Walls

So the U.S. starts building a wall in Baghdad and Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, tells us to stop.

It got me thinking about the other walls springing up, like the Israeli West Bank wall, about which I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's a scar across the country. On the other hand, less homicide/suicide bombings. At least Banksy had some fun with it.

And it certainly makes me think of our new wall, the U.S./Mexico border wall grande. I don't personally feel affected by the tide of illegal immigration, but I understand that there are American citizens living close to the border who do, so I don't know if it's a good or bad idea. I do know that the first $1.2 billion is only the down payment on what is currently expected to cost as much as $7 billion, and you know how those Bush cronies tend to lowball.

I'm wondering if this is a trend America favors as the extreme expression of property protection. After all, gated communities are on the rise, as yet another consumer commodity previous available only to the wealthy, now being marketed successfully to the American middle class.

Maybe it's all about population growth and having to fence ourselves in and everyone else out, like some sort of Soylent Green riot in the making. But no matter the reasons, it's an eerie trend, and one can imagine it leading to a death spiral of cross-cultural community.

Funny that this is the same day I read about my favorite 60-year old, indescribably young and breaking down walls just like he did in 1969.