Walls

All around your island,

There's a barricade,

It keeps out the danger,

It holds in the pain.

-Tom Petty, Walls

The Lumineers recently did a cover of Tom Petty's song Walls, and it's one of those instances where I think the cover version actually resonated with me even more than the original.  It might be because I think I heard the lyrics a little more clearly, maybe it's because walls are just sort of on everyone's mind for some reason.  To be clear, the song is not about actual walls, border or otherwise, it's about emotional walls and defense mechanisms, but I have been thinking lately that maybe this border wall fiasco is actually an emotional issue rather than a geopolitical one.

It seems to me that support for this wall largely hinges on the perception of an honest emergency: dangerous people flooding across the southern border.  Some people are predisposed to believe that is the situation, facts are not actually welcome.  The facts are that most of the undocumented people in this country arrived here legally and overstayed their visas, another fact is that illegal immigration is down drastically from where it was 15 years ago, another fact is that the border patrol and people who live and represent the actual geographical area of the southern border do not want the wall, nor do landowners in the area.  On the other side the only real fact is that Trump made a promise, and he has perceived in his charlatan's heart that this is one he cannot dance away from or dodge. There is a wise adage that says you should not persist in a bad decision simply because you put a lot of effort into making it, however, wisdom seems to have gone begging recently.

The bigger question, the spiritual question for us as humans is whether or not we are going to ever be able to tear down the walls for good.  I remember Ronald Reagan's famous "tear down that wall Mr. Gorbachev!" as a pivotal moment in history.  It seems to me that breaking down walls always does more for our collective commonweal than building them.  Walls do protect things, but on some level they also destroy something.  I have seen walls that are objectively useful and beautiful things, and I have seen some that are down right ugly.  Some boundaries are good and necessary, others are just a way to try and soothe uncalled for fear.

In my mind there is not much doubt which sort of wall the Orange Ayatollah wants to build, he wants to build a symbol not a boundary, he wants to keep out all others not just our enemies.  If we, a nation of immigrants, have any inkling of the vision upon which our nation was founded, we would not want this wall, and we would not allow it to be built.  Right now, the wall is still a maybe, right now the "emergency" is being challenged.  Right now, I'm hoping it ends up being another broken campaign promise rather than yet another gut punch to our moral character.

When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you;

you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

I am the Lord your God.

-Leviticus 19: 33-34