The wall: protector or divider?

“Build a 10 foot wall and I’ll build an 11 foot ladder” – Jamaican Proverb

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” – United States President Ronald Reagan

The United States is spending millions to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. What good will it do? Israel built a wall to keep the Palestinians out. What good did it do? The Roman Emperor Adrian built a wall to keep out the Scotts barbarians. What good did it do? Ancient China built the Great Wall of China to keep Northerners away – the Great Mongol Horde. What good did it do? Nazi Germany built the Atlantic Wall to keep the Allies out. What good did it do?

The walls did not save the great cities of Jericho (against the Hebrew chieftain Joshua), Troy (against the Spartan king Agamemnon), Tire (against Alexander the Great), Beit ha-Midkash in Jerusalem (against the Roman emperor Titus), Rome (against the German chieftain Alaric I) and the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople (against the Ottoman emperor Mehmed II).

Rather, walls are dividers that collapse under pressure from opposing actors / forces. America should spend its millions renovating collapsing bridges (i.e. Interstate 35W Bridge) across the country instead of spending millions on an embarrassing divider. In fact, we should spend millions building bridges to other cultures and nations; to the future instead of the past.

Build a bridge and tear down the wall; be a unifier and not a divider. We may live happily ever after.