North American Union --Conference or Conspiracy?

Lee Ellis

Friends, I have been deluged the past six months or more with hundreds of e-mails complaining about a new decision between Mexico, Canada and the USA to create something called the North-American Union. (Shades of the European Union).

The e-mails also go on to state that this so-called N.A. Union will cause the Mexican and Canadian borders to be wide open! They also predict complete disaster for the USA. "Proof" is offered because of a new super highway between Mexico and Canada that has been started already in Texas. Articles then began to appear on blogs also telling us that we, as a sovereign nation, would cease to exist if this happened. We all had to stop it.

I have refused to forward these e-mails because, to me, a loss of sovereignty could never be voted for under our constitution by our Congress or agreed to by any President of the USA!

As to a super highway, didn't I hear these same complaints in the 50s about the dangers of superhighways when President Eisenhower wanted to start the Interstate system. People tried to stop it back then, too, but most of us are happy that these freeways were added. It sure made travel much different and better for me and thousands of others. I can remember when I had to drive across Montana and down through Colorado and back to San Diego from Texas when I had to work with publishers and editors of many newspapers in all those areas. What a difference this made!

Many small towns ended up being blessed with better-looking and better thriving communities when the heavy cross-country traffic stopped roaring through each one. The only people who suffered were the owners of run-down trailer parks and old-time motels that were advertised as "air-cooled." Towns were forced to bring in better hotels and restaurants that added many more jobs. They also put up billboards on the freeway which increased business for each town. People came to visit rather than just rush through.

But what are the facts about a possible North American Union? The Washington Post carried an editorial that, in effect, stated that these rumors were based on the Security and Property Partnership of North America, or SPP, that was launched in March 2005 by the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States. This month, President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Mexican president Philippe Calderon will hold another conference in Montebello, Canada.

According to this Washington Post article, the three North American leaders are expected to announce an integrated strategy to combat pandemics, with avian flu one of the central motivations. Also finalized should be what organizers call a "trilateral regulation Corporation framework meant to enhance competitiveness, while maintaining high standards of health and safety.

Despite E-mails and articles to the contrary, Vice President Dick Cheney says there is no "secret plan" to create a continent-crossing superhighway to help facilitate a merger of the United States, Mexico and Canada.

"The Administration is not engaged in a secret plan to create a 'NAFTA super highway,'" asserts Cheney. The vice president's letter quotes a statement from the U.S. Department of Transportation that, "The concept of a super highway has been around since the early 1990s, usually in the form of a claim that the U.S. Department of Transportation is going to designate such a highway."

DOT has also refuted the claim, stating, "The Department of Transportation has never had the statutory authority to designate a NAFTA super highway and has never sought such authority."

Jeffrey Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation got into a spirited exchange in January with congressmen after he asserted to a House subcommittee that NAFTA Superhighways were an "urban legend."

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a GOP presidential candidate, introduced an amendment to H.R. 3074, the Transportation Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008, prohibiting the use of federal funds for participating in working groups under the Security and Prosperity Partnership, including the creation of NAFTA Superhighways.

On July 24, Hunter's amendment passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. Later, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3074 by a margin of 268-153. The bill has been sent to the Senate with Hunter's amendment included.

Nevertheless, there are still many people and groups who see a secret conspiracy in such a meeting between the three leaders of these Western Hemisphere countries.

My own personal view is that the Eastern Hemisphere is now dominated by the Middle East along with parts of Asia, especially China and North Korea, who do not think too kindly of our Western sphere of influence. Most of Europe, according to many historians, is dying out due to a combination of low birth rates that do not replace the current populations as they pass on. Add to this an influx of immigrants that are keeping their own culture and secular progressive ideas rather than adopting those of their new countries. Just look at what has been happening to Britain, France, Germany and Spain, as examples. It is because of these that so many of us fear that the same could be well be happening to us here in the USA as illegal border crossings by many different nationalities through Mexico and Canada continue unabated.

We do know that the Islamic radicals, while supposedly a small percentage of all Moslems, still add up to millions of people who want to convert or kill all Christians and Jews in the world. Their desire is to see an Islamic flag fly over our nation's capital!

We also know that they have plans to attack this country in the most disastrous way they can, using any possible method, including radioactivity, explosions, food or water poisoning or disease. Their cells have been coming here through both Canada and Mexico for years. We have already seen such cells try to strike in Toronto, Canada and here in Fort Dix and at JFK airport.

Attacks anywhere in the Western Hemisphere will affect all of our nations located in it. So it makes sense to me that the three nations with common borders need to continue such a partnership to be able to help each other as well as protect their own citizens in case of such an attack in this hemisphere of a deadly disease, food or water contamination or radioactivity. Not to have such a partnership or plans in advance of such terrorism is naïve and foolhardy. An attack on any country in this hemisphere, affects all.

Various conspiracies have grown in this country due to the many Internet blogs which, by promoting false fears, cause e-mails to be forwarded and re-forwarded over and over again. We keep seeing "proof" about 9/11 being caused by our own government, that we caused terrorism because of our being in Iraq, that Bush lied about WMDs, and, now about a North American Union that will cause us to lose America as we know it. I suggest two things if you are worried about preserving our Republic:

1. Be careful that you don't vote in a Socialist president or more Islamic or Socialist Congressional members in 2008. It is getting easier to elect terrorist sympathizers these days along with people who want to do away with our Electoral College so as to insure that urban centers control the nation's vote.

2.Finally, remember President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous quote in his first inaugural address.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com