One of the more memorable dialogue exchanges of any movie takes place near the end of the 1992 film, A Few Good Men. If you’ve seen the film you certainly remember the “You can’t handle the truth” answer, so powerfully delivered by Jack Nicholson in his portrayal of Colonel Nathan Jessep, after Lieutenant Kaffee’s (Tom Cruise) demanding “I want the truth!”
The heated, climactic exchange continues with Colonel Jessep delivering a lecture to the young lieutenant that begins, “Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You?” Like all good drama, the scene is powerful because there are elements of reality—of “truth”—in what takes place. The fact is; we do live in a world with walls.
The ‘wall’ that protects the citizens of the United States from those who would harm us consists of several distinct layers, with one of the primary layers being comprised of the various agencies that operate under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Our lead story this month, by Anita Venezia, (pg 16) is about one of the main bricks of that wall—the agency known as the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Due to the volume of information and the complexity of the work being done by this agency to protect us, this will be but the first of a series of articles by Anita.
Following Anita’s article, we bring you an exclusive interview with a recently retired senior ICE agent who explains how ICE is protecting our nation from terrorism, in part by focusing much of their attention on businesses and employers. If you are a business owner with employees, you’d be wise to pay attention to the valuable information revealed in this interview!
Yes, it is a sad and difficult fact that we do, in fact, live in a world with walls. And those walls do, indeed, need to be guarded by men with guns.
I, for one, am very thankful that they are there.
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