Good Fences? Good Neighbors?!

I quote Robert Frost: "Something there is that does not love a wall?"

A wall with holes and low places...
A wall where people come and go as if there is no wall at all.
And so...
How high must a wall be to keep out the fear of poverty?
How high must a wall be to dissuade a hope that prevailed past oppressive heat and the aches of slow starvation.

How much are the fat, rich, and paranoid willing to spend to hide prosperity from poor neighbors?


I just got a MEGAVOTE update from Congress.org letting me know how my representatives have been voting. The update also let me know what they will be voting on next. Among the bills on the floor is the Secure Fence Act.

Soon, the House of Representatives will be voting on the Secure Fence Act - H.R.6061.

This week the Senate will continue to work on a bill to authorize the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Illegal or undocumented immigration is not a new issue. It has been growing as an issue as wholes in the system of accounting for illegals or undocumented immigrants has increased along with demands for increased national security.

Pat Buchanan was just on the Daily Show to promote his new book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.

Stewart made many jokes to highlight the pertinent points, like how America already received wave upon wave of immigrants...how is this different.

Buchanan's point is that this wave is different because of their resistance to assimilation.

And really, is it not surprising--why should they assimilate to what rejects them. From reading the synopsis on his book and from hearing him speak on the Daily Show, it seems that Buchanan understands why people from Mexico and other developing nations are resisting the Apple-pie Americanization so many other immigrants swallowed whole two or three generations ago (or more).

Even those immigrants who do wait their turn in line, they may also be resistant to efforts of assimilation to "American" values--as if this was a constant, homogenous thing.

The second wave of immigrants to the U.S. were coming to a very different place. A country that was still idealistic and a place to remake identity and move past the oppression of kings and dictators...I guess people are still doing that...but America was not an EMPIRE. America was powerful, but not quite in the busy business of nation building and supporting regimes and manipulating economies.

America, to members of developing nations, is now the Empire, the exploiter...it is difficult to reconcile yourself with a curriculum of media messages and unspoken gestures in everyday life that tell you that you are not welcome, you are less, and you are different and will never be one with us....and so what is there to do? Reject it!

I just might actually have to read Buchanan's book to better make my points.

On the Daily Show, he said that there are more illegal immigrants here now than all the Italians, Irish, etc. who came before them. He would like us to slow the wave and take the time to assimilate the people who are here before we allow any more in.

We can not keep people out. And we can not continue to promote the Anglophone values that create the resistance.

Stewart suggests we stake a claim on Mexico with the spring break crews. But also makes the even more credible point that people are here and 'homesteading' to send $$ back....and of course suggests that we enforce laws that already exist (drug related, etc.) or to consider that breaking the line to illegally enter the U.S. is not a federal crime.

If only Buchanan did not make the comment that we need to think of the Indian's open immigration policy--oh dreaded thing to say. Such a twisted and warped thing to say...

Reactionaries like Buchanan may have to consider that the America they want to protect it is a nostalgic dream that will vanish like fog in the sun. America is evolving, has been evolving.

The question is how we can negotiate the waves of cultural change to retain what was good about the past with what is being offered by waves of recent immigrants.

I am not sure how...but it will begin by being open to change and embracing a hard truth: we live in an imagined community. America is not real: it is a dream, it is held together by beliefs and customs which are easily subject to change...and that is not a bad thing.


There is something that does not love a wall: change.