Does History Repeat Itself?
The United States is facing very pivotal decisions about the future. Just one crucial decision is about security. President Trump’s idea of a wall separating the United States Southern border and Mexico premise is supposed to make the US safer. Au contraire, Mr. Trump. For example, if we look back in history at the Berlin wall.
In 1958, the Soviet Union was embarrassed by the seemingly endless flow of refugees (e.g., 3 million) from the East to the West parts of Berlin in fears of being killed as a result of the Cold War. On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Republic (East Germany) began to build a barb wired and concrete, “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall,” wall that separated East and West Berlin. The word Antifaschistischer Schutzwall means anti-fascists barrier. Anti-fascists means to oppose political philosophies or ideas.
The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the communist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force, and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barb wired fence that divided one side of the city from the other. Over time, the East German officials created a 12 foot tall and 4 foot wide wall. The total wall span was 96 miles and just costed $25 million.
In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to go over, under, or around the Berlin wall. From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans manage to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, finding hot air balloons, crawling through sewers, and driving through unfortunate parts of the wall at high speeds.
Back to present day, with the idea of building a wall to separate Mexico and the United States. The border is roughly 2,000 miles from California to Texas. Mr.Trump ran his campaign on the idea that we need to increase our nation’s security against drugs, crime, and thwart illegal immigration.
“I will build a great, great wall
on our southern border, and
I will make Mexico pay for that wall.
Mark my words.”
Donald Trump
Well Mr. President, Mexico’s officials said the Mexican government will not pay for this wall. Why should they? On Thursday, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, said Congress will follow through on Trump’s border wall order, and McConnell estimated it will cost $12 billion to $15 billion. Another expert says it would cost $25 billion. The US government would have to maintain the wall, which could cost as much as $750 million a year, according to Politico. Then we would have to employee border patrol personnel which would cost another $1.4 billion for 21,000 agents.
Now I am not going to tell you how you should feel or act, but, I am going to put this in perspective. Every president has made promises that he cannot fulfill. I think all presidents have not fulfilled 60% of what he has campaigned on. I just want you to think about things differently than just being angry.
What do you think? Should we have a wall? Connect with me…
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/09/this-is-what-trumps-border-wall-could-cost-us.html
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