Monday, April 23, 2007Got A Problem? Build A Wall
What has the world come to when the nation that advocated tearing down world barriers for the last five decades is now looking for big sturdy walls to solve its problems?
- Immigration problem? No worries, build a wall.
- Violent uprising in the Palestinian Territories? We like your idea, build a wall.
- Mounting violence in Baghdad? mmmhhh....Got it! build a wall.
I can still hear him call out: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Where is the old Gipper when you need him? Or is that so last century!!
Posted By Jawad at 1:30 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Jawad, how's it going? (:
Interesting post you got here.
Not all walls are bad, you know? Some walls are erected for practical purposes, like partitions, to set harmless boundaries. Some walls are built to provide security and protect civilians from outside forces that threaten their livelihood, other walls are intended to keep people in line under tyrannical rule. Some walls a real and others are imaginary. Some imaginary walls may have really existed at one time as a security measure, but were eventually forced to transcend into the legendary realm by relentless winds of change which remain constant even today...think of the Great Wall of China and think of that certain wall in New York that Wall Street was named after - both walls were initially built for security reasons and both walls have gone on to symbolizing different things in our life time. Ironically Wall Street also gave rise to the World Trade Center and we all know the tragic story of how those walls came tumbling down.
True, bringing down the Berlin Wall is one of the many breakthroughs the Old Gipper deserves credit for, but that's because wall building was not his specialty. Although he was always prepared to use force if he had to, he preferred doing that which he was best at: building bridges and making his nation stronger.
If walls are meant to be torn down, we would have to build them first, wouldn't you say?
And before we start tearing them down, we must make ourselves better at building bridges.
What I'm trying to say point out is that there is a cause and effect...what goes up may come down, but it doesn't have to. There is a time and place for everything.
May 06, 2007
Hi Myrtus,
I'm really glad to hear from you. It's been a while.
I, however, don't accept the logic of your argument - That we must build walls so that we can tear them down or not! That we must do wrong so that we can correct it at a later time.
This is a nation that is supposed to lead towards an integrated community of mankind. Building walls is a convenient excuse based on security concerns. This country can democratically choose to wall itself in - that could be fine but it would damage our credibility as the global defender of liberty. It turns us into a nation of paranoid isolationists.
On the issue of the wall in Iraq, the U.S. has no business building partition walls in someone else's country period. You recall that even the Iraqi govt did not approve this and demanded that construction be stopped. This is a terrible terrible mistake that the US has made and it is one that is at par with some other egregious mistakes made post invasion.
Reagan whom I like very much would be in my estimation sorely disappointed by the trajectory his own party is taking with regard to the referenced issues. Politicians on the right love to quote him in their campaign speeches but their talking points from Iraq to immigration really do a dis-service to the legacy of Ronald Reagan.
May 09, 2007
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