I found an interesting article this morning that warrants some thoughtful consideration.
Going fishing? Pack your passport is the title and it starts like this:
Rick Ungar’s charter fishing service promises a great time on Lake Erie. But there’s a catch — and it’s not freshwater fish. It’s the Homeland Security Department’s new anti-terrorism rules.
When the 2008 charter season begins next month, U.S. citizens paying to fish on Lake Erie will have to bring either a passport or two other IDs if they plan to cross the northern border’s invisible watery line.
When they get back to shore in the USA, they’ll have to drive to a local government reporting station and pose for pictures. They won’t be posing with their fish, but for Customs officers via a videophone connection.
That’s because half of Lake Erie — as it happens, the half with the deeper and cooler waters that often spawn the best fishing — is in Canada. The Homeland Security Department intends to enforce new border security rules — largely focused on those coming into the country by land and air — on fishermen re-entering the country.
I have a few comments/questions I’d like to throw out that I hope would prompt some introspection and discussion.
First of all, I find it interesting that sportsmen (and particularly the charter captain type who earn a living from the resource) think themselves immune from federal law.
It may be true this particular border between countries is an invisible line but that is a far cry from saying it doesn’t exist. When you leave the country—whether on foot, by land conveyance, by plane or by boat—there are rules governing the crossing of our borders.
Carrying a fishing pole doesn’t change that.
Second, the federal government has an infinite number of rules, regulations and programs that have been implemented directly affecting sportsmen; most of which are unconstitutional.
Sportsmen, as a rule, accept these bits of nonsense without so much as a whimper or whine.
Border security is one job the feds are supposed to address and, when they finally start doing that job, we raise a stink.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Finally, as with most controversial issues, where folks stand seems to depend much more on how it affects their personal pocketbooks rather than what is proper.
Excerpt:
“How does this secure our country?” asks Ungar, a retired Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio, police chief. “I’m not insensitive to law enforcement issues, but these are fishermen, for God’s sake.”
I wonder if he ever said to himself (just before writing a traffic ticket) ‘these are motorists, for God’s sake’?
Or did he ever say to himself (just before arresting someone for possession of a weapon) ‘these are citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, for God’s sake’?
Excerpt:
Jim Bonner, whose Sunshine Charters business has been taking tourists fishing on Lake Erie for 25 years, calls the rules “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
“It’s a shame” he says. “It’s just wide-open water.”
Taxpayers’ money is wasted every day. How often does he think about that on a daily basis—and when was the last time he said this to the media?
“It’s just wide-open water.”
Yup, that’s the point. Wide-open water leading to a wide-open country in time of war…
