I have a thing about walls. I hate them. It’s personal.
I lived in West Berlin for six months in 1974, behind a 100 mile wall, around the entire city. I was studying German in downtown West Berlin, and on school days I had to cross the wall, four times a day. On the subway going from my dorm to the sealed-off part of Friedrich Strasse station, in East Berlin. We passed guards with assault rifles in the tunnel. They were prepared to murder anybody fleeing to freedom. I would then change trains at the station in East Berlin, and ride over the wall near the Brandenberg Gate (photo below) to downtown West Berlin. That evening, back again, over the wall and then under, past the assault rifles, for six months. I hate walls.
The wall was very real. You could see the mine fields, tank traps, and machine gun towers. Try to cross, and you were dead. The wall represented tyranny, and failure.
I write this because millennials will hopefully never see any wall like this, at least not in the Western world. On May 1, I went over to East Berlin to see the military parade, near Alexander Platz. Soldiers, tanks and missiles. At one point, I realized that they were aimed at the other side of Berlin. Shit. Some idiot makes a mistake, and millions die. It almost happened a couple of times. Really. The cold war was much more dangerous than ISIS.
I went back to now unified Berlin in 1991. Unter der Linden Strasse is a boulevard that leads right through downtown East Berlin, up to the Brandenberg gate. I was walking there back towards West Berlin, when I met a west African. He was wearing beautiful flowing white robes. We chatted as we walked. He was there for a peace conference. After a while, I stopped and asked him, “Do you know where we are?”. “No”. We were standing next to the Brandenberg gate. Two years earlier, we would be dead. It had not occurred to him. I asked that while he was at the peace conference, to not forget. It was, for me, a moment of hope. No more wall.
Mr. Trump, it’s possible to make a wall “work”. I’ve seen it. But you’re going to need to add to it mine fields and machine gun towers. Is this what you want on the American border? Murdering people? Really? They won’t get in, but your wall will represent tyranny and failure. Think about it. Think carefully. And then build schools, hospitals, and bridges instead.
