Don't Fence US In! The cost of the US-Mexico border wall revealed

Awesome, David Rovics is another musician I've met. He has played a small venue I managed in Houston. Thanks for the article & the video. David Rovics has been called the Amy Goodman of music & he always makes some great points. One point I would like to make is that our country is not the 1st to "build a wall or fence" & there are two others in history of note neither one of which ever really worked, one is the Berlin Wall which was finally & rightfully torn down in the early 90's at a time I was managing a small art shop in North East El Paso close to Fort Bliss. It was great when the wall came down as I had several older German customers that were delighted to be able to send gifts directly to their people in East Germany came to our shop for those gifts. I was amazed that so many of them had managed to keep in touch & have the addresses of their people in East Germany. The other wall of note is "The Great Wall of China" which can still be seen from space, it did not keep people out either; in fact I just attended a museum exhibit of "Genghis Kahn" which included many items from his grandson's reign "Kublai Khan" who fathered his own dynasty in China that literally encompassed that wall. Having lived in El Paso I can attest to the advantages of living in a border city which are great & as my last home in El Paso was less than 2 miles from the downtown bridge, I can honestly say I saw a lot more of the people that passed back & forth than most people would imagine. Trying to convince people this is a security risk is just another tool of fear that people use to scare people into silly agreements that allow massive expenditures towards ridiculous goals. Thanks again for your article & video, have a great weekend, yer pal Mel Bell.

Mel, there is so much heart in everything you write here on Allvoices. Thanks so much for this comment. I respect your life-long experience on the border and thank you for contributing your perspective.

Your reference to the Berlin Wall prompted me to add one other item to this report. When Obama was campaigning for president, he spoke eloquently against walls in Berlin to public acclaim. However we have not seen leadership yet from his administration against the US-Mexico border wall. At the time of his Berlin speech I created a photo illustration with an Obama quote superimposed on the US-Mexico wall. I just attached it to this report. Click on "Images" tab and you can view it.

Billie, just stopping by to give you a thumbs up.

6.5 Billion?

Hmmmm. I wonder how many homeless and poverty stricken people we could help with that money. Heck, it could even be redistributed to pay for health care reform. Just wishin' outloud.

Thanks, Delilah. I appreciate your thumb up!

I also appreciate your musing on how that money could be perhaps better spent. I have to think that there must be a way that our world could foster jobs in Latin America so that people would not have to leave their own land and country to find work to survive. Instead of spending money on punitive approaches--walls, guards, detention facilities, electronic devices--it seems that a positive approach of development investment in neighboring underdeveloped countries would make more sense. So I'm wishing along with you.

Why is it that the US Government is consistently implementing projects that cannot be tracked or assessed? We are hearing this in conjunction with the health care debate under the guise of "no extra money to pay for the program, but use the 'waste and fraud' funds that will be saved"?

If the government has no idea if the wall is helping, or how it will be maintained, isn't this just another "bottomless hole" that we are passing onto the future US generations?

I do not have any answers, but this issue begs more thought and planning before we sink $6.5 Billion in yet another "project to nowhere".

Just my two cents...

I think you're raising excellent points here, Alexandra. Thanks!

$6,500,000,000.00..... truly a number that makes on think about the value of a dollar. I have an alternative proposal that, while ridiculous, makes more sense than spending billions of dollars to build barriers that will continue to be "breached"... How about we take that same sum and cut
1,300,000 checks of $5,000 and hand them out as the maids and dish washers and agricultural workers arrive at the border. Not sure who will do the work that hard working immigrants do, but this makes about as much sense as continuing to build fences that will not stop anyone from coming. A cost and time saving means for everyone!

Love it! That puts a new wrinkle on microloans. Nice to see you here on Allvoices, bikewest.

Then there's the $15 Million Homeland Security wants to spend on some
northern border outposts into Canada that barely see 3-4 users per day!
Yikes! Great article Billie! Large opposable digets up!

Excellent contribution, Andy! Thanks for the view from the North (and for the positive affirmation, too.)

Great article. I've met David Rovics too, he's still a member of my union, I think. Good to know more Rovics fans are out there, especially in exposing the ridiculous venture that is building that shameful wall along the border. Thanks for posting this.

I might add that David Rovics makes all his music available for free download on his website.

[ http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=111310 ]

Thanks very much for your comment and support, Evan.

6.5 Billion, a tremendous amount of money and yet there is no assurance that it will turn out to be effective. Why don't the government focus to resolve the immediate with this money for the benefit ot the people like the health care program that has been issues for month and not have been resolve...

Great article...

Nice