Date:         Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:00:54 -0800
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Friday...Jerk at the Border Crossing..
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

   Being a Senior and American, I recently crossed the border to Mexico for
some affordable medical care...dentistry is about 1/3 the cost of US
dentists, medicine is about 1/10th for the same brands as sold in the US,
and eyeglasses are about $70, including frames and exam, delivered in about
3hrs, etc etc etc.   The little town across from Yuma, Az is teeming with
seniors trying to make their retirement income work and to get stuff we
don't get or can't afford on our government health ....

  Anyway, crossing back from Algodones, they usually have about an hour
waiting in line.  So when I finally got there to the desk of the arrogant
jerk sitting there....he says...."What are you bringing from Mexico?" and I
said something like..."Oh, nothing....except some sore teeth from the
dental work" or something to that effect....and he says "You be careful
what you say.....Next...."   I know there is a statute that says you aren't
allowed to make jokes with airport security screeners...or something....but
last I heard, there is a second amendment right to speak freely in the
US....and this guy was telling me, in a rude and arrogant way to "be
careful what you say?"   There is no law I know of that requires a US
Citizen to be meek and silent when facing a customs worker.....or as he
probably thinks of himself...."one of the hero's of Homeland Security and
ICE"...
  He was downright rude and nasty....and after spending 4hrs in the dental
chair and another hour waiting in line to cross the border that has only 3
agents checking passports for pedestrians and literally thousands and
thousands crossing daily to get medical services......it just struck me as
wrong.

   My vanagon did run like a top across the desert southwest and it was
handy to have a place to retire to between my root canal and my
extraction.  I saw two more vanagons in the lot...Many more people fly to
Yuma and take these medical excursion busses across to the border for their
'vacation'...

   Including gas to and from near Portland, Oregon I saved myself about
$1200 by driving my vanagon 3000 miles to the dentist.
  Don Hanson