Both Oars In Wall II, The Sequel

Nov 13, 2009

Monday marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Those over thirty are likely to remember the highly televised event. Those a bit older may even remember President Reagan’s famous plea, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” President Reagan spoke these words just two years before a frenzied crowd of ad hoc demolitionists carried away the Wall in chunks as souvenirs on November 9th, 1989.  Oh, how we hated walls then.

For those, like myself, who know the Vietnam War only as history and not as a current event, the Fall of the Wall stands out as the first memorable political event of our generation. I can still see the footage of people sitting on top of the Wall and breaking it down.  The networks played it over and over.  I remember one specific version that had Ronald Reagan’s sonorous voice repeating in the background. In the euphoria of the aftermath, the movie-actor-turned-president became an instant video star—his prescient quote taking on the quality of a rap refrain.  It was a wonder every wall in America was not torn down in effigy.

Unfortunately, a Frostian appreciation of fences quickly replaced our zeal for bringing down barriers. Hardly a year after the Berlin Wall fell, we began constructing a barrier fence along our southern border. Nearly twenty years and five billion dollars later, this fence is over three hundred miles long and growing. The new wall, which political nuances call “a fence” in attempt to soften the implications, will certainly dwarf its predecessor in historical importance given its greater length and the potential for a negative impact.  

Current congressional plans call for an expansion of the fence to a length of 700 miles at a cost estimated to be three million dollars per mile. Yet there is very little proof that the existing fence has been effective in stemming undocumented immigration or prohibiting the smuggling of drugs. It certainly has not made Mexico a better neighbor. Conversely, NAFTA, an alternative to building barriers, undoubtedly has.  Wouldn’t it be nice to see an unbiased comparison of the economic impact of the two policies rather than the usual anecdotal saber rattling?

The Border Fence is presented as increased security. But, I would ask, is it security from? When it comes to our southern neighbors, the only thing we have to fear is habanero peppers. We have far more to lose by risking alienating our southern partner than we have to gain. Mexico provides nearly fifteen percent of our oil and seventy percent of our fresh vegetables. We have an active export trade with Mexico, reaching nearly $150 billion in 2007. What if the fence encourages Mexico to look more to China, a country hungry for oil, food and exports?   

We also have something to offer Mexico: law and order. No wall will be high enough to protect our border towns from the mounting violence that is occurring just over the border and often spilling across it. We need to increase our commitment to working with Mexico to solve the drug trafficking and related violence, not try to wall it out. Further isolation will only lead to increased crime. The fence will likely protect fleeing criminals more than it protects us.        

Pope John Paul II, who, along with Ronald Reagan, is credited with bringing Soviet Communism to an end, also challenged all of us in the Western Hemisphere to work together to more fully realize the oneness of America.  Walls would suggest we are more interested in destructive xenophobia than productive unity in our hemisphere. Monroe’s wall does not cut across Arizona to Texas. It encompasses the whole of America. Why are we making such an effort to construct a picket fence for the backyard when we have vast pastures to protect?

Time will prove that the only real difference between the new wall and the old one is that the one was constructed to keep people in, the other to keep them out. Nevertheless, the impact will be the same. People on one side of the wall will remain poorer than those on the other until the wall comes down.  In the meantime, economic drives will insure that undocumented immigration and the drug traffic continue unabated.  Only the good will be deterred by the fence, the bad will find the holes or make them and, you can be sure, they will charge those simply seeking a better life dearly to pass through them.

In the end, the Border Fence will be torn down in disgrace just like the Berlin Wall. Until then, it will serve as the new monument to human ignorance, fear and intolerance. It is important to note that the same president who called for the Wall to fall also granted sweeping amnesty to keep one from going up.

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