A variety of walls
Man has always needed walls to keep the threat away from his existence of being able to survive the unknown.
History has its great walls. The castles of Europe, the Great Wall of China, water — and they all come tumbling down, even today.
“Do fences make good neighbors?” asked Robert Frost.
America’s great walls were her two oceans; people ran from European hierarchy to our teaming shores because of Europe’s social walls (classes), royalty and church. The English population ran from the Church of England, the French from its two republics, the Jews ran from ghettos — all of whom came to America. African slaves were introduced to the walls of ships to a land they could not escape.
This new melting pot produced the greatest republic the world has known. But we have now retreated to Trump’s wall. Why? — for fear of people of color. America’s suburbs are walls. Inner cities are walls, the poor, the middle class and the wealthy are walls. Our past still allowed us to thrive and build a better union.
We were that shining light on the hill.
Now the issue is all about the “money.” Money is only a tool for man, but man has always needed people to make survival great. So what has changed us? Guns, violence and this loss of empathy.
These are the new walls: Big data and algorithms.
So…
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Jesse C. Newman
Overland Park, Kansas
