Fences & Walls On Borders

No surprise I'm sure - I think fences and walls on borders are stupid and wrong. We've found plenty of other ways to discriminate against the race or nationality that turns us off at some moment in time through employment and housing practices, language, the legal system and plenty more. Fences and walls hurt the most vulnerable, the poor, the abused, political dissidents, the oppressed. The wealthy, including members of cartels, will always find ways around and through fences and walls.

Calling for walls makes great media theatre and there are those who just love to hear someone spouting off about their own bigotry. That's the show that we seem to be watching at this point. In Hungary there are barbed wire fences and thousands of Syrians are finding their way through them as they try to make their way to Germany for refuge from a regime that kills its own people. A huge wall or better fencing would keep them where they belong. Mexicans and others to our south continue to come to the US for a better life or to reunite with families. Our immigration system is flawed and can't keep up with desires and needs. A compromise on immigration was reached in the Senate but no one even thinks about it anymore. Walls and fences are a much easier approach.

As I write this, Mexican immigrants, documented or not, work the vineyards across the street from where I live in the last heat of the summer. They toil hard at work that others won't do. They sing and call to one another, laughing and waving at passers by. These people make me think about how hatred builds walls and fences, about how stupidity even calls for walls to the north. Perhaps a dome is the final solution once we get all of these walls built. But then what will we do about those pesky tunnels to and from China when we dig holes? Problems, problems, problems for those who want to keep the outsiders out.

I think I'll listen to Woody Gutherie:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people
By the relief office I seen my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that freedom highway
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me