Those are the words of Ronald Reagan in Berlin on June 12, 1987.  He was addressing the Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev with a plea to tear down the Berlin wall – a wall that divided East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  A wall that kept those in Soviet-aligned East Berlin from escaping Communism.  A wall that divided people, was the death of others, separated families, and was the physical representation of East vs. West – Communism vs. Democracy.

Reagan’s speech was a good one – here’s a short section where we hear the famous words:

And now we find ourselves with a president who wants to erect a new wall.  The reason given is because there is supposedly a flood of Mexicans illegally walking across the border to come to the US.  I’m still waiting to see actual evidence of this – any stats would be nice.

The only stats I’ve seen are the likes of these:

More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have migrated here since the end of the Great Recession, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from both countries. The same data sources also show the overall flow of Mexican immigrants between the two countries is at its smallest since the 1990s, mostly due to a drop in the number of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S.

Source: http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/

That leaves my head scratching.  If more Mexicans are leaving than entering, then why are we building this wall?  Is it to keep people in?

The whole wall thing is perplexing to me.  Has the president considered that people can come across the border in other ways – via water, airplane, through Canada, etc.  But no, it’s the wall.  It’s a physical symbol – the embodiment of separation, law and order, and control.

Our president like to compare himself to Reagan, which I find laughable.

Times haven’t changed that much from 1987 apparently though.  Only the leaders and the political ideologies have changed.  I can only imagine what Reagan would think about this wall.   Would he dare make a speech and say “Tear down this wall…”?  We don’t know.  But gosh, it would be great if someone would speak up, give a speech right on the border and offer something we lack right now – a bright future that is more concerned with freedom rather than restriction, tearing down separations instead of creating them, and offering leadership instead of conformity.  Who is going to step up to the mic?