about it. We’re building the wall. We’re building the wall. In fact, it’s going to start soon. Way ahead of schedule, way ahead of schedule. Way, way, way ahead of schedule. It’s going to start very soon.” — Donald Trump on Feb. 24
Where did all the so-called Christians go? My guess is, the same place they hid when Hitler was persecuting the Jews. Any time a so-called leader uses hatred in order to lead, one should be wary, as you may be next if you speak against his program.
Americans used to hate walls. Remember when the Soviet Union put a wall up between Berlin and East Berlin in Germany? They manned it with sharpshooters to kill people that tried to cross.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Ronald Reagan said in 1987, and everyone cheered. Now, we want to erect the walls.
What kind of America have we become that allows mothers to be separated from their children, that returns people to conditions of poverty and political persecution? Not something I can be proud of for myself or my country.
We’re told the ultimate cost of this wall is maybe $30 billion. Imagine $30 billion for early childhood education, infrastructure, even cleaning up some of the toxic messes left by the polluters Trump loves so much.
“And remember, we are getting the bad ones out. These are bad dudes. We’re getting the bad ones out, OK? We’re getting the bad – if you watch these people, it’s like gee, that’s so sad. We’re getting bad people out of this country, people that shouldn’t be, whether it’s drugs or murder or other things. We’re getting bad ones out, those are the ones that go first and I said it from day one.”
There are always a few rotten eggs in a basket, true. Some of the undocumented people who come across our border are drug-dealers or thieves. But most are not. And, remember, some of our worst crimes are committed by our own citizens and misguided youth:
- A Planned Parenthood clinic, Colorado Springs, Colo., Nov. 19, 2015.
Three dead – a police officer, a war veteran and a woman, all of them parents.
- A black church in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015. Nine dead.
- Sandy Hook Elementary School, Conn., Dec. 14, 2012. Twenty-six dead.
- Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 8, 2011. Six dead and a U.S. representative left with permanent brain damage.
- Oklahoma City, Okla., April 19, 1995. One hundred sixty-eight dead. All crimes committed by Americans, not undocumented immigrants.
We are not perfect and the only one who supposedly was, they crucified. The last time I took inventory of the human animal (or maybe we should call ourselves a fungus creeping across the globe), they all were constructed fairly much alike. But we have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking we are very different and the only way to be safe is to keep the “other” people out.
So I guess we’ll build this wall. Maybe crime will end and Americans will flock to the low-paying, back-breaking jobs the immigrants were doing, cleaning motel rooms, picking chilis and lettuce 12 hours a day, laying shingles in the hot sun. And with our trade policies we will help ensure Mexico doesn’t have enough jobs for its own people.
And then we will be a great country.
Galen Larson writes from Montezuma County, Colo.
