Our border with Mexico is not the problem

Sachem butterfly, female
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Beyond the walls of our domicile, all borders are figments of our imagination, maintained by mutual fear of those who live on the other side. — T.S. Emery; author, philosopher, nemophilist

My family moved to Maine the summer I started Fourth Grade. We took up residence on the shore of a 500-acre lake, populated by mostly moose and loons in summer and snowbound silence in winter. It was widely accepted in town that the previous owner, also from a Big City, got the better end of the deal by selling 50 acres of mostly swamp land to a fellow City Slicker.

But there was sufficient dry land on the parcel and Mom and Dad had no designs of building more than a home for their budding family and maybe a couple of cabins they would rent out to fellow New Yorkers to help pay the mortgage.

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Building walls

Walls block human ideas and wildlife migration, creating more problems than they solve.I recently overheard a parent ask his offspring what to do if he met someone on “technology” who he didn’t know, and who wanted to talk. The youngster said he would tell his teacher. And not talk to the stranger. The parent was proud his progeny had given the safe answer. I thought about the youngster’s future.

I remember the lesson well from my youth, “Don’t talk to strangers.”

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