Walls Against Immigration

One of my required weekly rituals is to read News of The Weird in my local alternative newspaper, a snapshot of crazy true things people all over the world do or say, compiled by Chuck Shepherd (NewsoftheWierd.blogspot,com). I highly recommend this weekly article to each of you. These “can you believe this?” articles continue to reinforce my understanding that human beings can be so ridiculous, you just have to love them in spite of themselves, while simultaneously never taking ourselves too seriously. One of the latest articles is as follows:

“California’s Golden State Fence Company, which has a contract to build part of the United States’ immigrant-impeding barrier on the Mexican border, agreed to pay fines totaling nearly $5 million because it had been employing illegal aliens.”

So when the Golden State Fence Company builds its section of the border fence (approved but I believe so far still yet to be funded by Congress), on which side of the fence are its workers going to stand? Are they going to wall themselves on the inside or the outside of this country?

Do you not think we are well overdue for some better rational discussion about our issue of illegal immigration from Mexico than we have had to date? A more comprehensive discussion that recognizes the genuinely felt fears, the desire to move to a better life, the economic opportunities and employment needs of the U.S., the obligations of citizenship, and the importance of our system of laws. It is admittedly a more complex discussion to try to reconcile all the many facets of this very important discussion than just staking out a simple position on one aspect.

Many countries have tried to build walls between people: China’s Great Wall, Russia’s Iron Curtain, Germany’s Berlin Wall, Israel’s work in process to separate from the Palestinians, and now the U.S.’s attempt to seal off Mexico. But just building walls (physical or cultural) has never been successful in achieving their stated objective.