Guest Editorial
Are these cowboys ‘True Grit’ or just long-winded gas bags?
Roy Warden | April 28, 2010
(Only their horses and wives really know for sure)
The Arizona Cattlemen’s Association is a latecomer to the close the border gun fight.
We’ve watched their cowboy hat and handlebar mustache act for several weeks now as they root and toot, slouch and strut, rub shoulders with politicians up in Phoenix and pose for photo-ops.
We’ve heard their gunslinger talk to “secure the border” and “shoot to kill.”
Well, rest easy folks! After all these years we will FINALLY secure the border! Just like in the movies, The Arizona Cattlemen’s Association rode in to save the day!
Trouble is, just who are these guys anyway?
They may look to be “At Home on the Range,” but when it comes to the close the border gun fight, this is the first time anyone I know ever heard from them.
We didn’t see hide nor hair of these cowpokes way back when, in the winter of ‘09, when MALDEF and the National Council of La Raza “bushwhacked” fellow rancher Roger Barnett over in federal court, branded him a “racist,” raked him over the coals and picked him clean, just because he rounded up trespassing Mexican Illegals (more than 15,000) and turned them over to the Border Patrol.
Shucks, everyone remembers Roger Barnett don’t they, the Arizona rancher who rolled up his sleeves, strapped on a hog leg and all by his lonesome did what some of these “Cattlemen” Folk and their double-talking politician sidekicks NOW say we should do?
Several days ago I spoke with some of the good people I know down in Cochise County, old time pioneers in the Protect the Border Movement, hard working Minuteman Folk with arrows in their backs to prove it (just run a Google search to find out who they are), who are plain wore out and fed up with hypocrisy and big mouth “Johnny Come Lately” cowpunchers wearing fancy suits and neckties.
These old timers told me they hadn’t heard much from these “Cattlemen” either, not for all these years while they sweated, humped over rough terrain and emptied out their pokes protecting the rest of us – at least not until March 27, 2010 when one of The Cattlemen own, Robert Krentz, had the great misfortune to get his head blown clean off.
And what about this statement:
“It's time for people to awaken and see the foreign invasion," Arizona Cattlemen’s Association member Basilio Aja said. "We feel like we have been abandoned. We've been crying out for 10 years and no one has listened. We have the laws we need. They just need to be enforced."
Excuse me? The Cattlemen’s Association has been “crying out for ten years?”
Not even ten weeks! A diligent search of the Internet reveals these sensational fellows had nothing to say, put down no hard cash, did nothing at all to get the fence up prior to the death of Robert Krentz; fact is Krentz himself said keeping the border open was “humanitarian.”
Now these “Cattlemen” got feed bags on and their hands stretched out asking for donations.
Time to knock the horse turds off your boots, fellas. You’re busted. Truth is: prior to the murder of one of your own, you just didn’t give a damn about the border or any of the rest of us.
Now, after all these years of blood, sweat, and tears when we pioneers are finally on the verge of getting the job done, you guys want to “horn in” on the action, take center stage, solicit donations in your name and bask in the glow of public adoration.
Listen up, dudes: If you had the guts, the gumption and the “true grit” to provide significant support to Roger Barnett and the Minutemen in the first place, the Minutemen would still be in business, the border would now be secure and Rob Krentz would still be alive.
Want to let these “Jack-Asses” know just what you think of them? Then copy this article and e-mail it to the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association.