Too Close for Comfort

    There has always been a constant debate over closing our borders for various reasons: Illegal immigrants, criminals, children. Each side had a valid argument for or against it. The most recent reason? Ebola. 

         The first person in the U.S. was diagnosed with Ebola, and unfortunately passed away Wednesday but there have been over 4,000 cases in West Africa which has spurred the issue of closing the U.S./Mexico border. Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' former governor even made a statement saying "We've seen our borders routinely ignored. So if someone with Ebola really wants to come to the U.S. just get to Mexico and walk right in." Even U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown who has previously promoted border control said that Ebola "..underscores the need to secure our borders." The problem most fear, is that someone from Latin America or elsewhere will become infected and flee to the U.S. 

         The media and most officials have covered the Ebola outbreak in such a way that some have called into question. With every report there is always the same message, "the healthcare professionals in the U.S. are more than capable of handling this", "we have everything under control", "it's not going to spread widely in the U.S." etc.          Now obviously the goal is to avoid panic and chaos but when people begin to hear stories from other sources, even if they are unreliable, that seem to contradict what the media is saying, we begin to fear they aren't telling us the whole truth. Whether or not this is a rational fear to have is beside the point. This is not to say that every media outlet is reporting in this style. In fact CNN and Huffington Post both have reports about border control. The real problem does not lie with the media but with the timeliness and efficiency of our government.

          My biggest question is, even if we do have everything under control, why wouldn't we do everything we could to stop this outbreak in its tracks, even if it might be considered "overkill". People have seriously criticized the Democratic Party along with our President because the reasoning against closing our borders is just plain ridiculous. They want everyone to feel included. This means going as far as eliminating quarantines. Supposedly checking the temperatures of passengers at airports flying in and out of the U.S. should be enough to keep us safe. Am I the only one finding this a bit unsettling?

    In my opinion there should be no debate on this issue. There just isn’t a valid enough reason against closing borders. We’re not trying to exclude people…we’re trying to keep Americans safe and if that hurts some feelings so be it.