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Tear Down This Wall, Senator Obama (And TPM'ers)
Senator Obama wants the walls to come down. All around the world. I'm with him.
We've seen walls before, in Berlin Wall, in Belfast, in South Africa. And we've seen them fall. Because people MADE them fall.
But new walls are going up. In Israel, yes. We've heard about that. But the ones that I find most upsetting are the huge ones going up in the US - at the Mexican border.
Yes, I know immigration is a complex issue. Yes, I know politically it's a potential live wire for Obama. But he’s made very clear he wants the walls to fall. And for those of us who support him, and the larger changes he speaks to, well... we face fewer constraints. And have fewer excuses.
Friendship Park is at the San Diego/Tijuana border. Where, for generations, families - and nations met. Homeland Security is now building multiple giant steel walls, massive berms, creating no man's lands. I mention this one in particular because I used to live in San Diego. Used to travel the buses there, many days as the only non-Hispanic rider. Met some good people. I didn't speak any Spanish, but they were gracious enough to accept me nonetheless. This wall business is appalling. Fear. Fear. Fear. That's all it is. Of all the ways to better manage immigration, of all the potentially creative ways this meeting place might be improved & better managed – they chose… this.
This Sunday, August 3rd, 2:00 pm at Friendship Park. If you live nearby, or can reach it, it might be worth a visit. It's a beautiful place, with many beautiful people - so it'll be a great day out anyway. And as part of your day, gather with some people who also wish to see the walls torn down. I can’t be there this time, but perhaps I come by & see it soon. Hopefully, with families eating there, music playing & a bit more happiness than Homeland Security is offering.
Here's a couple of videos that say it better than I can. The 1st, highlights it as an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwRr7bt7-s8">historic meeting place.
The 2nd, as a <a href="http://web.mac.com/gr8fx/Crucible/Lamina.html">natural site.
Contact: John Fanestil
john6861@sbcglobal.net
619-823-6223
Comments (35)
Links:
Historic.
Natural.
July 31, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great Post.
I agree, BOH should just face this issue directly and dare the GOP to play the nativist card.
July 31, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Lux. I actually wonder what the polling looks like on this issue in swing states like Colorado, New Mexico, and so on.
Moreso though, I wonder if Homeland Security building these monster walls became a higher profile public issue - with more people engaged - would change the climate of debate on the issue - making it one which Obama could more easily walk into.
July 31, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, it seems like a good spot for a thirty-second spot, for broadcasting in the Hispanic markets and everywhere for that matter.
Obama stands in front of the monstrosity and says he wants an America open to all, not walled in like a jail... Something like "walls keep out and walls confine. America doesn't need either."
July 31, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fantastic, quinn! Thanks.
As someone for whom immigrant rights is intensely important and intensely personal, I'm disappointed that the immigration issue has not been a higher priority in the campaign.
As for the wall, it's always seemed like such a dumb waste of time and money (admittedly two things that America is good at wasting). We're just arrogant enough to believe that a wall will succeed where countless other efforts have failed.
But it's just another example of our short-sightedness. Immigrants have been finding ways into this land and others since, oh, the dawn of humanity. If it is in the interest of a person and their family to migrate, they will.
July 31, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
So what do you think it would take for Obama to come out to a rally or event during the campaign? You know.... imagine the border, or climate change, or war, or women's rights issues got HOT, and got national media attention. RFK, remember, stuck his nose into a lot of hot places in '68 - Chavez, Rioters, Bed-Stuy, etc. And Obama seems to know a fair bit about Bobby K. Think he'd ever dare emulate him in THIS way? Or is it 100% safety 1st?
July 31, 2008 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I think he has the vision and guts to do it. It plays to his strengths.
Whether he actually will or not? We can only hope he does.
July 31, 2008 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama actually came out for the big immigration rights marches in 2006. He spoke at the one in Chicago and he was one of the few politicians who were out that day, at least in my neck of the woods.
I think it's just fallen away as the economy tanks and he concentrates on his foreign policy cred. His immigration policy makes some amount of sense to me. I'd like to see him call McCain out on his flip flop...the Latino vote might turn into a right landslide.
July 31, 2008 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its not only the right thing to do, it is the necessary thing to do.
Did you know the GOP is finding and promoting all kinds of hispanic talk radio hosts modeled after Rush Limbaugh? Right wing hispanic talk radio!
They think of everything. But they are in a bind on immigration and Barack can put their feet to the fire on this one.
July 31, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to tell you, quinn, that that damn wall is a subject of much humor in Texas.
The kind of country that the border runs through for many hundreds of miles in Texas is impenetrable; rugged ain't in it - it would be impossible.
Now, they start running a wall down around Brownsville, let me tell you what that wall will look like in about 5 nights - every tagger in south Texas will have hit it and it will be a huge ass grafitti magnet in every populated area it runs through. If it ever gets built, which I very much doubt.
Beyond what has been built already - I haven't kept up with it too much because the whole thing is so fucking patently absurd.
We don't need no steenking walls. The border in Texas is a separate country with a real economy. A wall will bring instant economic disaster to Juarez and El Paso, and to the Valley. Economic fallout would continue to move northward, too.
July 31, 2008 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I liked the part in the video where the Mexicans were talking about painting it, decorating it, that sort of thing. I'd love to see people tagging it, putting murals on it, painting sections to look like Berlin when it had the wall, painting holes in it, people signing it, and generally showing their opposition in creative, beautiful, angry, crazy ways.
And then throwing the mother of all Tex-Mex, Cal-Exico kinda parties when it comes tumbling down.
But the Tijuana/San Diego one - when you see the ocean coast & the families - that got to me, I gotta say. The Republicans seem to want to become the East German Communist party.
July 31, 2008 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's too weird. And yeah, I want to see every square centimeter of the thing covered with tags and murals and whatever.
I hope you know that LULAC turned out the single largest demonstration in Dallas, Texas history - they were demonstrating against the Repugs' immigration reform package. The gist of the message was clear: "we're here, you hired us; you are not going to treat our grandparents and our nephews and our nieces and our mothers and our fathers who are still in Mexico, Guatemala, San Salvador, Nicararagua like this."
It was awe-inspiring and I hope like hell the Repugs go off on immigration again. That's all we need for voter turnout among Hispanic Texans.
O - and my laptop won't let me watch videos, unfortunately. I need to replace it. So I if I'm out of synch with the video, that's why.
July 31, 2008 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Question. Would he lose much in blue-collar battlegrounds if he IS seen as backing immigrants? Ohio? Penn? etc.
July 31, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just to repeat.
The border isn't secure, because it's underdeveloped. You can't walk through a hydroponic farm or a desalination plant. A fence along a border is barrier to be breached. A fence around a plant that provides hundreds of jobs to workers on both sides of the border is part of a community asset.
I fought for this one in 1977 and lost to the tortilla curtain. Thirty years later, I still think it's the only way to secure the border.
July 31, 2008 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
So we need more assets - economic & otherwise - at the border? Like farms & water plants, but also restaurants, bull-rings, solar farms, etc.? I can see how it'd work for many, not sure about all.
Or is this where you were going, BG?
July 31, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whatever a serious economic development zone would include. Wind farms maybe. Who knows. Industrial development. Jobs. Green jobs? I remember walking along the Thames last year, trying to find a way through from the river walk to a street on the other side. Office buildings. Took a while to find an alley. Can't just walk through a refinery. Obama could have fun proposing a border economic development zone for Arizona. No?
July 31, 2008 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the Europeans are proposing massive solar developments in the Sahara & North Africa, with big transmission lines back to Europe. Don't see why we couldn't have Richardson & Napolitano with Obama proposing something similar across the SW & into Mexico. Granted, it wouldn't produce millions of jobs, but it sure as shit would be a better symbol - in addition to everything else - than a bloody wall. I'd even invite T-Boone. Then again, who says the Dems have anybody as image-smart as that dude?
July 31, 2008 11:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's part of it, alright.
I can't believe I'm agreeing with you - but that was a good fight. All we unfortunately ended up with are the maquilladoras.
*sigh*
Still, a permeable border is an economic asset to every damn state that borders Mexico. Before the Patriot Act, when thousands of people crossed the border with relative ease every day, there was quite a boom down along our border, anyway.
July 31, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
NAFTA?
July 31, 2008 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the video, Quinn. A picture IS worth a thousand words.
Let's see....
as symbolism: wall? or Statue of Liberty?
as "defense" construction: wall? or applying the same money to the levees in New Orleans?
building pride in America: wall? or video of new citizens being sworn?
If a policy can be counter-intuitive, it is a Bush policy.
July 31, 2008 9:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I LIKE the New Orleans link. Nice. Work out how much is being spent on the wall vs. how much levee you could build for that. Compare the harm done by not upgrading NO's defences vs firms that can't find workers in California. Floating bodies in NO vs families gathered at Friendship Park.
July 31, 2008 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Walls. Interesting how they get used, no? All the divisions and categories and the entire mind numbing discourse about "us" and "them", "acceptable" and "unacceptable" and the "true" and "false." With one side of the family coming to lay rail lines on the West, this debate's longevity is, to say the least, amazing. Angel Island vs Ellis Island, which one is more acceptable? Canadian border vs Mexican border, where is the wall? Well, there you go.
I love this post. Thanks Quinn.
July 31, 2008 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator Obama wants the walls to come down. All around the world. I'm with him.
----------------------------------------------------
That's the trouble with you extremists. One good thing happens and you want to export it to all the countries in the world. Go to the Netherlands and rant about tearing down walls. See what kind of reception you get. Right now there is a little boy in Holland holding up a finger to you, and not the one he put in that hole in that wall.
July 31, 2008 10:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
B Movie. Gil Scott-Heron. "Civil rights, women's rights, gay rights…it's all wrong. Call in the cavalry to disrupt this perception of freedom gone wild. God damn it… first one wants freedom, then the whole damn world wants freedom."
Oh yeah. Screw the Dutch.
July 31, 2008 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't they smoke a lot of dope?
July 31, 2008 11:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
No more than anyone who'd propose a Cindy Sheehan & Jeb Bush ticket. Still laughing. Who knows, it'd make campaign logistics easier - everyone could just meet at the ranch.
July 31, 2008 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
This wall business would stand out in any history of dumb ideas and bad jokes.
July 31, 2008 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is still the best idea I've heard on how to bridge the problem.
July 31, 2008 11:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha!
August 1, 2008 12:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is that thing real? I thought it was conceptual art or, worst case, an installation like the Valley Curtain. Is that a real highway? My god.
August 1, 2008 7:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, the link you're looking for is here:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15497
August 1, 2008 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shades of Robert Moses.
August 1, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
fwiw, I'm in favor:
http://www.nascocorridor.com/
And fwiw, I resent your reference to Moses. Well done.
August 1, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
This country used to take pride in the fact that we had the longest unguarded borders in the world. People forget that the Berlin wall wasn't there to keep people out, it was there to keep people in.
August 1, 2008 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah we have so many valuable things to protect we need that wall!
rusting factories
broken down bridges
strip malls with all those for lease signs in the windows
rusting Amtrack trains.
Yeah, we gotta protect ourselves from those people who want our riches.
August 1, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
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