alas, the skeeper's friend is a minutemen

It's kind of weird, meeting a Minutemen member down here in Mexico. We were sitting alone, looking at the water, when Mr. Minutemen said "I haven't been to Mexico in, let's see, 40 years. I can't believe these people live this way."

I wasn't sure how he meant his statement. Was he surprised at the poverty? Or did he think these people should just pull themselves up by their sandal straps? I wanted to find out and so innocently I said "I know. The people here are so poor, I understand why they try to get to the United States."

He says "I belong to the Minutemen. Do you know who they are?"

"Yeah, ya'll are the reason I didn't move to Bisbee. I heard you were down there a couple years ago and so I changed my plans."

Thus we embarked on a lively discussion where he put me in the "little woman, you don't know anything" column and I marked him as a "racist in 'we're just fighting terrorism' clothes". He said things like "the US can't absorb 300 million immigrants", "middle-easterners pay coyotes $25,000 to bring them into our country", "the minutemen are out there saving lives".

We did agree on a couple of things: Neither of us like George Bush; we believe it should be easier for third (or fourth or more) party candidates to run for office. Mr. Minutemen seems to have a love affair going with Lou Dobbs, and Ron Paul is his candidate of choice.

Now, I don't know the Skeeper's politics but when he joined us and caught the tail-end of our conversation he groaned and said "Don't get him started." I said, "Too late."

"You know," the Skeeper said, "I was gonna try to get the TV going, but I think I'll just let it sit, otherwise we'll be watchin' C-span all the time. I've known this man for 40 years and I swear he's getting crazier by the year but he's entertaining as all hell."

And that was it, we went on to Mr. Minutemen's fear of water and how the Skeeper is going to have to drag his ass out for a fishing expedition.

I also don't know where the Texas Couple stand politically. I do know that Mrs. Texan and I share the same feeling of repulsion when we hear gringos and ex-pats talk about "these people". Yesterday Mrs. Texan laughed and said "I'm developing a prejudice against snowbirds."

It'll be curious to see how Mr. Minutemen survives this week - surrounded by Mexicans and facing a sea-full of water (he prefers mountains and trees).

I'm happy to have the Skeeper back; he sure knows how to liven things up.