Of Bread and Border Security

Woof, woof

Of Bread and Border Security

The Rancher Component

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            In Luther’s Small Catechism, he describes what is meant by the simple premise of our daily bread. I must admit that my perception has been narrow. Bread is bread, right?

            It turns out this component of our prayer is much broader.

            It certainly includes the support and needs of the body, but it isn’t limited to food and drink. It references many things. Included is clothing, foot wear, our homes, our animals, our land, devout spouses and friends, self-control, devoted children, and peace. It ought to include good government, too.

All these things and more impact our wellbeing. They are fundamental to our existence.

Woof, woof

Yes, I’ve been working on fence for too long. This week has been, in part, a solo affair with just me and the Little Cowboy. It has been pleasant. I have enjoyed it.

At one point yesterday, I worked myself into a bunch of javelinas. There may be no animal that changes more from its appearance in posed picture form to witnessing it in its natural state. Awkward and homely in a snapshot stands in stark juxtaposition to their athleticism and gracefulness in life and full color.

They are interesting little characters.

I saw the first one coming up through a heavy stand of creosote. Nearly black, the adult could have been mistaken for a bear if he had been 100 pounds heavier. Where one is others are normally close by and a look around found one close by to the left looking at me, another to my front looking at me, and yet another to his left. They were all adults.

Each of us with eye contact stared and studied until, almost imperceptibly, one of them woofed softly, twice. They scattered immediately twisting and dodging brush going away.

Almost as quickly, others started to appear testing the wind and trying to figure out what I was or where I was. This went on for several minutes before I tried my own nearly silent ‘woof, woof’ on them.

Like the first group they scattered like quail running and dodging brush. The one to the right on my side of the fence shot through it twisting on his side in midair to sail unscathed through strands of parallel barbed wire.

A replay in super slow motion of that feat would be fascinating to watch.

And, then they were gone. All that was left were their petit tracks and their memory. As a matter of fact, I stood alone under a big sky and a lot of empty country. The chill of the morning had burned off and one of those beautiful New Mexico days that are so downright beautiful had arrived.

For a moment, I took it all in.

To the west were the Florida Mountains. Continuing in the circle to the northwest were the Cooke’s Range with the Matterhorn of New Mexico, Cooke’s Peak, towering over their northern extreme. Under it on the nearby ridgeline, was the Goodsight Mountains in part where our Goodsight pasture lies. To the north, now out of sight from where I stood was the snow covered Black Range of the Gila. Blocking their presence was Massacre Peak with its flat topped massif which is so familiar. A good portion of it is on our private land. Then there was the Las Uvas with the FAA radar dome shining brightly white in the sunlight. I could see points of the Rough and Readies to the northeast and the Sleeping Ladies to their south. To the east were the jagged, snow covered Organs that have long been the signature of Dona Ana County images. To the near southeast were the Aden Hills and to the south was Dudley’s country and the Potrillo Mountains.

Off his southern boundary is the Mexican border.

In each case, I know ranchers who make those ranges home and where they provide water, salt, mineral and protein to livestock and wildlife alike without prejudice. It is home and each one of us so often is reminded, under these very circumstances, why we pursue this life of constant demands, mental and physical pressures, and outright danger to our lives. So much of the time we are alone.

Give us this day our daily bread …

Rancher Component

This matter of border security, especially in counties adjacent to the international border, is a complicated jumble of politics and physical barriers and obstacles. The simile has long been a comparison to our daily bread. Any border wall is much more than a physical barrier. It references many things not the least of which is the key component of the ranching community adjacent and north from the wall in any of its forms. Aside from the Border Patrol, we are America’s early warning system. This is the most basic and reliable component of all. Each will sound the alert in the protection of their being. Each will protect their homes and their lands.

There are names.

These are living, breathing Americans at risk that play a key role every day in the defense of this country. The families of Glenn, Gault, Peterson, Hurt, Keeler, Johnson, Perez, Smyer, Williams, and Johns join many, many other precious front line sentinels to form an early warning system that is absolutely vital and critical to the defense and wellbeing of this nation.

In their capacity of early warning and constant vigilance, they are largely silent, overlooked, and taken for granted. Their relationship with their government is too often rocky with constant threat to their investments and their way of life.

The question is … will we ever be included in any comprehensive plan in this dangerous, vicious debate?

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “I am reminded that each component of our natural world has evolved its own system of alert. The javalinas ‘woof, woof’ imperceptibly. Border ranchers woof, too. Leadership must just care enough to listen.”