As the government shutdown continues on the livelihood of U.S. citizens is held in limbo over a border wall. In simple terms, the more conservative side says that a budget with funds for a wall needs to be passed while the more liberal side says they won’t pass a budget with funds for a wall. The wall from what I have surmised is to keep American citizens safe from the threat at our county’s southern border; the threat of immigrants, the threat of other people taking American jobs, the threat of having to pay for immigrants that are here in this country illegally. And this all makes sense when you look at those who believe in Trump. The believers are filled with a fear that has been promoted by Fox News and Trump himself. From any of my published work it is clear where I fall in politics. I’m not saying wanting to feel safe is wrong. I am saying hurting others to create a false sense of security for yourself is wrong. In the scheme of things even if a wall was built what is it going to do? Walls can be breached (1) and walls can be torn down (2). If those on the other side feel they need to come to this nation now, no wall is going to change that.
But no matter what I say, it won’t reach the ears of anyone with a conflicting political background. So I shall try another way. Is it not written in Matt .22 Verse 39, “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”? (3). Are our neighbors not Canada and Mexico? Would you willingly leave you home if you were safe, happy, and had all you needed there? If you thought the only way to keep your children fed was to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles away from them to make money to feed them, would you not do that? If you thought staying in your home would put them in sever risk for being killed would you not leave? How can we not see that our neighbors are us? When we preach hate and fear we create hate and fear.
Does no one remember 9/11? The idea of terrorism being real in this country suddenly took root and our world here in the U.S.A. was drastically changed. We went to war, we believed even more in our government then ever before because that was all we felt we had left, airport security became an actual thing, etc… With this government shutdown TSA and airport workers are not being paid, they may well be paid once the government reopens but as of now they are not. Which means the money that was coming in from their jobs isn’t anymore and what do those families do? Those workers can’t feed their children so they need to then call in sick to work and do another job that will give them money. By doing this our airport security which we deemed as a Nation essential to be safe from terrorism is crumbling away. I ask is the wall worth that?
This wall is supposed to presumably help Americans and yet what has it accomplished but shut the government down, hurt hundreds of thousands of workers in this country, and have the potential to divide our Nation and the World even more. A wall is simple and easy but immigration is far more complex than that which calls for a more sophisticated and thought out plan. As citizens of this country, many of our ancestors came from countries with ruling monarchies and buildings surrounded by walls and how did that help them? In 1630 John Winthrop said “We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us” (4). Whether this has any shred of truth in it at all or not or whether this city was walled in or not, there are eyes upon us now; the eyes of the world wondering what we are going to do. I just hope we make the right call when the time comes and don’t become something our country is not.
~M