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| Two Palestinian women on the street walking past the painted image of Donald Trump on the separation wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. |
The following is a comment about the linked video:
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I did pass some time with Mr. Krauthammer who appears in the video behind the above highlighted link. It turns out that it is 6 minutes of self indictment to the incompetence and the crass venality of the US government. He admits that a wall in and of itself is not sufficient to "protect" the country from illegal "immigration." The illegal immigration reality in the world is not a "problem" that can be solved mechanically. The only solution lies in the resolve of the people on the one side to assure that the people on the other side will not find safe haven. Walls do not work because of the lack of human resolve on the one side. The only true wall is the internal conviction on the one side that the people on the other side should not have access. Walls without human conviction on the one side enforcing their reason for being are useless. Krauthammer makes this point very clearly. He mentions visa "over-stays" which account for 40% of illegal residents present here. He mentions the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986. It failed because of one, and only one reason: The lack of enforcement by a venal government owned and lobbied by voracious employers seeking cheap labor. The self-same government that had passed the law in the first place. I know. I lived through it during the height of my Human Resources career.
He does not mention the most common-sense weakness of any wall: The gates. Intruders do not have to foil the forbidding surface of the wall...all they have to do is to befriend (or reward) or outwit the gatekeeper. The reason why walls do not work is the human element. Walls with, or without, draconian Laws, and yes, even with armed military and technological support to enforce the physical barrier, do not work. Human ingenuity will always win.
I could name the number of "insurmountable" walls I have lived with and/or visited in my short life. Even the Israel/Palestinian barrier. I am here to tell you that most of them (95%) have become tourist attractions. [Jerusalem (old and new), Rome, Vatican City, Carcassonne, Paris, Jericho, Manila] The one that most people praise the most, the Israel/Palestinian Authority one, is not impervious for the reason stated above, the human factor. I have witnessed it first hand. Plus, the intrepid souls can walk until they find the end, in the desert...just like here.
Finally, pay attention to the presentation and you will note that it never promises 100% impermeability. Neither Krauthammer nor Trump can do that...the indomitable human spirit will win and the artifact will become a tourist attraction.
On the personal side, I have to admit that I shake my head in wonder that the trammel of history doesn't seem to mean anything to those who keep running back to solutions that have failed. Walls, in my view, are nothing but glowing confessions that humans have not matured to the point of discovering how to get along with one another. Walls,in my view are an extension of the opinion of my namesake, "The Law brings Death, the Spirit brings Life. (2 Cor. 3;6)" I suppose that we have not yet attained the last chapter of John's masterpiece, we will always need Law until...
20 The one who gives this testimony says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen (Revelation, chapter 22)
