I just got a tweet from Sen. John McCain (yes i follow him) saying that we need to be prepared to close the border with Mexico to prevent further swine flu outbreaks. WTF? Seriously? Did we stop flying to Asia or prevent Asian flights from coming in during SARS? There is an interesting blog on the Huffington Post saying that this whole swine flu thing is slowly turning itself into a racist ploy to rally against illegal immigrants in this country. They relate it to how the Nazis first talked about the filth of the Jews prior to WW2, which may be a little extreme, but still. I think the point is that when humans first deal with fear, the first reaction is to start dividing rather than unifying to come up with solutions.

Regardless, to the closing the border I say a) the swine flu supposedly/allegedly originated in Mexico and was brought to the US initially by students on spring break, not by illegals, b) this thing is now global. Why would closing the borders with Mexico even matter at this point? We would have to totally isolate ourselves from everyone and quarentine those who already have it, and c) for all the bitching that goes on about "illegal immigrants" I don't see any rich white folk willing to slump away in a restauant kitchen until 2am for minimum wage. When I see John McCain wearing an apron and making salsa at his local Chilis in Pheonix for $7.25 an hour, then I'll be willing to take him a little more seriously on closing the border.