11/18/22

By Josh Rubin

Nothing divides us the way the wall does.

I am not saying that the wall does a good job of stopping people from migrating, from places of despair to places of hope. It is, in fact, well established that migration cannot be stopped. People can be made to suffer, and are made to suffer and die. The wall is a small element in a scattershot of the weapons of deterrence that are doomed to failure. Failure because migration, people in motion, is as right—as unstoppable—as the rain.

No, the wall fails its stated mission. But it succeeds in dividing us.

There are those desperate to build it, even resorting in places like Arizona to make frantic piles of industrial junk. It is the symbolism of the wall that is potent. It warns an enemy, it lays out a NOT WELCOME mat. It defines those who come up to the wall as the unwanted, indeed as barbarians.

The other side of the division sees the wall as just as potent a symbol. To them—to us—it bespeaks a mobilization for war against an imaginary enemy. It constructs barriers to humans and nature, and it obstructs the kind of tolerance the world needs. The wall interferes with nature. It throws our planet, this sphere hurtling through space, into imbalance and spins us into violent chaos. It robs us of the balm of a landscape that transcends ephemeral history. It is a heap of cruel garbage blocking the light.

As a barrier to migration, the wall is doomed. As a monument to hatred, it has been succeeding all too well. We will Journey for Justice, and bear witness to this truth.