Opinion: In today’s pages: Don’t fence cowboys in, or migrants out
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Loyola Marymount’s Rubén Martínez discovers that in its haste to build a border barrier, Washington has forgotten how much cowboys hate fences:
It’s a new political convergence in the borderlands: environmentalists, social justice advocates and a cohort of new border activists who are apparently driven less by ideology than a simple Western love of open vistas -- and plain common sense. This loose coalition bridges a long-standing political gap. Historically, some who called themselves environmentalists were more likely to complain about litter on the migrant trail than migrant deaths, or say that population control was preferable to immigration reform. In the borderlands, the sheer dimensions of the human tragedy make such thinking morally reprehensible.
David Schenker, a senior fellow in Arab politics at the Washington Institute, explores a targeted assassination campaign that’s killing pro-Western politicians in Lebanon. Howard A. Rodman, a board member of the Writers Guild of America, West and a USC professor, argues that media companies making billions from writers’ work should share the wealth.
The editorial board says there are two questions the Senate Judiciary Committee should be sure to ask attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey. The board says the California legislature’s failure to put together a water bond could actually be a good thing, and offers solutions for poor lending practices that continued in early 2007 despite the downturn in the housing market.
Readers consider the Armenian genocide resolution. Alberto Marrero of Salas says, ‘Why should one American soldier be put in harm’s way for an Armenian who died in 1915?’