Bus Stop Debate

A few days ago I was waiting for my bus at the local Metro station and, as always when I have free time, I was reading. The book I was reading was Frederick Taylor's The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989 - a book of particular interest to me, as I lived in Berlin for 2-1/2 years in the early 80's, back when it was still an encircled and divided city, and I'm fascinated by its history.

While I was reading, a gentleman standing next to me suddenly said, "We're doing the same thing, you know."

I was engrossed in reading, and didn't make the immediate connection of what he meant. "I'm sorry, I don't take your meaning."

He pointed to the book and repeated, "We're doing the same thing today. Along the Mexican border."

Ah, I thought, he's equating the Berlin Wall with the barrier being built across parts of the southern border to control illegal immigration. "I don't think I agree with you," I said. "They're two entirely different things."

"No they aren't," he replied. "They're exactly the same."

"Well," I said, "I still have to disagree. The Berlin Wall was put up by the East German regime to keep its people in, and the guards along it had orders to shoot to kill. The southern barrier is being built to keep people from entering this country illegally...no one is preventing anyone from leaving, and most certainly no one is ordering the police and army to shoot to kill when people cross."

"Nope," the other man said confidently. "They're just the same thing. They're trying to keep people from going where they have a right to go."

I was starting to reply to that point when the other man's bus arrived and he had to leave. As he got on board, he turned back to me and said, "Think about it."

Well, I have. And while I respect his opinion, I think he's utterly wrong.

First of all, the Berlin Wall was put up by an intellectually and morally bankrupt regime to keep its people from voting with their feet. It was a heavily fortified barrier, overwatched with guard towers manned by border guards with orders to shoot to kill. While I lived in Berlin, several people (including two of the border guards) actually escaped over the wall, and at least one was shot dead. As far as I know, our Customs and Border Protection officers are permitted to shoot only in self-defense, and are more likely to be fired at by drug smugglers and human traffickers than to draw their own weapons.

The United States now, like West Germany and West Berlin then, recognized and made provisions for the right of people legally to emigrate to their territory. In the era of the Berlin Wall, East Germans had no such equivalent right to leave...if they wanted to relocate to the West, they literally had to take their lives in their hands to do it. Along the southern border of the U.S., Mexicans and others have the legal right to apply for visas to enter the country legally...but tens of thousands aren't willing to go to that much trouble, choosing rather to risk arrest and the dangers of the desert to cross illegally. The Mexican government has no particular interest in stopping them, since it relieves them of the burden of employing and caring for their own citizens (and, by the way, the Mexicans ruthlessly enforce the security of their southern border).

I appreciate the unknown gentleman's opinion, even though I think he's wrong. The beauty of this country is that we can agree to disagree without resorting to violence...as Lady Bird Johnson once said, "The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom." But opinions need to be informed by facts, and I don't think my unknown debater had considered all the relevant facts.

My position on illegal immigration is clear to everyone who's been reading this blog, and I've provided my own recommendation for immigration reform here and in letters to the President and my Senators and Representatives (all of whom answered with earnest, windy, and ultimately meaningless letters). Our current immigration laws are outdated and in desperate need of reform...sadly, we don't have anyone in Congress with the political and moral courage to take it on.

The Berlin Wall was a ghastly barrier meant to imprison a population, accompanied by the threat of death. The southern border wall, such as it is, is meant to secure the U.S. border from those who willingly break the law to enter, for whatever reason.

I don't think anyone can reasonably compare the two, but you're welcome to try to convince me. Good luck.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo