Where We Are

A lonely angry man is set to address ‘his’ nation this evening. He claims the southern border of the nation is embattled and under siege by tens of thousands of aliens. Many are criminals and terrorists, he says. There is no proof of those last two sentences. Yes, thousands of South American peoples escape from their nations of chaos and suffering; they hope for safety of their families; they set out for a nation of hope and promise for a better future. For whatever reason they do so, the United States is their goal.

When they arrive at our southern entries seeking asylum, they are rebuffed, threatened with tear gas and rifle bearing border agents. Some welcome!

The southern border? It is not at all a land-based border. More than half the border is ocean front. Check your atlas.

Check the atlas again for all the borderlines of the USA. Gigantic border line encircling the nation. The bulk of it is coastal. Canadian and Mexican borderlines are land-based. Thousands of miles of such borders; but coastal borders prevail by a large margin.

Immigrants enter America by air more than any other mode. That is followed by watercraft, then land-based, mostly by vehicle. Pedestrian entry is nil statistically.

Those facts are the reason against building a wall between Mexico and the US.

Substitute drug traffic for people, and the story remains the same. No wall will stop drug flow.

China built a wall. Huge, high, thousands of miles of wall. To no avail. It is a travel destination now. It is a marvel without purpose. A waste of time and money; and human effort. Hadrian built his wall as well for the Roman Empire. It did not work then. But the wall remains in pieces to see today, thousands of years later. Not much is left; locals used the stones for other uses better suited than a wall.

Walls discourage welcome. Doors, welcoming arms and a smile do better in managing immigration. Let’s focus on those tools and not a wall.

Yes, the immigration system in America is broken. That is the product of congressional inaction over many decades. The problem has become a treacherous minefield for politicians. Larger issues remained for presidents and leaders to tackle, so immigration was ignored for the time. Ask presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. All wanted to solve the problem. Congressional leaders said no. So, they focused on more fruitful areas to advance world peace and economic prosperity.

The wall is not the issue. Border security is not the issue.

Lack of congressional leadership is the issue. As representatives of ‘we the people,’ it is we who have created the problem by not insisting it be solved. Whatever ‘it’ is, be it a wall, immigration, border security or national debit limits, we are the problem.

I do not plan to watch the national address this evening. It is not a good use of time. Besides, the speaker will continue to spout whatever is on his tongue without regard to fact and logic. Congressional Democratic leaders will speak after him to present their views. If they say it is about the wall, they will be wrong. This is about re-opening our government and getting on with our lives.

Anything other is a sham. Preposterous. But a sham.

January 8, 2019