A Wall on Our Border Is a Stupid Idea – An Essay by Frank J.

29 Nov, 2006 by John Hawkins

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UPDATE: My wife reminded me that the Great Wall of China is a cool wall people like to visit, so basically my whole argument has been blown away. If we could have a wall like that, I’d totally be for it.

UPDATE 2: I can see a lot of heated disagreement in the comments, so I just want to remind you that I’m only putting this out here to stimulate thinking about this issue from another angle. I’m not saying I’m absolutely right on this, but I am saying you’re probably smoking bad crack if you disagree with me. Don’t get angry at me; get angry at your crack dealer.

I think I’m a Mexican racist. For Thanksgiving, the lovely and talented SarahK and I drove from Florida to Texas. On the way back, we stopped in a Wal-Mart in Amarillo since we decided we wanted the new Weird Al Yankovic album for the trip home. That’s a regular American farmer town, but the Wal-Mart was full of signs in Spanish and all the staff looked to be Mexican. Since I live in Florida, I’m used to being surrounded by Cubans, but being surrounded by Mexicans is quite another thing and very intimidating.

So, we went to the music section, and one whole third of it was dedicated to Mexican music. Then, I wasn’t able to find Weird Al because he doesn’t sing in Mexican. So, I went to a nearby clerk – who looked to be Mexican – for help. I asked her where the latest Weird Al album was, and she responded saying she didn’t know who that was.

Something in me just snapped.

You evil Mexican! How can you invade our country and not learn the language or even the most basic parts of our culture such as who Weird Al Yankovic is?

It was an angry thought, and I quickly saw how stupid it was. First off, she knew the language just fine. Second, even though she didn’t know who Weird Al was, she still helped me find the album. So why am I hating Mexicans? In this day and age, I should be saving all my hatred for Muslims. Do I really want all the Mexicans deported when many are just family men and women? If they were gone, then would there be anyone left in Wal-Mart who would help me find the Weird Al album?

I became afraid I’ve gotten too swept up in the border issue. It seems really important these days as even my wife shakes her fist at the TV screen every time Bush appears because he hasn’t been handling illegal immigration. Also, any time I hear about a politician on a blog, usually the first thing mentioned is his stance on the border.

Originally, I didn’t care much about illegal immigration. To me, it seems logical that everyone outside of America should do absolutely everything in their power to get in America. If I were born outside of America, that’s what I’d do. Also, illegal immigrants are only taking jobs from the poor, and I don’t like poor people. The only thing I care about is whether they’re actually coming here to be Americans and not just a Mexican working a job in America.

So, I reanalyzed my stance on the border and, while not figuring everything out, I came to this conclusion which seems so obvious now:

A wall on our border is a really dumb idea.

Though I know many (including my wife and John Hawkins) will disagree with me, I think that’s true for a number of reasons.

(continued…)