The Wall

Cruel And Ineffective

My family knows all about walls. In 1961, my parents grabbed me (the baby) and everything that fit into two suitcases and left East Germany. Along with other family members, they boarded a train west. My grandfather, who wanted to leave most of all, diddled and did not make it out. “The government says they will close the wall soon. I don’t think they really mean it.” Poor grandfather! Did you not learn your lesson back then that the government does mean it and will do what it says it will do?

As soon as East Germany allowed it, we traveled back there every summer, especially to Wolgast by the Baltic Sea where my father was born. The fear was instilled early: “Don’t say a word on the train. Do not look up when they check our passports.” My grandfather’s terrified eyes (I hope they do not find the bracelet sewed into my suspenders). My mother’s hissed voice: “Don’t look at the suspenders. We do not want them to take us outside.”

Yes, we all saw people taken off the train to go into that building. Some did not come back in time to get reboard the train. I did not understand why my grandfather, who was allowed to travel to West Germany as a retiree, could not bring a bracelet back for my grandmother’s birthday, but I did understand the warning, and I did feel his fear.

Now we are building a wall along the Mexican border. People raise the issue of price. Yes, with unfunded liabilities rising and national debt greater than the current GNP, a 1954-mile wall is too expensive and unaffordable. That is not the issue, however. The wall is cruel. What do parents tell their children on the long trek north? “Drink water whenever you can. Do not let go of me ever. Do not speak a word to strangers. This will be dangerous, but I will be at your side.” What fear do their children feel?

In “Why I Wrote ‘The Crucible,’” Arthur Miller said that “fear doesn’t travel well,” that future generations cannot understand the fears prevalent in previous ones. — But I do understand the fear of approaching a border and the relief of leaving it behind. In addition, the wall will not be effective in keeping people out. Some have already tunneled under and hopped on running trains.

We could build an effective wall — as the East Germans did. We could add barbed wire, watchtowers, snipers, and death zones riddled with landmines. That would make the wall effective…but it would also be the end of our national American soul and the end of the greatest democracy on earth that takes in “the huddled and the poor” when they have nowhere else to go.

I do not advocate open borders, and I do understand unbridled illegal immigration poses risks. What I am advocating is to preserve our humanity, our tolerance, and to relate to all immigrants as people who may have experienced horrible injustice and pain. They are counting on us to provide refuge, and they are approaching our borders with trepidation and fear.

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