"The Great Walls of Change.........from Bejing to Berlin.....to Brownsville, TX"

[ricomsmith77.livejournal.com]

Originally posted by ricomsmith77 at "The Great Walls of Change.........from Bejing to Berlin.....to Brownsville, TX"

Close your eyes.

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words, Great Wall?

Of China! Right?

I mean come on, it's a pretty damn big wall......



........looks pretty cool too, doesn't it?

That wall was built to protect certain parts of China from intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces.  It was also built as a border control wall, allowing the imposition of duties on goods, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration.  This wall has been up for centuries, and it remains standing to this day......but it's main purpose is no longer in use.
(News Update: President Obama is currently in Bejing, China right now.....just thought you should know!)

It was an era of time in China's history that redefined the country and it's course towards the future.

Then along came another wall......


........and this one is not a pretty wall at all.

This is the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was a barrier that existed from 1961 through 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in 1989. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. (Source: WIKIPEDIA)

Yesterday, Novemeber 9th, marked the 25th anniversary of that wall coming down.......


.....because over time, people realized that this was the kind of wall that was not protecting people from tyranny and invasion, but from each other.   The East Germans and the Soviets didn't want certain aspects of the Western world to influence their ways of ruling their lands and their people.  It would take several decades of fighting and sanctions against the East, but finally the West was able to prevail and the borders were opened.......and it remains open to this day.

It was an era that changed the course of history for Germany and the Soviet Union and their futures.

My point so far is that we can build walls to protect ourselves from danger.  We can also build walls to protect ourselves from each other.....although I don't know why you would want to.  Walls are great to put pictures of your family or your cat, or even a painting of The Great Wall of China!  But we don't always have to barricade ourselves to keep people away you don't like, because sometimes the people you reject are the people who you might need when crap hits the wall....no pun intended!

I'd like to think that history has taught us a lesson about building walls and what they can do to a society....

......but then along came another wall.......


.......you know where that wall is?

It's the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

I don't like where this is going.

Comments

[telemann.livejournal.com]

It was suggested that the United States do that (http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=livn;cc=livn;rgn=full%20text;idno=livn0010-12;didno=livn0010-12;view=image;seq=00571;node=livn0010-12%3A1), in the aftermath of the Mexican War, President Polk wanted an independent Mexico, and Northern states objected, due to fears that slavery would grow and give Southern states the upper hand in Congress. Portions of several northern states currently in Mexico (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Neuvo Leon) were originally planned to be annexed, but that was even rolled back.