I live near the border so I have a few thoughts to share about the “national emergency” declared by our president. And a few questions.
Shouldn’t you have to prove you can read Article 1 of the Constitution before you can subvert it? Can a catastrophe declare an emergency? When the president speaks, why does it feel like I’m watching outtakes from “Drunk History”?
If I were president of the United States I’d declare a “national emergency,” too. It wouldn’t be to build a wall. It would be to address the opioid crisis with overwhelming force and funding. Add manpower to the DEA. Give them the tech they need to intercept the drugs. Expand addiction treatment.
(If the thought of me as your president is jarring I understand your doubt. I have never been a TV reality star. If an unindicted calamity can declare an emergency, why can’t I? Ask my wife, she’ll tell you I’m just a minor disaster.)
Some facts: Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. Opioids are addictive painkillers. “Opie” is not a nickname for the illicit drug. “Opie” is a character from the old “Andy Griffith Show.”
The opioid problem is so bad that Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier now asks every deputy to carry the opioid overdose reversal drug, Narcan. It’s not enough that every paramedic in the county carries Narcan. Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus has long argued every law enforcement officer, and even people who know opioid abusers, should carry Narcan.
Why stop there? You and I should carry Narcan. You know CPR, you’ve mastered the Heimlich, you may as well carry Narcan. Let’s see. Keys, phone, wallet. Pepper spray and Narcan. You’re ready to go out the door in 2019.
Ask a DEA agent. It hasn’t been this bad in 30 years. The old crack crisis pales in contrast. The Sinaloa Cartel doesn’t waste its time and resources smuggling their product across the desert in Hello Kitty backpacks, or in condoms held in the prison wallets of migrants. The profit is too small to justify the risk and effort. The cartels ship large amounts of inventory through ports of entry.
Last month at a Nogales port of entry, our fine Customs and Border Protection officers found 254 pounds of fentanyl hidden in a delivery of cucumbers. Our president weighs 243 pounds. How many Trump-loads of these drugs get past us? One Trump-sized load is enough for millions of potentially lethal doses. For those of you not gargling an opioid smoothie right now, let me remind you that’s two Arlington cemeteries. And that’s one bust. Our president wants to talk about an invasion? How about the invasion of our country by a drug that rots our very core and is killing us?
When it comes to attacking this national threat efficiently and wisely, Washington has hit a wall.
As for Trump’s wall, don’t make me cite illegal immigration stats. If you don’t know that it’s been down for years you’re either high on fentanyl or a Fox news viewer. Big words are hard so I’ll write your letter for you:
Editor,
Fitzgerald’s so-called facts are nothing but fake news. Filthy diseased Mexican rapists are sneaking in here and voting Democrat by the millions. Fitzgerald is just a hater. Trump’s right. You are the enema of the people. I hope he gets fired.
Signed,
Slingblade “Make America Great Again” Jenkins
Every year here in Arizona, over 2,000 of our neighbors, co-workers and friends ingest opioids, fall asleep and never wake up again. We are chugging painkillers like they were Skittles. Painkillers are hard to kick. Ask Rush Limbaugh.
Nationwide, roughly 60,000 Americans die every year from overdoses. To put that in perspective, 2,335 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor. Today, the opioid crisis gives us one Pearl Harbor every two weeks. The president’s answer? Waste money on a wall that does nothing and go golfing.
On the sunny side, unemployed low-skill Americans are finding fantastic employment opportunities in the expanding gravedigger, body bag and Narcan manufacturing industries.
One other thing.
When Dachau concentration camp was liberated, the allies were shocked by the carnage they had found. What further shocked the naive world was the response of the fine folks who lived near the camp, smelled the smoke and claimed ignorance of the horror next door. Who would consciously choose to ignore such a horror?
Who can say? If you don’t believe the victims are fully human it’s easy to ignore such genocide. Mind your own business.
Who would consciously design a border policy that would drive thousands of desperate men, women and children into a barren murderous desert, every blazing summer, where a gruesome slow death is the most likely outcome?
“I didn’t know. ... Right next door, huh?”
It’s not a national emergency. It’s our national shame.
No wonder Americans down painkillers like they’re Pringles.
MY TAKE ON “NON SEQUITUR”
Like many of our readers who have protested the executive decision of the Arizona Daily Star to pull “Non Sequitur,” I dearly love David Wiley Miller’s strip. I have followed “Non Sequitur” ever since “Wiley” made the transition from the editorial page of the San Francisco Examiner to America’s comic page. David is a gifted comic strip cartoonist.
When I saw the backlash to dropping the cartoon I felt compelled to speak up. When David hid his profane message in his Feb. 10 strip he broke my heart. I knew in an instant what the result of such a stupid, shocking, childish — and frankly, inexplicable — act would be.
Many who have protested may agree with the coarse spirit of his sentiment. That in no way excuses the act of consciously sneaking an obscene political message in a strip which appears in mainstream family newspapers. If he suggested to President Barack Obama “Go f— yourself” would you defend him with equal vigor?
I am still perplexed, shocked and disappointed by this act of professional suicide. In a moment of thoughtless hubris he forfeited the pulpit he spent years building. Editors across the country reacted as I knew they would. And understandably so. He gave them no choice. He broke the trust of his syndicate’s editors. And our trust. He disgraced and embarrassed his syndicate.
To those who would suggest I may share “Wiley’s fate” I would tell them to calm down. I am blessed that Lee Enterprises supports this cartoonist. They’ve vigorously defended me, time and time again, when critics have called for this artist to be drawn and quartered. In this era when many cartoonists are losing their jobs, like Rob Rogers, or my friend Steve Benson, my employer continues to believe their two cartoonists — myself and Phil Hands at the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wisconsin — play an important role in community journalism. In a time when there are fewer than 25 editorial cartoonists left working in America today, the position of Lee Enterprises management is extraordinary and commendable.
I am looking forward to the expanded comics page and enjoying the work of the bright new cartoonists we will be showcasing.
