{"id":2244,"date":"2009-05-13T21:47:19","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T01:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedustininmansociety.com\/blog\/?p=2244"},"modified":"2009-05-13T21:50:47","modified_gmt":"2009-05-14T01:50:47","slug":"vicente-fox-at-kennesaw-state-university-my-dream-is-that-there-will-be-no-borders-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/13\/vicente-fox-at-kennesaw-state-university-my-dream-is-that-there-will-be-no-borders-2\/","title":{"rendered":"AJC on Fox visit to KSU to sell open borders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your morning jolt: Former Mexican president says we need softer border, receives (honorary) Georgia citizenship<\/strong>
\n May 13, 2009, by Jim Galloway<\/p>\n

The former president of Mexico on Tuesday pointed to the European Union, where there are softer borders, a common passport design, and only one currency \u2014 the euro.<\/p>\n

Mexico, Canada and the United States need something like that, said Vicente Fox, wrapping up a two-day visit to Atlanta at a conference at Kennesaw State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalls don\u2019t work,\u201d Fox said repeatedly, \u201cThere is a sense of fear in this nation after Sept. 11, and I understand that, but building walls is not the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox spoke to a group of about 150 who attended open panel discussions on the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They included my AJC colleague Mary Lou Pickel, who filed the information above \u2014 and below.<\/p>\n

Outside, a handful of protesters gathered to tell Fox to go home. One sign read \u201cNo American Union.\u201d D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society, an anti-illegal immigrant group in Marietta, said he did not organize the protest. King sat quietly inside, listening to the panel discussions and taking notes.<\/p>\n

Fox spoke to graduating students at Emory University on Monday and received an honorary degree there. At KSU, state Rep. Pedro Marin (D-Duluth) presented Fox with a state certificate that declared him an honorary citizen of Georgia. The gesture was stuffed with irony.<\/p>\n

The certificate was signed by Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, who strongly supported a new law this year demanding that new voters show written proof of citizenship before they\u2019re allowed to register.<\/p>\n

Proponents of that law said it would cut down on fraud and make sure that illegal immigrants do not vote. Opponents said it amounted to a poll tax against the poor and elderly, who would have to pay to get documents proving they were born in the United States, rather than simply swearing to it, as has been the practice.<\/p>\n

Handel is now running for governor. Marin, a Democrat, just smiled when asked about the citizenship certificate. \u201cI want him to keep Georgia on his mind,\u201d Marin said.<\/p>\n

The H1N1 virus was another topic of conversation. In Mexico, and here.<\/p>\n

(Mulligans, a bar in nearby Marietta, known for its controversial messages on its sign out front, had this one this week: \u201cSwine flu \u2013 another Mexican import!\u201d)<\/p>\n

Fox said his country was prepared to handle a pandemic, which the outbreak was not. But the country has seen a 90 percent drop in tourism, Fox said.<\/p>\n

Cruise ships no longer want to stop at Mexican ports. \u201cOh, Mexicans have influenza! Right away – everybody hide!\u201d Fox joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chinese say, \u2018We don\u2019t want Mexicans for the moment,\u2019\u201d Fox said. Mexico, insulted by China\u2019s stance, chartered a plane to pick up about 43 Mexican citizens who did not have the flu, but were quarantined in China nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to invite everybody to come back to Mexico,\u201d the former president said. He plugged a festival in early June sponsored by his \u201c El Centro Fox,\u201d a kind of presidential library he founded in Guanajuato, as a lovely reason to visit Mexico soon.<\/p>\n

He did not say whether he would now attempt to register to vote in the 2010 race for governor of Georgia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

….more here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your morning jolt: Former Mexican president says we need softer border, receives (honorary) Georgia citizenship May 13, 2009, by Jim Galloway The former president of Mexico on Tuesday pointed to the European Union, where there are softer borders, a common passport design, and only one currency \u2014 the euro. Mexico, Canada and the United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}