South Texas, beware! Members of a trucker’s convoy,“Take Our Border Back,” are a’comin’ to our area. They claim to be protesting “immigration and globalist forces, eroding national sovereignty.” The convoy departed from Virginia Beach Monday, heading to the Texas/Mexican border. Rallies for February 3rd were scheduled for Eagle Pass, Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and San Yisidro, California.
Those cites were selected “for their symbolic and strategic importance.” The groups is funded, they say, by” GiveSendGo.” They acknowledge, as they coyly put it, “some risks”(‘God’s Army’ Plans Protest, Cybersecdn, 29 Jan 24). They brag many of them are armed. Others go further, threatening secession of Texas and other States from the Union. A stand-off in Shelby Park (named for a Confederate officer), in Eagle Pass, over Texas-installed barriers on the river, countered by Border Patrol attempts to remove them. has reignited secessionist rhetoric, echoing sentiments similar to those of 1860 (Jimmy Dean, RanchersRidge, 30 Jan 24).
These movements remind us, in the Rio Grande Valley, of the last skirmish of the Civil War, at Palmito Ranch, May 13, 1865. almost one hundred and sixty years ago. Well over one half a million died in that conflict (360,222 Union deaths, 258,000 Confederate deaths). Valley residents, other Texans, and other Americans are concerned, with good reason, over possibilities of a renewed, “civil war” (which usually aren’t, by nature, very civil).
A photo posted Tuesday to the Texas Military Department’s official X account showed the ‘Come and Take It” flag from the Texas Revolution (secession from Mexico), flying at Camp Mabry in Austin. That is a State agency which includes the Texas National Guard. This repeats Governor Abbott’s continued use of the Guard to roll out more concertina wire along the Rio Grande, challenging the US Supreme Court order to allow the U.S. Border Patrol to perform its constitutional duties (Nikki Wentling, Military Veterans in Journalism, 30 Jan 24).
Constitutional law is clear; policies about borders are prerogatives of the Federal government. The US Supreme Court has spoken, albeit by a slim majority (if not about the basic issue/s, at least about the BP’s right to patrol the River). History is clear; although there are those, such as the Texas Governor, and other Republicans, in and out of State, who obfuscate, who stir up trouble.
Such trouble-makers cite, ad nauseum, ancientjustifications for treason, paraphrasing John Calhoun, even channeling Jefferson Davis. Davis, President of the Confederacy, and others defended slavery, choosing sedition against the American government, leading their unsuspecting people into slaughter. Today, the more thoughtful among us thought we were “over” those days. But we face threats of treason again, as we speak, damaging consideration of a bi-partisan bill in the Senate to ameliorate border concerns. It should be noted, the “convoys” are quarreling and mired down; they are not nearly as large as the media makes them out to be, and may wind up being very ineffectual.
True, truckers in the convoys, some in and out of Texas, have gone berserk. Yet, there are responsible citizens pushing back. Among them is LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group. It issued on Monday a “National Alert,” noting Gov. Abbott has “encouraged white extremists with a hate agenda, to travel to Texas.” Some extremists have heeded the call (Craig Huber, Spectrum News, 30 Jan 24).
LULAC cited the 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in which the white gunman, with his hate crime, killed 23 people and injured 22 others. The FBI labeled this atrocity the result of an “act of domestic terrorism.” LULAC warns against a possible repeat, rejecting hate speech that ”puts Hispanic Texans, law enforcement, military service members and innocent civilians in the cross-hairs,” yet again.
How shall the rest of us respond? What will you do? Will most of us stay steadfast? Continue to reassert our values as good Americans? Will most rally to the constitutional side of the United States? To the side of the law and of reason? Or will too many be beguiled by outmoded “states-rights” rhetoric, by attempts to stoke fear of immigrants?
Think about it. Who, actually, are the armed, invading forces? Unarmed immigrants, seeking work and refuge from dictators and economic misery? Or are the invaders, in fact, “fellow Americans,” armed, barreling down the highway? They have been cajoled, aided and abetted by unscrupulous politicians, who enjoy putting their fellow citizens at risk of life and limb, for what they hope is electoral advantage. I doubt God is on the side of threats of violence and of treason. So, “God’s Army,” change your blasphemous name and GO HOME!
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by UT-Rio Grande Valley Professor Emeritus Dr. Gary Joe Mounce. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Dr. Mounce can be reached by email via: gjmounce@gmail.com.
