How to Divide a Lake

The story about the couple who were jet skiing on Falcon Lake on the U.S./Mexico border sent me into paroxysms of bemusement for two reasons: 1) I didn't know we had a lake that sat over the border, 2) I wonder why we haven't divided this lake up and protected our side? The Navy blocked whole California harbors from submarines during WWII--what's one little lake? An outing by a young, exhuberant couple was cut short by violence, and I just can't get over the idea that it didn't have to happen.

Re #1: who thought an open body of water right over the border was a good idea? Didn't they hear that our government wants a fence, not an open lake? After the lake was created, did they send written invitations to the drug lords, or did they just depend on them to figure it out?

Re #2: I remember seing mounds of buoys and chain at the Seal Beach Navy yard when I was a kid. I asked my mom what they were and her answer was like a fantasy adventure tale. She said the Navy used chain link nets strung across harbors on buoys to keep out Japanese and German submarines during the war. I was creeped out at the thought of an enemy submarine rising from the water where I jumped waves and screamed for joy in the summer. I was really glad the war was over.

I remember thinking there was enough chain in that Navy yard to block most of the ocean (my idea of "the ocean" at that time was Belmont Shores in Long Beach.) Why can't we do the same to Falcon Lake? I suspect those chain nets are still in Seal Beach, somewhere under the mounds of grass-covered dirt. (What? You think they're corroded by now? I dunno--some of that WWII stuff was really well-built. After all, it was American made!)

I shake my head like a dog with ear mites and hope this idea of a borderless, open lake between the U.S. and Mexico will make sense to me. But it just doesn't. We should probably ask "The Greatest Generation" how they think we should handle it. After all, they held off half the world--they just might know what to do about violent marauding gangs who use American citizens for target practice.

"Hey, mom, remember those chain nets...?"