Please consider this reflection from an old friend (biographical info below).

Guest Blog: Football Coach

Each October, the Christian high school that I teach at takes the entire freshman class on a week-long canoe trip down the Colorado River. It is part outdoor education, part religious retreat, and part Deliverance. Because of my commitments with football, I am usually unable to go. However, that was not the case in 2000. On that trip, the naturalist assigned to my group had recently graduated from Brown with a degree in Anthropology. She was proud of the fact that she hadn’t shaved or washed her hair in over a year and her biggest worry at the time was who to vote for (she wanted to vote for Nader instead of Gore, but was afraid she was throwing her vote away). Needless to say, we had some interesting discussions.

On one of the days, her nature lesson involved the water resources and management of the river. At the time, California was taking most of the water from the river to use for irrigation (most of the drinking water for southern California comes from northern California). The agreement between the states that had a claim to the water (primarily Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah) was almost up and each entity was jockeying for position. Of course the naturalist painted the picture that big, mean, California was taking more than her share. When she finished, one of the students asked if the other states would let California continue to have water from the river. When the naturalist did not answer, my response was “If they want to continue to eat they will.” Since California grows most of their food, it was an obvious statement, and that is, in fact, what has happened.

What does this have to do with the immigration problem? The answer is still the same. California grows most of the food, particularly fruits, vegetables, and dairy. To keep prices reasonable, agriculture relies on cheap labor. While I don’t know the exact numbers, most of the planting, growing, and certainly the harvesting is done by illegal immigrants. It seems an easy solution to send all of the illegal immigrants back to their country of origin, but who would grow the food? Are we really willing to pay $6 for a head of lettuce and $10 for a gallon of milk? We don’t like paying over $3 for a gallon of gas. If Reagan’s “trickle-down” theory of economy was effective, it would make sense that it would work in reverse. If food prices increased significantly, eventually it would drive up other prices.

To add to the problem, land in California is at a premium. Unlike many areas of the country that rely on agriculture, people want to live in California making land expensive. I know that will upset some people in other parts of the country, but there is a reason why Nebraska, Iowa, and others travel well to bowl games, while the California schools do not – who wants to leave southern California in December or January to go to San Antonio, Orlando, or Memphis? It has even become necessary for certain California counties to have restrictions on what percentages of land can be developed, leaving a certain percentage that has to be left to agriculture.

I don’t know what the solution is, but it isn’t an easy one. I’m not convinced there is a problem.
~~Football Coach


Football Coach Bio:

Football Coach is a life-long friend of mine (brother is not too strong a word). He was valedictorian of my high school class. He attended USC on academic scholarship, where he also played baseball. Today he teaches advanced high school math and is acknowledged nationally as one of the finest offensive minds in American high school football.

He also attached this comment with this guest post:

"Like you, I am uncomfortable siding with George W. against the likes of Sowell and Hewitt - it's like choosing Luke Walton as your teammate when Tim Duncan or Shaq is available."