Can We Close Our Borders?



No, not the southern border. Or even the northern. State borders.

There used to be check points on the borders between New Mexico and California. Supposedly it prevented you from bringing illegal fruits? And vegetables? From one state to another. I can remember in college smuggling back papaya from spring break in California. I have joked in the past of nobody missing New Mexico if we decided to no longer belong to the US and where we could put up ports of entry on the major interstate highways: I25, I10, I40.

News has reported there are seven states which are doing Nothing to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. Two are direct neighbors: Oklahoma and Texas. Because of the total and absolute lack of leadership from the top down states have been reacting piecemeal to the crisis. The various Governors in Washington and California, New Mexico, and Colorado have taken action for their own states. But while they have taken decisive action to hopefully head off the pandemic eleven states have chosen to totally ignore it. A couple like Wyoming and Idaho I can sort of understand. They are off the beaten path. But Texas!!! They even have major ports. And major hubs for airline travel.

So can we close the border between Texas and Oklahoma? Which would mean forbidding citizens who have second homes here. But spring break is over and they won't be back to May to open their vacation homes. If we had ports of entry we could keep them out if they have a fever.

What good does it do to closely monitor our own citizens, close our schools and restaurants and bars, if we are going to let people from states with no responsibility to flow across our common border? No problems with our neighbors to the north. They closed their ski areas before we did. A warning would have been nice because they all fled south in search of snow. We could have coordinated the closure of ski areas in our state so there was no reason to come here.

We need a national policy. We need a national leader. But clearly that isn't going to happen so until then can we please close our borders.

Note: I opened with a photo of Utah Canyonlands. If you have spent any time on the internet you know there are a bunch of people with RV's heading there to isolate. Is something like this why the ancient people vanished? Wasn't drought at all.


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