Buffalo Gal

I read an article published by CNSnews today.  It is an interview with an Arizona sheriff who is not as well known as Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has just had a million dollar price put on his head by the Mexican drug cartel who wants him killed by anyone who wants the million dollar reward.  How can this be?    A lawless group of drug runners and criminals puts out a "hit" on an American sheriff who has the gaul to work hard and enforce the laws of his state and nation and arrest members of the Mexican drug cartel.  For this he deserves to be murdered by any thug who can get a crack at him?  How can this be in this nation of ours…the one created to be a nation of laws that protect its citizens?
 

The other Arizona sheriff, Paul Babeau of Pinal County, Arizona wonders at the way his county and state have been betrayed by the national government he probably was sworn to protect as well as his state and county…his question is this: Has our own (national ) government now become our Enemy?   It seems that way with the events that have recently occurred.   Babeau says that the federal government under the Obama administration is not seeking to help the local law enforcement agencies which are under so much fire in Arizona regarding the illegal aliens flooding into their state but rather the Feds are discouraging the local law enforcement people by targeting them for prosecution for enforcing the law of the land and of the state of Arizona.   A lawsuit against the Arizona immigration law recently passed in a desperate attempt to protect the citizens of that state was pursued by Attorney General Eric Holder in a strange turn of events that leaves many United States citizens with mouths agape, asking "Who’s side are you on?"   Just in the past days, a Liberal judge (Clinton appointee) ruled that Arizona’s law is mostly to be discarded.  Illegal aliens danced and demonstrated in the streets of Phoenix celebrating the federal judge’s ruling.    In a weekend incident, a probably- illegal alien charged onto some atheletic field (also illegally) carrying a Mexican flag.   How can these things be???   Have we gone so far down the tube of lawlessness that our own national government IS truly our enemy???

Some statements by Sheriff Paul Babeau are worth considering:  " What’s very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay our of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, the drag us into court with the ACLU…..so who has partnered with the ACLU? It’s the President and (the Attorney General) Erik Holder himself, and that’s simply outrageous."

Another statement by Babeau in this CNS interview conducted by phone  last week:           "If the President would do his job and secure the border; send 3000 armed soldiers to the Arizona border and stop the illegal immigration and the drug smuggling and the violence, we wouldn’t even be in this position  and where we are forced to take matters into our own hands."

Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Arizona also weighed in on this interview:               "The bigger picture is while what’s going on in Arizona is critically important, what comes out of this and happens here will affect our entire nation in terms of our ability to protect our citizenry from   a very serious homeland security threat.  People who come across my county are not staying there. They’re going everywhere in the USA and a lot of them are bad, bad people."

The article also reported that 250,000 were detained in Arizona in the last 12 months for being in the country illegally but that number only reflects the number actually DETAINED…there is a much higher unknown number of illegal aliens who have crossed our border and are in the country right now as illegal aliens.  The Customs and Border Protection also says that 17 percent of those detained already had criminal records in the United States. Both Babeau and  Dever want to remain in the legal fight over the law which many legal experts say will end up being resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A web site… (BorderSheriffs.com) (or google  "Border Sheriffs Defending Those Who Defend Our Borders") ….has been launched by the non-profit, Iowa based Legacy Foundation to raise money for Babeau’s and Dever’s defense.   Both sheriffs say that the outcome of this case will have national significance.   "For us," say the two men,  " this is a public safety matter and a national security threat."  If you go to the website, you will also find a place to donate to this cause and also the snail mail address of the group in Iowa who have joined in this legal battle of the two Arizona sheriffs.

And I say…  How can this be?  How can we have fallen so far that we are in such a situation regarding the invasion of our borders by dangerous and criminal illegals who are delivering all sorts of criminal activities into our seemingly helpless nation and its border states….due to the Federal Government becoming as much of an Enemy as those who are involved in the Mexican Drug Cartel and other criminal elements from that nation?

We all thought our Federal Government was sworn to protect its citizens from "dangers domestic and foreign" but clearly we are not being protected!!!

Our oldest grandchild is now a married woman….a wife who has a wonderful husband and the two of them are beginning yet another saga in our family history.  Every couple who marries and stays faithful to each other will "write" another chapter in a family’s history.  We expect that theirs will be a chapter like the rest of us in our ever-expanding family has already written—-joy and happiness, times of trouble and sickness and anxiety; times when the babies are born to parents who will welcome them with great joy and devote their lives to raising those babies to become responsible and loving adults who will then go on to choose another wife or husband and the saga begins again….renewed and updated in every generation.

Our grand-daughter was, of course, the most beautiful bride on the entire planet on July 31 2010.  I am sure that Bill and Hillary Clinton thought the same of thier lovely daughter Chelsea on the same day as our grand daughter’s wedding!!!  I saw the pictures from Chelsea’s wedding and the two wedding dresses were remarkably alike!   But they were many thousands of dollars apart also!  Both of the Brides on July 31 were beautiful brides!(and I am sure there were thousands of other beautiful July 31 brides all over the world)

We were all there for her wedding day….two sets of grandparents…many uncles and aunts..lots of cousins and a huge number of friends that both the Bride and Groom have made over their 21 years of life mostly lived in Bismarck-Mandan.  Everyone in their circle of family and friends were so happy and so supportive of the newly married ones.  We all had a most blessed and joyul time together.  It began with a large 4-family picnic in Pioneer Park by the Missouri River on Friday night.  Every young couple brings 2 familes with them so there are actually 4 big extended families celebrating the marriage ceremony and the events leading up to it.  There have been "showers" of blessing" in the form of useful gifts for the new couple; the pre-wedding picnic was such a great evening!   The Groom’s family has established a tradition of having a "program" devoted to the couple about to be married and I have not seen such cleverness, good clean humor, and creativity combined in one family ever!    The skits and songs were precious and also hilarious….especially the one done by the Groom’s two younger brothers and our 2 other grand daughters, the Bride’s two  younger sisters.  It was the famous skit-type of one person behind the other, with the hands of the person behind, doing the hands of the person in front…..I hope you get the picture.  We were hysterical at the skit which was of the two Sweethearts getting ready for one of their dates and that included the "backside brother" applying shaving cream, a non-razor shave, hair gel, tooth brushing and applying deodorant to absent armpits, and putting on his "favorite shirt" which was a scream because the shirt was too big and very ugly!   The behind- the- back sister put on the "Bride’s" makeup, brushed her teeth, "did" her hair which included pulling out a ponytail (ouch) and finally putting on yet another ugly piece of clothing..a dress that looked like it came out of a theater deparments oldest garments!    My son, the Father of the Bride and I, stood together trying to hold each other up due to the laughter at seeing the actors playing the "Bride and Groom" get ready for the date, seeing the "groom" feed his "bride" macaroni and cheese and also see the whipped cream get "put on" the "dessert". (actually a lot of the cream ended up on the two Sweethearts)  It was  hilarious and SO MESSY…. the absolute hit of all the "acts" in the program at our picnic shelter in Pioneer Park.  The humored life is definitely much better than the alternative!!!!!   We returned to our dwellings that night, weak with laughter and so filled with joy for the young couple.

The wedding was perfect! (prejudice showing here)  The Bride was like the Princess she had played in her high school’s perfomance of "Cinderella in which she played the part of the lovely Princess Bride…Cinderella. The Groom was handsome and so loving as he watched his beautiful Girl come down the aisle on the arm of her Dad (our son).  I was very sure I was going to "lose it" when I saw the two of them come down the aisle together….Dad and Daughter who have shared such a joyful life since she was born in 1988.   But I held it together and did not break into tears until after the wedding when the Bride and Groom returned to usher their guests out of the pews.  Then, as I was hugged by my Sweetheart who was now a wife, I broke down remembering all our wonderful memories of 21 years as Grandma and Grand- daughter.  The tears were short lived because tears of joy do not last long. We all went to the reception and had a grand time seeing all the friends and family again.  We ate together, watched  or danced together, ate cake and drank punch and put the grand finale onto a wedding that both Mothers and both familes had worked so long and hard to bring to fruition.  What a wonderful 2 days of wedding celebrations!!!!

But the MORE of the wedding took place on Saturday when the two of us took a historical and sentimental ride in the beautiful green hills southwest of Mandan where our family history began in the United States in 1906 when the paternal Great-Great Grandparents of the Bride arrived in the "new country" from Norway.   My husband and I drove on the small roads and the buggy trail that the Grandparents had walked in early September of 1906. We passed by two significant homestead sites that had been such  key places in the Grandparents’ journey that ended up in the small city of Mandan where the Grandfather was asked to start a shoemaking and leather business, which he did…..and he continued doing that work til he was over 90 years old in the same small shop where he had started.  They raised a family of 6 in that town and all of them married and began raising familes also….my husband is part of one of those families and the memories of his Grandfather’s shoemaking, shoe repair and leather shop remains with him as long as he lives….he was the Grandson who worked beside his Grandfather from the time he was about 11 years old learning how to put soles and heels on shoes that needed repair.   Our Saturday journey took us to memories of our own which began in the late 1950′s when I first met the "other family" in my life.  Many times we had traveled those country roads to go to dinner or a picnic with the large exended family at an Uncle’s ranch on the Sweet Briar creek and also the Heart River running closeby in the vast hills and pastures of the southwestern county near Mandan, ND.   What beauty is there!   What beauty and rich promise the early settlers in the family must have seen as they first arrived!      We saw cattle on the hills, blooming flax in small fields, many fields of oats for the many horses which still live on ranches and farms in that area.  We were revived by the sentimental journey through those hills and valleys where one side of the family began their story decades ago when the first ones came from Norway to make a new life in "Amerika".    What a legacy they have left!    A large extended family lives in those hills yet and in many other parts of "Amerika".

Our Grand daughter and her new husband will only add to the Sagas of four familes who all had their beginnings as the early pioneers established their lives in the New Country.  Every new marriage is another "New Country" waiting to be settled by those who love each other and are devoted to building yet another family Saga.

Our weekend was filled with joy, happiness, laughter, solemnity, and much remembrance of things already gone into the family history "books" most of them yet unwritten.