My letter to the New Mexico Tourism Board:

Dear Sir or Madam:
I'm from New Mexico and still have family there, though I now live in Texas. I'm always encouraging my friends to travel in New Mexico and telling them about all the wonderful things to see, do and eat there, but every once in a while I have a problem.
I'll be talking up everything in my home state when suddenly my friend or acquaintance will get a funny look on their face and say, "Yeah, but I don't have a passport!" or "What do you do about the water, or are you immune from being from there?" So I say, "It's a state. In the United States of America. It's called _New_ Mexico. They have modern sanitation. It's between Texas and Arizona. Colorado and Utah are just above it. The US-Mexico border is just below it. And below that is Mexico. Old Mexico. The country. Which is no longer any relation to New Mexico, because it's a US state. I was born there. As an American Citizen."
And they say, "Wow, no wonder your English is amazing!" I'm tired of explaining this to otherwise intelligent people. Someone today just asked me about how I feel about having to get a passport to go visit my folks after so long of having an open border. I know the tourism board wouldn't endorse my screaming and hitting these people, but what _should_ I do?