Jim Hightower: The small idea of a tall wall

[babylonsister]

http://jimhightower.com/node/8866#.VubsRhIrKRshttp://jimhightower.com/node/8866#.VubsRhIrKRs

The small idea of a tall wall
Tuesday, March 15, 2016 | Posted by Jim Hightower


Billions of our tax dollars have already been wasted on the fantasy that America can wall itself off from the people of Mexico and Central America. It's a fool's errand, but the fools of the Republican right wing – Trump, Cruz, Rubio, et al – want to throw many more billions at a higher, longer, and meaner barrier. They claim it will save us Anglos from being swarmed by brown-skinned migrants – or, as the venomous Ted Cruz snidely labeled our southern neighbors, "undocumented Democrats."

Of course, Ted himself migrated into our country from Canada – and he's turned out to be such a political pest that his very presence here argues for erecting a wall on our northern border. He and the rest of the wall-builders are xenophobic political opportunists who know nothing about the long, common bond that families on both sides of the Rio Grande have had for generations. They should listen to border residents like John Ferguson, mayor of Presidio, Texas – right across the border from Ojinaga, Mexico. A high school counselor, Mayor Ferguson says, "We are one community with a river running through it." His daughter's boyfriend lives in Ojinaga, and the Ojinaga's mayor's son attends high school in Presidio. "We don't consider ourselves two separate communities," Ferguson says.

But Cruz, Trump & Gang put their own political ambitions above the needs, desires, and wisdom of the families, businesses, and harmonious society of the locals living on the border. So these faraway and far-out Republicans want the federal government to shove these natural, cross-border communities apart with a grotesque wall.

Yet, these macho interventionists are the same hypocritical politicos who claim they value local control and will always stand against the arrogant intrusiveness of federal power. Trust us, they say. But why?

[safeinOhio]

1. The price of a wall,

the price of deporting millions, the price of holding those not here legally?

It is so easy and cheap. Arrest and jail anyone that employees some one not here legally. The excuse is always, how would anyone know if they are here legally. That would be a much easier and cheaper problem to solve.