Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to I think the word you're missing is "illegal."

If I had missed it, I wouldn't have included it.
Mary Anne — (archived)

Do you remember the Victor Hugo novel, Les Miserables? The hero is sent to the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family. Criminal? Yes. But the greater crime is that the family is starving.

So also Mexicans who come here looking for work. Criminal to cross the border without permission? Yes. But consider the motive. Also consider that they are exploited because they are vulnerable in their quest (a dangerous one) to cross the border, and after that while they are employed. It's very easy to call other people criminal without regard to the desperate circumstances that drive their crime, while also not mentioning the more reprehensible character of those who exploit their misery.

OK, so not the Berlin Wall. I picked it because its builders are still alive to consult, unlike those whose work more resembles the suggested civil engineering project on our southern border: the Maginot Line or the Great Wall of China. Though both were impressive, ultimately they were porous too.

Barriers foster ingenuity. They also are symbols. The Berlin War was a symbol of isolation-as-repression. The Great War was a symbol of imperial will. The Maginot Line was a symbol of military might. None of them worked. What will the Great Wall of America symbolize? "Stay home and starve"? "We can't control our own business people, so we'll control you"? "Your NAFTA pesos at work"? "Stop or I'll shoot"?

Help Mexico to be a place worth staying in, and the Mexicans will stay there. Who really wants to traipse across the desert at night?

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