The wall, whether concrete or steel or styrofoam, is the failed technology of history gone by (the Great Wall is the best example).
Our president has taken to tying it to our national opiate crisis. He talks about heroin flowing in from our southern border even though our own government says it is mostly smuggled in through ports of entry.
I’m told heroin can have a street value of $300,000 a pound. I’m 63, but I’m pretty sure I can still throw a pound over his 30-foot wall, no matter how it’s constructed. If it’s made from slats, I can easily pass it through those very slats. Simply, the facts and common sense are not on Trump’s side.
He talks about terrorism, too, even though our own government says the much greater threat is again through ports of entry. But I do see real terrorism in this blackmail: a promise to harm hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans unless we do what they want.
They tell us that harm is not their fault, but rather the fault lies with those who don’t submit and obey. Of course the “they” here is Donald J. Trump.
Finally, a 1,954-mile-long, 30-foot-tall wall is a massive symbol and message to the world. It is the antithesis of our iconic American symbol, the Statue of Liberty. Gone is “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Yes we need to maintain our borders, but it needs to be done in a way that actually works. There are places where barriers make sense, but Trump's wall is all bluster and dogma without thought.
Ronald Reagan famously said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Our current president ought to think about those words. His wall is not who we are.
Mark Petersen, Park City
