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The drive around Bainbridge and the surrounding counties is so beautiful these days. Spring has sprung! These few weeks of peak azalea season are some of my favorites. We have one cluster of bushes in our backyard that is variegated. That is it’s a combination of white, pink, and the deeper lavender blooms. It’s incredibly beautiful.

I’m sure the televised view of Amen Corner at the Augusta National Golf Course is going to be stunning this year. I might say, “I can’t wait to see it,” but I guess I’ll have to.

Azaleas aren’t the only game in town, though. A ride down some of the country roads will be filled with wild Dogwood trees doing their thing. Donna Sue is really good at naming all the different kinds of flowers that are reviving themselves during this time of the year. Me? I simply enjoy the view. I wish the world could be as pretty as Mother Nature’s colorful “showing out,” but, alas, it’s not to be.

Meanwhile, down on the border, we’ve got ourselves a mess. Although there are some who won’t call it what it is, a crisis, I will. I looked up the word in my Webster’s II Dictionary. Anyone remember the dictionary?

First of all, crisis is a noun that means “a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.” I think that just about sums up our southern border situation. It’s a difficult situation, a time of trouble and, definitely dangerous.

It’s been a tough situation for many administrations. The current one wants to place the blame for 2021 on a man who no longer holds the reins. Actually, the former president did have his troubles with the border. He faced numerous caravans, as they were known, in 2019.

The United States of America is called many negative names, but ironically, it has more people wanting to come into it than it can handle. Even though there were those who threatened to leave our nation when Donald Trump was elected president, no one did. The fact is that the good ole USA is the best country in the world. Not only are we the best, but also the most compassionate. We want to help others, but another fact is that we cannot help everybody.

At the end of his administration, Trump seemed to have found a workable situation to deal with the surges of people who wanted to come in. His business acumen had led him to make deals with Mexico and other countries. Plus, in spite of all the roadblocks erected, he found a way to begin building a protective wall.

His approach may not have been perfect, but it was effective and prevented the kind of crisis we currently have. There are many things happening in our nation today that are troublesome to me. I put the border situation in that number and, if not brought under control, it will fundamentally transform America.

The 2020 pandemic hurt all the world and I’m not sure we comprehend how much it has hurt our nation. We have so many people unemployed and have spent so much money in the last year, we don’t have the resources to take care of the influx of all these people.

Finally, there is the danger that this crisis creates. By the administration’s own estimate, the numbers of people coming in may be the largest in two decades. Border facilities are overflowing and accommodations have been contracted for in local hotels costing $86 million.

By the time medical and educational costs are added, the bill will be in the billions. We are not a stingy country, far from it. But there is the saying, “You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip!”