The controversial border wall – The Trek

There were a few people who commented on my initial CDT blog showing annoyance at my reference to the southern terminal border wall as a “waste of taxpayer money.” I’m not surprised, but to be honest, that was the gentlest way to say what I feel. People will say I shouldn’t get “political” with this and leave politics out of the outdoors or hiking. That is literally impossible. Also, to note, I don’t think my beliefs are political at all. Immigration for me is not a political position. Immigration is a human rights issue. The billions of tax dollars spent to try to keep a threat away is what is political.

The fact is, Kyle from Kentucky, Jim from New Jersey, and Mike from Idaho will say we need a wall to keep criminals out. The fact that these people in the United States think they have more right to the first 84 miles of desert that I walked than the Mexicans whose families have lived miles from that land for centuries is astonishing. To think that because there are some metal posts in the ground that I, a woman born in Buffalo, New York, have more right to this red land of New MEXICO than they do because I have a birth certificate from thousands of miles away is an atrocity.

I am lucky enough to be born in this country to not have to prove beyond a doubt that I belong here, but it was just luck. I am privileged to be an American and I love this country, so I want it to be the best it can be. My father is a veteran who has been in the service for over 25 years; away from my family for three years in the Middle East. I am proud of your service. I also completely understand the plight of an immigrant who moves here to have a better life for himself and especially his family. My grandmother was an immigrant and I am proud that she was able to come here legally with much less bureaucracy than immigrants have today. I can’t pass a citizenship test. I didn’t go through hardships my entire life to get here and no one will doubt that I belong here because of my white skin.

Let’s not forget that the real people who were here first were much more like the people trying to get in than we were. The colonizers were the threat, maybe that’s why some Americans are so keen to spot any way they can take this away from us: because we were so quick to take it away from others. I also know that if I make it to the far north, no one will tell me to watch out for Canadians entering our country.

No human being is illegal, I have the privilege of walking on stolen lands.

“You think the only people who are people are people who look and think like you, but if you follow in the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew you never knew” -Pocahontas, Movie

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