Mexico, U.S. need bridges, not walls

They are hungry, dreadfully poor, and in search of hope. Thousands of desperate people from Mexico and Central America — men, women, and children — risk daily the perils of heat, exposure, starvation, violence, incarceration, barbed wire fences, high-tech monitoring gadgetry, and armed border patrol guards, all for the chance of a better life.

Recently, CNN interviewed a teenager who had been arrested seven times for trying to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. When asked if he would try again, his answer was an unequivocal "yes." A film crew then followed him back to his impoverished village in Honduras. The empty cupboards, overcrowded living conditions, lack of fresh water and dry, dusty terrain made it clear why he was so determined, like many others, to make the treacherous journey north, hoping to one day reach the promised land.

A majority of our neighbors south of the border who try to come to this country want the same things that we all want: A better future for themselves and their children. And when they get here most act as model citizens who are willing to work hard at the most unrewarding and menial occupations.

Yet they are consistently portrayed by alarmists as invaders, threatening the security of the U.S. and the comfort of the middle class. Major news networks drill viewers daily about the necessity of sealing off our borders to keep the menace from spreading, often blurring the distinction between terrorists and Mexicans.

The hyper-patriotic organization called the Minutemen Project (given a platform by the above networks) warns us that immigrant Latinos are criminals, drunkards, and drug dealers, or just don't fit in with being an American. They back up their prejudice with action, however, diligently building small sections of barbed wire fences along our border with Mexico while celebrating onsite with food, fellowship, and flag waving, taunting those on the other side who have nothing.

Elite academics in their golden years are jumping on the bandwagon as well, wondering what will become of the country they so fondly remember if too many people of color and different religions are allowed to matriculate (perhaps they have forgotten that we are a nation of immigrants.)

But one of the worst manifestations of fear and xenophobia today is seen in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. This act essentially lays the groundwork for building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a symbol of partition and control that we were so morally opposed to in Germany during the Cold War.

While many advocate some form of physical barrier along the border, I believe that instead of a wall we should build a bridge to Mexico and Central America. This bridge should be one of honesty, understanding and a sincere desire to uplift our less fortunate neighbors.

We should be honest by creating awareness, dialogue, and accepting some responsibility for perpetuating the poverty of Mexico and Central America. This means admitting, among other things, that U.S. companies exploit labor south of the border, paying wages on average less than one-eighth of those earned by U.S. workers, according to "The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border."

This honesty should also face up to the fact that U.S. covert foreign policy and manipulative business practices have had catastrophic consequences for some peoples in Central America, destabilizing their countries and economies, helping to create legacies of fear, poverty, and instability.

The second part of the bridge, understanding, simply means empathizing with the suffering of human beings desperate to escape misery.

Finally, we should genuinely work towards improving the lives of our impoverished neighbors. A first step is to stop taking advantage of them with selfish and greedy corporate policies that help keep them poor. This means essentially restructuring our business practices towards Mexico and Central America so they will provide employees with livable wages and help increase their quality of life, making their world a better place to live.

Walls between peoples, weapons to guard against perceived threats, and intolerance of others have rarely made the world a better place. The reason is quite simple: While they seem to protect us from the other, they leave us at the mercy of our own unbridled fears. The best way to deal with that is to creatively build a bridge of cooperation and friendship to our neighbors, whether next door or on the other side of the globe.