Construya una pared para nosotros, por favor

This land is my land,
That land is your land ...

I'm not a big proponent of fencing off the southern border. Looking north from Tijuana last summer brought back sad memories of West Berlin in 1986. I know the fundamental difference between the Iron Curtain, which was meant to keep people in, and the Adobe Curtain, which is meant to keep people out; I just can't get over the fact that we draw inspiration from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

The Great Wall of America is not the anti-terrorism elixer certain Capitol Hill occupants like to think it is, and cracking down on the employers who give illegal immigrants the illegal jobs for which they illegally immgrate here would do a heck of a lot to stem the flow. Besides, as Carlos Mencia pointed out, who are we going to get to build it?

Something about the fence seems downright unAmerican. Taken to its logical conclusion, the ideology behind the fence turns us into the land of the free, the home of the brave; from border fence to border fence and sea barricade to shining sea barricade. The current batch of so-called "Reagan Republicans" are tarnishing Reagan's (and Mondale's) (and Kennedy's) (and Winthorp's) (oh yeah, and Jesus's) shining city upon the hill. Remember the farewell address?

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

Then again, somewhere out there is this guy ...

This picture found on Tonatos21