The wall that should never be built

The recent spat between Pope Francis and presidential wannabe Donald Trump dredged up something that needs to be addressed thanks to a quote from the popular pontiff. On a flight to Rome en route from Mexico, he was asked his opinion of Mr. Trump during a press conference held on board. Pope Francis didn’t mince words; “ A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not gospel.”

To put it mildly Trump wasn’t happy with that. Not happy at all.

But I don’t want to talk about the hissy fit that followed, which was plastered everywhere. (One I found to be amusing while he ranted on and on.) No, more about what it brought back up into the light: walls — or a wall in particular — an obsession Trump and nearly all of the GOP candidates have fixated on. It definitely got the notice of leader of the Catholic Church.

Not the wall surrounding the Vatican, as some ignoramuses quickly pointed out in rebuttal to the pontiff’s remarks. That was built in 9th century A.D. to defend it from invasion and siege. Most cities of the era faced that all over Europe. Wars between countries, faiths and even neighboring cities were commonplace. Walls worked well until the advent of gunpowder and explosive artillery, which rendered them useless as a means of defense. It is now a tourist attraction in modern times.

No, I’m talking about another wall, one that would stretch 1,954 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico to keep certain people out of America. This is the delusion Mr. Trump and those in the GOP who share his folly believe is the answer to illegal immigration. It isn’t — not even close.

First, there are the billions of dollars it would cost to build the wall across some hellish country along our southern border with Mexico. It would be a nightmare logistically to get all those workers and material to the building sites, not to mention the cost of wiring it all up with censors, alarms and tracking equipment. Then there’s the cost of manning and maintaining the wall, its gate and security systems. The expense in total would be astronomical.

As for where this money is going to come from, that’s another issue. It’s not going to come from Mexico. Put that Trump style fantasy out of your mind. This will never happen; if anything, all we will get from Mexico on this subject is a diplomatic version of the middle finger.

Funding will come from you and me, the American citizen, in the form of taxes. Billions and billions of dollars wasted on an economic boondoggle that could be better used repairing our crumbling infrastructure. We desperately need our bridges, railroads and highways fixed up. We could also better spend money on feeding the poor, housing the homeless or aiding our wounded veterans. Trump’s wall is an idea we don’t need and can’t afford.

A wall will not stem the flood of desperate people fleeing poverty, gang violence, drug cartels and corrupt governments. People in those dire straits will find other ways of getting into the country, as fear knows no bounds. Funding could be better spent on beefing up our border patrols. We could also work more closely with officials of South and Central American governments to try and combat the issues affecting them, or streamline legal ways for people to immigrate to our country. We should go after the smugglers of people as well as drugs and the cartels funding them with a huge law enforcement stick in Teddy Roosevelt fashion. Toss them in prison here or deport them to their own country’s jails (which are far worse than the hardest America can produce), then hunt down those employers of illegals in America and shut them down permanently.

The price of this grand illusion will break this nation at a time when money is at a premium and the national debt remains high. The economy is still fragile in its recovery from years of recession. Let’s not fall under the impossible hallucination of a few paranoid politicians and their deceived followers. If walling off our southern border from illegal immigrants makes sense to you, there is a even bigger border to the north that is more porous you need to look into that is 3,987 miles long between Canada and the Lower 48. You might want to board that up too. Oh, I nearly forgot, there is also the 1,538-mile border between Alaska and Canada. Let’s put a big fence up there too. Give in to the paranoia of it all. Obviously this last paragraph was dripping with pointed sarcasm illuminating the illogic and the shear stupidity of the idea.

Turning this nation into a gigantic prison is far from the American dream. It is literally the stuff of nightmares. It would be better to build bridges, a pearl of wisdom spoken by a man I greatly admire. I would like to add it would be far cheaper, too. Isolationism was tried before, a grave mistake that must not be repeated.

Daniel D. Grota is a retired U.S. Army veteran with over 21 years in service. He is also a Tuesday morning co-host on KVRF 89.5 FM, Radio Free Palmer. Write to him at news@frontiersman.com.