Arizona Border Sheriff Not Done Yet : Cochise County's Larry Dever Announces for Reelection

Thank goodness it never crossed our minds at the Border Fort that we could lose Larry Dever as Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, until after he'd already announced he'd be running for reelection in 2012. Larry is both one helluva good Sheriff and one helluva good man; my wife and I agree we need to keep him in office as long as he's willing to carry the load.

And what a load it is.

For those of you in Timbuctoo who haven't a clue, Cochise County sits smack dab on the firing line in the war between those who want "open borders" and those who want the borders fully secured. I use the word "war" advisedly; we see casualties gunned down both in Mexico and in Arizona on a regular basis. Pam and I've not (yet) been threatened or shot at, but we've lost neighbors both east and west to gunfire by illegal border crossers.

I built our place with my own two hands, and I dubbed it the Border Fort for a reason.

Living as close to Mexico as we do (one mile), we pay attention when we get an email involving Sheriff Dever's public appearances. Which, by the way, are many. He first testified before Congress on border issues in 1997, and he hasn't quit since. The man's name is known nationally, and apparently he drives at least some of the County Supervisors nuts. I recall reading one of them being quoted in the papers in 2010 as saying,

"We don't need an activist Sheriff in Cochise County."

"We" must have meant the Supervisor and the mouse in his pocket. We citizens who live down here in what our friends in Phoenix call The Mouth of the Dragon very much do need an activist Sheriff in Cochise County.

Besides, I've watched Dever in action, both on TV and in person at various get-togethers. He's always gracious to everyone he meets (though clearly he could get un-gracious in a hurry if push came to shove--you can't be a lawdog with 35 years of experience in law enforcement without having a hard streak in there somewhere close to the surface).

He's personable, knowledgeable, and quite frankly, there's no one else out there who has the qualifications to help us keep on keeping on until we voters can boot our leftist President out of the White House, install a solid conservative administration in Washington, and get some serious boots on the border.

That being the case, when we got an email saying Larry would be speaking at a Tea Party meeting in Benson (Arizona) today (Saturday, October 22, 2011) as part of his reelection campaign, I knew I had to be there.

Camera in hand.

After dropping my wife off at her son's to bond with daughter in law and baby grandson, of course.

It started off well. Even before I made it into the City of Benson Community Center, the outside landscaping caught my eye. Sculpted bush, pretty lavender flowers. Cool!

Inside, a couple of bumper stickers on the Tea Party sign-in table beckoned to the camera lens. So did the globe showing a map of the Earth's surface and the American flag we all faced when we stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Not being Obama, we included the phrase, "under God"...and after that, wow, radical stuff, we also bowed our heads for an opening prayer.

But what I'd most like you-the-reader to notice in the photos below is how Sheriff Dever has the full attention of everyone in the audience when he speaks. Larry tells it like it is, straight from the shoulder and straight from the heart, and we all know it.

The Sheriff had to leave us a bit early. Turns out--remember all those left wing declarations that the Tea Party was done for, dead, deceased, gone, faded, and finished? Guess somebody forgot to tell the folks in the Willcox area. They just founded a brand new Tea Party group, invited Larry, and he had to scoot on over thataway to speak to those people.

Much more effective campaigning than Newt Gingrich has been doing. A week ago, he was observed spending his day looking at dinosaur exhibits in a museum. Way to meet and greet, Newt. Press the flesh on a T. Rex for me, willya?

But I digress. After Larry Dever left the building, we watched a video on the dangerous border situation. The vid was put together by a North Carolina Tea Party group...and yep, our Sheriff is in it. The North Carolina folks became concerned about problems they were having with illegal immigrants, started researching the situation, and came across Larry's name. Gave him a jingle, paid his air freight (so he was not on the Cochise County taxpayer's dime for that), and he spoke to the group in that state.

As he puts it, he "made the mistake" of telling those people they should come out to Arizona, see firsthand the true nature of things on the border. Which they did.

They even filmed one fellow jumping over what passes for a fence in one area. The man penetrated a few feet into Mexico, turned, sprinted, "climbed" the fence in one jump, and dashed off northward. Just like the real thing.

I took a few screen shots of the video, including one photo showing in black and white the aftermath of the Monument Fire that burned a large portion of the Huachuca Mountains this summer. A fire set by humans...in an area that had been closed to all legal travel for days before the flames sprang to life...in a known human and drug smuggling corridor used by illegal immigrants of the cartel persuasion. You do the math.

Summary: Here in Cochise County, we have a bad border situation exacerbated by bad federal policy promulgated by the current Presidential administration...but we've got a good Sheriff in Larry Dever. Let's keep him.

Pass the word.

Remember in November 2012.