The recent election of Donald Trump as president of the United States has evoked a lot of fear for many different reasons. One thing in particular that worries me is his plans to follow through with his idea of building a wall. Throughout history several border walls have been built up and tore down. Whenever one is built there is always tension between who is on the inside and who is on the outside. While this may be step in the right direction for "homeland security" or "border protection," I think it is a poor decision from an ethical stand point. In a day and age where cultural and ethnic acceptance is highly encouraged, building a wall between two nations sends a message that citizens of Mexico are inherently "bad" because they are on the other side of a wall.
In the case of Turner's article about the frontier, he discusses how the open border in the west not only provided hope for people seeking a new life, it also contributed to "The American Dream." I think Turner's case relates well to this because many of the American ideologies have been reliant on freedom of movement. When people describe America the first words that would come to a lot of peoples minds would include "freedom," "diversity," and "hope." What baffles me, is that building a wall somehow takes away meaning behind these words. If we're enclosing ourselves behind a wall, how free are we? If we're trying to keep out citizens of Mexico, how are we promoting diversity or encouraging feelings of hope? And what kind of workers are going to be hired to build this wall? If I had to guess I'd say it's going to be the illegal immigrants that are already in the United States and trying to make ends meet by taking the jobs that a very low percentage of American's would even contemplate taking. Which raises the question of how many and what kind of jobs are actually being given to illegal immigrants over the working class American?
There are many questions that have yet to be answered in regards to who we are as a nation and who we want to be but one thing is certain, our country is constantly evolving and the American ideologies of the past have gotten lost somewhere along the way.
Great post, Will! I agree with your description of America in terms of being "free, diverse, hopeful" etc. and many foreigners who plan to come to America carry these words in high hopes when considering citizenship. When I saw Trump running, I figured he was just pandering to the complete opposite of Hillary supporters; he was willing to cater to extreme conservatives. In my eyes, I only thought of "Trump's Wall" as him being an entertainer, that he is more of a populist who is more liberal than we think, and that he would never pull through with it where he, himself, knew that. I HOPE that he doesn't pull through with his extreme policies because I can see this country dividing further more as we speak. The building of the wall would most likely last longer than his presidency (assuming he won't be winning another term, who knows!) and would be roughly 1,300 - 2,000 miles long. Just going for a drive at that distance is nearly a full day. I can't imagine how much money, time and effort would be put into the wall. I also like your point, "Who is going to be hired to do all of this?" It would be too ironic if we forced illegals to get the job done.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, open arms and encouragement does contribute to the American Dream. What also baffles me is that how he plans to pay for it. He keeps saying that Mexico is going to pay for something that America wants but Mexico doesn't care for? Yes, Mexico has a bad drug smuggling problem that effects the United States. However, there would be no market for drugs if there wasn't such a large demand in the United States, but that is a completely different discussion.
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