The Wall

I remember back to my youth, 1961. It was a good summer to be 18 years old. The girls were out of school, my ship was in drydock, and I could go to town often.

Then one day, without warning, the Russians built a wall. At first it was just wire around parts of Berlin. A funny wall, made not to keep things out, but to keep people in. In time the wall grew to be a concrete monster. It had broken glass embedded on top. Soon people found that some building were built right along side the wall. People would go the upper floors and jump out the windows into West Berlin. The Russian than bricked up all the windows. I remember pictures of a woman who had jumped out but as she jumped one of the guards caught her arm. People on the outside, standing in West Berlin, grabbed her legs and a tug of war started. The managed to get her away and she was free.

An ugly thing, the wall. Keeping family apart, sons from parents, sisters from brothers, husbands from wifes. People build many things to get over the wall, balloons, armored cars. Some dug under the wall. Other took the chances and climbed throught the wire and over the wall. Many were shot as we in the west watched. Attacked dogs patrols along the fence, no one was allowed near the wall.

It breaks my heart to see the monster we are building along our southern border. it is an ugly thing. Many feet tall, with a wire fence a few feet from the wall. Dogs in the area between, aircraft and electronic sensors watching at all times. We take pictures of the area in the morning and in the evening. If something is different it meants that someone or something has crossed the strip. A footprint, disturbed grass. We say it was because of 9 11. We say it is to stop drugs. The truth is it is to stop Mexicans.

The only terrorist that ever crossed our borders, that we know about, came in from the north. Across Canada. The others came in on visas. Legal entry and over stayed there visa. Drugs? Do we really believe that a wall will stop drugs from entering the U.S.? With all the money the durg cartel have they will bribe someone to put it in a diplomate pouch and get it here, no problem. They have many ways to get it here, as long as there is a demand, it will get here. Just as whiskey was in the 1920-30.

I agree, we should control our borders but the fence or wall will not work. Make the wall 30 feet hight, someone will make a 35 foot ladder. People yearning to be be free will find a way. People wanting food will find a way. Why do people cross the border? Most to work. Want to stop them? Stop the businesses that are hiring them. Not just a little slap, but a hugh fine and perhaps close them for a set amount of time.

Commit a crime? Do the time or send them back where they came from to serve their time. If they reenter, give them hard time. No parole, no TV, no AC.

But please, let's be honest about why we are building the wall. We don't want them here. Even if we had a treaty, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Signed at the end of the Mexican American war. We got the western half of what is how our country and in return we agree to let those Mexican that lived in what had been Mexico become citizen of the U.S. And they would have the right to cross the border at will to be with or vist their families. People still in Mexico would have the right to cross into the U.S. and visit or stay with family that were on our side of the border. Somewhere along the way someone canceled that part of the treat.

But I hate the wall because it reminds me of the Berlin Wall. It is ugly, it divides the land. It cost to much and people lost their land so the wall could be built. It saddens my heart when I see it. I am ashamed of it. It makes us prisoners in our own country. When it doesn't work and people keep crossing are we going to post solders with orders to kill? A young sheppard boy was shot and killed while tending his family's sheep. Because a marine though he was crossing the border. He had been carrying an old single shot 22 rifle to ward off coyotes. But he is just as dead as if he had been crossing with out a visa.

Remove the reason for them to cross (jobs) and they will stop. But please, Mr. Obama, tear down that wall.