FACEOFF: Echoes of Civil War

When I was a teenager in 1957 the Governor of Arkansas used the police and even threatened to use his National Guard to stop black students from integrating the segregated schools of his state. President Eisenhower nationalized the entire 10,000 Arkansas National Guard force and moved them out of the state to U.S. military posts to stop any possibility of a standoff with the 101st Airborne troops he sent to protect the black students.

Now Governor Brown of California has made it clear that he is willing to break federal law to get his way. President Trump has made it equally clear that we are going to protect our border from illegal entry into our country.

This type of standoff is not new. Pitting state forces against federal troops is exactly how the Civil War started. Governor Brown has now decided to pretend that he wants to help our president by sending the California National Guard to the border.

All that has to happen is for one of the governor’s troops or perhaps a sniper to fire a round and thereby create the disaster Governor Brown and the Democrats would love to see. The only way to assure that this does not happen is for President Trump to follow President Eisenhower’s lead and nationalize the California National Guard under the control of federal troops – thereby eliminating any possibility of a confrontation. This would allow our troops to do their job of protecting our borders in safety.

STEVE NOVAK

Coeur d’Alene