The Berlin Wall came to represent all that offended American notions of human dignity. As a child, I remember hearing stories of the brave people who were killed trying to cross into West Berlin and the Promised Land of Freedom. I remember the villains well--the guards who manned that wall and kept those brave people out. During the 28 years of its existence, 239 people died trying to cross it. (Photo: Jay Johnson-Castro)We are building our own wall now, well-designed to keep out those who are seeking the promised land. The wall is not a new idea--we have been building it since the 1993 Operation Hold the Line. During those 14 years--half the time of the Berlin Wall--more than 2,500 have died trying to cross it.
There is something macabre and fascinating about this wall we are building--an obviously wrongheaded idea that we Americans stubbornly cling to. Here at San Felipe we have had reporters from Radio France and German television visit us. They all ask the same question: why are you doing this? We all have the same answer: "We don't know."
Schematic for the Berlin Wall.
Schematic for the proposed border wall.
