Do Something Right, George W. Bush

President Bush, it must be embarrassing and even somewhat painful to be leaving office with such an abysmal approval rating.  I, personally, do not put all the blame on your shoulders.  I think your intentions were good, for the most part.  I think you truly wanted what was best for our country but were often led astray by idiots and miscreants.  Policies put in place before you got into office led to some of the collapses you had to deal with.  Years of incompetents being awarded government jobs but not doing the work they’re paid to do exacerbated so many disasters — from 9/11 and the appalling lack of intel, through pathetically inadequate responses to Katrina and other natural disasters, to unbelievable oversights of financial thievery.

There is one last thing you can do, Mr. President, that will resonate with people that believe in fairness and justice.  You have the power to pardon two United States citizens that have been unjustly imprisoned for doing the job they were paid to do, which was to protect our country.

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were U.S. Border Patrol agents charged with protecting our border from Mexican drug smugglers.  Unlike many of our elected (and appointed) officials, this is exactly what these two men did.  In 2005, they caught drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila running from an abandoned van containing 750 pounds of marijuana.  Davila ended up getting shot in the butt.  Because it so happened that the drug smuggler did not have a gun in his possession at the time, the guards were arrested for assault, deprivation of the smuggler’s “civil rights,” and other charges while the drug runner was granted immunity.  While Compean and Ramos were eventually deprived of their freedom for doing their job, Davila saw how weak the US resolve to protect our border really is and eventually was captured later smuggling drugs into the country after this incident.

Officers of the law often have to make judgement calls.  Their lives are on the line.  They can choose to turn their heads and let the criminals run wild, or they can do their jobs and try to protect the innocent like Compean and Ramos tried to do.

Bill Clinton pardoned all sorts of thugs and actual criminals.  Many people have been granted presidential pardons who deserve it much less than these two former Border Patrol agents.  It kind of makes me wonder what is really going on here.  Americans living on the border with Mexico are terrified with the kidnappings, murders, and illegal activities going on, and our government persecutes two men trying to stem the violence?

No wonder we’re having a hard time finding people who want to become border agents.  No wonder the ones who are there are worried about doing their job.  What do you think terrorists who are dying to get into our country to do harm are thinking?

Can you do what’s right, President Bush, and allow these men to go home to their families?