The Delusion of a Brick
A wall. The word conjures up images of a red, unresponsive, solid red brick. If I continue with the image in my head, memories of childhood stories of the Berlin Wall appear. Desperate people who would risk death to reach the other side. Bricks, cement, and barbed wire that became the shame of Europe. Glory, amazement, and bewilderment at a new future when it finally came down.
History has shown that walls may hinder for a while, but eventually, human ingenuity and desperateness will find a way around them. The Great Wall of China might have kept out invaders, but only for a while. Hadrian's Wall couldn't keep out the wild Scots from the Roman settlements. The Israeli wall of shame can't keep out the angry Palestinian missiles. Why should a wall all along the southern border of the United States keep out desperate people in search of a peaceful, normal life?
Just this past week I was involved in a discussion on Facebook about the proposed wall. The President is throwing a temper tantrum and has shut down the government because Congress won't give him 5 billion dollars for it. Things are at an impasse, and over 800,000 people that are on the Federal payroll aren't being paid. The person who began the discussion, an artist I follow, is a supporter of Trump, as are most of the Facebook friends of the page. A long discussion ensued. All of the Trump supporters cited every fear-mongering detail, right or wrong, that the supporters believe are true about the border and the wall; that there are "hordes" of people waiting to get in, that there are hundreds of terrorists and criminals among them, that they will be recruited by the Democrats to fraudulently vote in elections, that they will receive government benefits and cause crime, and so many other twisted arguments against poor immigrants.
Since then, the artist has taken down the post. It garnered over two hundred fifty comments, mostly on the side of the supporters. Most of the comments were civil, except for some the artist deleted, and a couple of snarky ones that remained. It made me realize people are ready to believe whatever they are told that will coddle their already biased beliefs. Some still believe that those fleeing repression can apply for asylum at a U.S. consulate (You can't; you have to be on U.S. soil, including at the port of entry. That means that if the Mexican guard won't let you leave Mexican soil to talk to a U.S. border agent, you can't claim asylum.). Others that 700 pounds of drugs could be stopped by the wall (But what about the tons that enter yearly through other points of the border, including inside shipping containers?). Others believed that there was no way desperate people could broach the wall (But walls can be dug under, as over 500 people did last week in the Arizona desert where a portion of the wall already stands.). Still others think the wall will stop just about all illegal immigration (But the data shows that most illegal immigrants are people who enter with a valid tourist or work visa and then stay longer than allowed.).
A couple of the comments showed the reality behind the belief in the wall. One mentioned that she didn't understand why computer-answered phone numbers had to have options in English and Spanish. Or why a ballot had to have both languages, too. Someone else said the presence of immigrant children led to a decline in public education. These are people that live in well-to-do areas that are scared of an influx of people different from them. These are people similar to those that were scared, back in the 70's and 80's, of black families moving into the neighborhood because they would push property values down. That is the sad reality.
The more we seem to have progressed in tolerance and respect for those different from us, the more that progress is shown to be a thin veneer. Until now, most people have reluctantly accepted those different from themselves. But their acceptance is not complete. It is only temporary, because they don't believe in it. As soon as someone in authority says it's okay to hate, that's what they do. We have entered another phase in history where it is acceptable and normal to hate. Hatred is being used to move people once again. We've forgotten that hatred also kills. It kills the people that are hated, and it kills the spirit of the people that hate. The future now is dark, and the bewilderment most people feel now is the complete opposite of the night the Berlin Wall came down.
History has shown that walls may hinder for a while, but eventually, human ingenuity and desperateness will find a way around them. The Great Wall of China might have kept out invaders, but only for a while. Hadrian's Wall couldn't keep out the wild Scots from the Roman settlements. The Israeli wall of shame can't keep out the angry Palestinian missiles. Why should a wall all along the southern border of the United States keep out desperate people in search of a peaceful, normal life?
Just this past week I was involved in a discussion on Facebook about the proposed wall. The President is throwing a temper tantrum and has shut down the government because Congress won't give him 5 billion dollars for it. Things are at an impasse, and over 800,000 people that are on the Federal payroll aren't being paid. The person who began the discussion, an artist I follow, is a supporter of Trump, as are most of the Facebook friends of the page. A long discussion ensued. All of the Trump supporters cited every fear-mongering detail, right or wrong, that the supporters believe are true about the border and the wall; that there are "hordes" of people waiting to get in, that there are hundreds of terrorists and criminals among them, that they will be recruited by the Democrats to fraudulently vote in elections, that they will receive government benefits and cause crime, and so many other twisted arguments against poor immigrants.
Since then, the artist has taken down the post. It garnered over two hundred fifty comments, mostly on the side of the supporters. Most of the comments were civil, except for some the artist deleted, and a couple of snarky ones that remained. It made me realize people are ready to believe whatever they are told that will coddle their already biased beliefs. Some still believe that those fleeing repression can apply for asylum at a U.S. consulate (You can't; you have to be on U.S. soil, including at the port of entry. That means that if the Mexican guard won't let you leave Mexican soil to talk to a U.S. border agent, you can't claim asylum.). Others that 700 pounds of drugs could be stopped by the wall (But what about the tons that enter yearly through other points of the border, including inside shipping containers?). Others believed that there was no way desperate people could broach the wall (But walls can be dug under, as over 500 people did last week in the Arizona desert where a portion of the wall already stands.). Still others think the wall will stop just about all illegal immigration (But the data shows that most illegal immigrants are people who enter with a valid tourist or work visa and then stay longer than allowed.).
A couple of the comments showed the reality behind the belief in the wall. One mentioned that she didn't understand why computer-answered phone numbers had to have options in English and Spanish. Or why a ballot had to have both languages, too. Someone else said the presence of immigrant children led to a decline in public education. These are people that live in well-to-do areas that are scared of an influx of people different from them. These are people similar to those that were scared, back in the 70's and 80's, of black families moving into the neighborhood because they would push property values down. That is the sad reality.
The more we seem to have progressed in tolerance and respect for those different from us, the more that progress is shown to be a thin veneer. Until now, most people have reluctantly accepted those different from themselves. But their acceptance is not complete. It is only temporary, because they don't believe in it. As soon as someone in authority says it's okay to hate, that's what they do. We have entered another phase in history where it is acceptable and normal to hate. Hatred is being used to move people once again. We've forgotten that hatred also kills. It kills the people that are hated, and it kills the spirit of the people that hate. The future now is dark, and the bewilderment most people feel now is the complete opposite of the night the Berlin Wall came down.
The blog is terribly sad because it is terribly true. You've captured it.
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