Don't Just Build a Wall

One of my favorite sequences in SlingBlade has Billy Bob Thornton's mentally impaired character diagnosing the problem with a lawnmower. Everyone else who's looked at it can't figure out what's wrong. After about a minute, though, he looks and says, "It's outta gas." His boss says something to the effect of "he always thinks of the simiplest solutions first." Of course, it turns out that the simplest solution he comes to in a lot of cases is to hack up a perpetrator. This Washington Post article about the border reminds me of that sequence.

The border is a complex eco-system, not a line in the sand. People live and work there, crossing back and forth to make a living. Our culture and economy is helped by this.

But when conservatives look at the problem, they don't see the complexities. They just want to build a wall so they can get back to watching the 700 Club.

When a lawnmower is out of gas, fill it. When a border is "broken", don't build a wall. The toll on human life doesn't warrant it, even if it's the best way to make the stupid among us feel better. We need some nuance here. We need some compassion, and we need local solutions to this problem. And we need it before people start getting hacked up over the issue.