MLK Day and Our Walls
In September of 1964, King visited the Berlin Wall and spoke about “breaking down the dividing walls of hostility” that can separate people from one another. As MLK Day approaches, and our nation is mired in a seemingly endless impasse over building a wall on our southern border, I can’t help but think about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s urgings to tear down the walls that stand between us.
"Tear Down This Wall"
Just last week I was in Israel and visited the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where a young Palestinian man, Noor, took me around. As we turned a corner in the city, all of a sudden I confronted the wall that separates the West Bank and Israel. Up close, it is huge, imposing, cold and haunting. Here in the U.S., the federal government shutdown enters week three, locked in a showdown over a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. I wonder, what is the meaning of such walls?
A lost voice in the immigration debate
In spending much of last week in New Mexico, I heard a great deal about Arizona’s immigration debate. Each day a new story appeared in the newspaper. Each night the television news would run another piece. When I finally got home late last night, I hopped in a cab, pining for my family. But no sooner did the cab pull away from the curb, than the conversation with my Pakistani cab driver began. His voice is nowhere to be heard in the raucous immigration debate. It should be.