Jesus to the Rescue

I heard this story on the local news last night after spending the better part of the day driving across the Sonoran Desert. It was one of those rare incidents that brought together the best and worst of mankind into one brief bit of journalism.

Christopher Buztheitner is a nine-year-old boy from Rimrock, Arizona. His father died two months ago. Christopher’s mother, Dawn Alice Tomko, took the lad camping in a remote area of southern Arizona this past week. On Thanksgiving Day as they were heading home, Ms. Tomko misjudged a curve and rolled her van 300 feet down into a canyon. She was pinned in the vehicle, but Christopher managed to climb out and begin walking in an effort to find help.

A complete tragedy was averted when Christopher was discovered and aided by a Good Samaritan. His rescuer was Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico. Cordova took Christopher back to the wreck and tried unsuccessfully to free his mother. She died later, still pinned in the van. Cordova gave the boy his jacket, built a bonfire, and settled in for a long night in the cold desert. When morning came, he was able to flag down some hunters and Christopher’s safe rescue was completed.

Unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending for Jesus Cordova. He happened to be in the right place at the right time for young Christopher because he was walking across the Sonoran Desert in an effort to gain illegal entry into the United States. Christopher became a temporary ward of the state of Arizona until out-of-state relatives could arrive to claim him. Jesus was turned over to the Border Patrol and promptly returned to Mexico.

Jesus Manuel Cordova did so much more than rescue a scared youngster in the desert. His humanitarian efforts also served to remind us that we are all members of the brotherhood of man, a unique place where compassion should trump hate, where commonsense should defeat fear, and where we all should be bound together by love – not kept apart by borders.

Gracias, Jesus! May your example inspire us all!

Nogales

I made myself a promise when I moved to Arizona in late September, a vow that I would get out and explore my new home. Today I took a road trip in my quest to learn more about the southwest. I drove from Phoenix, through Tucson, and on down to Nogales, Arizona. I left my car behind the McDonald’s, four dollars for the entire day, and walked through the international border into Nogales, Mexico.

Nogales, Mexico, was much as I expected it to be: crowded streets with many shops and vendors vying for attention. I was clad in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and the day was much cooler than I had anticipated, so the first shopkeeper who accosted me managed to unload a woolen parka and a blanket. He literally saw me coming! After that I spent a couple of hours roaming through the narrow streets and alleyways looking at merchandise and watching the easy flow of multi-culturalism.

Having been in southern Mexico a couple of times, I was expecting to see the multitude of little shops with their blankets, pottery, silver jewelry, leather goods, and whatnots. Something that I hadn’t expected to encounter was the abundance of pharmacies and dental clinics, several of each on almost every block. Clearly the gringos must be crossing the border en masse to buy prescription drugs and have their dental work done.

Another surprise was the relative ease with which I was able to get into and out of Mexico. Going in involved navigating through a turnstile, no identification check, no sign-in, nada. Coming out I presented my passport to a US Customs agent who didn’t look at it. He asked what I had bought, and when I told him and started to pull the blanket out of its bag, he waved me on through. Mexican nationals crossing into the United States, and they were by far the majority as I was going through, presented an identification card to the bored agent, and he swiped it through a card reader. On the way home I encountered a Border Patrol checkpoint about 20 miles north of Nogales where I was waved through without being carded or questioned. (Lou Dobbs would have been appalled!)

All in all, it was a nice way to spend a beautiful Saturday.

Kiss, Kiss - Bang, Bang!

Last week a group of peaceful protesters set up a “No Borders Camp” at the fence that separates Calexico, California, from Mexicali, Mexico. Things went along fine for a few days until the group did something so outrageous that the Border Patrol couldn’t resist lurching into action. No, it wasn’t brick-throwing or even taunts and name-calling. Protestors began kissing their counterparts through the fence!

Some joyful soul came up with the idea of posting a sign on the wire mesh fence that said, “Kissing Booth,” and people quickly lined up on both sides of the border to partake in a little international smooching. Not to be outflanked by this obvious act of disrespect for authority, the Border Patrol responded by shooting pepper spray into the crowd. Several of the happy revelers were injured in the ensuing rush to get away from the spray.

If kissing brought on pepper spray, one can only wonder what would have been the result if some adventurous couple had tried to conceive a baby through the fence. Tactical nukes?

Memo to la Migra: If you can't pucker up, at least try to lighten up! Or, as we used to say in the sixties, "Make love, not war!"