The Land of Walls

As we made our way down the East coast of Florida we passed many walls and fences. This is not something I had noticed before, in spite of driving these roads many times. From exclusive gated communities to modest mobile home parks, it seems de rigueur to live behind a wall in this part of the world.

It got me wondering whether I would feel safer living behind a wall. So many of us are looking for safety and security now in this political climate of division and distrust. Presumably, the feeling of safety would come from locking the “others” , the undesirables out. Of course in the past this had everything to do with race, as many housing developments, walls or not, had housing covenants explicitly saying who could and could not live there based on race and religion. I suspect, perhaps more subtlety, this still exists. Since my family is interracial, I think we would not feel safer in this type of community.

As I think more about community safety, my mind wanders to Minneapolis and how the residents are responding to very real threats. I have read about how they have come together, block by block, to support their neighbors. It’s funny how quickly outside threats , such as 3000 masked and armed ICE and Border Patrol agents swarming a city can bring people together.

Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, states that memoirs of victims of tyrannical regimes in the 20th century all share a single tender moment. “People living in fear of repression remember how their neighbors treated them. A smile a handshake, or a word of greeting or banal gestures in a normal situation- took on great significance. When friends, colleagues, and aquaintances looked away or crossed the street to avoid contact, fear grew.You might not be sure, today or tomorrow, who feels threatened in the United States. But if you affirm everyone, you can be sure that certain people will feel better.”

I think this is a better solution than building walls.