully aware of the warfare Mexico is waging, overtly and covertly, against the U.S., can possibly be a person who 'might agree with us on the immigration issue'. Understandably, sun-loving, politically naive, American hedonists looking only for a cheap vacation will not be with us."
With this pronouncement, Mr. Hurlburt condemns 17.6 million Americans, including yours truly. Is bashing American citizens over their vacation choice an effective tactic? I think not. All tourists to Mexico are not open borders promoters and many are or would be in agreement with us.
The battle for immigration reform includes people with different points of view and persuasions. Why alienate folks over such a peripheral issue? When we should be gearing up to fight amnesty in the U.S., a tourism boycott is definitely not the way to go.
