Further proof that walls don’t work

I propose a naming ceremony for Trump’s wall — the one he claimed Mexico would pay for. This ceremony would include the smashing of a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 on the wall (champagne saved for better events). The obvious name for Trump’s wall is The Boondoggle Wall as surely it’s the most flagrant boondoggle in recent American history. It’s a deplorable waste of time, resources, and money.

Walls don’t work. Recently, smugglers packed about 25 people into an SUV designed for far fewer passengers and drove it from Mexico into the United States through a hole made in Trump’s wall. Sadly, about half of these people died in a tragic accident shortly after entering the U.S. How many more holes have been cut in the wall? How many smugglers have scaled the wall or dug a tunnel? Humans are ingenious, and walls have never restrained them: Examples include the Great Wall of China, the Romans’ Hadrian’s Wall, the wall between Israel and Palestine, and the Berlin Wall. Always, people find ways to get over, under, or through walls.

Trump’s wall is an ugly manifestation of his pathological ego and is horribly impacting ecosystems and causing other egregious problems. Is immigration reform necessary? Yes. Is the use of existing technology for border control a better idea? Yes. The wall? No. As Ronald Reagan, speaking of the Berlin Wall, once exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, “Tear down this wall!”

— Shannon Rooney, Chico