Divide and Protect

The speech given by Barack in Berlin has apparently caused ripples that are turning into waves. Unfortunately most Americans won't read or listen to the speech. Those who are planning to vote for him will take pride in the 200,000+ who came to listen. Those who are not will only hear soundbites.

I'm not really writing about the speech itself here, but rather to respond to Steve Clemons comments. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/25/steve_clemons_obamas_wall_speech_should

Part of Barack's speech was about the importance of the Berlin wall being torn down. "That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews, cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down."

Clemons says that Barack should have given this speech in Israel and that this would have been really something. "Had he given those remarks in Israel, at any of the checkpoints that have been added since the Annapolis process began, or at the large dividing wall Israel has constructed, or just about anywhere frankly in Israel or Palestine—it would have been a ‘game-changing speech.’"

I agree. It would have been game changing. It also would have shown a failure to know the difference between a good fence and a bad fence. There are fences that protect, and there are those that divide. I agree we ought to fight to have dividing walls torn down when their only purpose is to divide or to protect the power of despots. But I would not want the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to bring down the dividing wall between the Grizzly Bear exhibit and the spectators. I do not want my neighbor to bring down the fence that divides his dogs from my children. And I would not expect Israel to tear down walls and fences that protect it's citizens from those who want to destroy them.

My hope is that Barack does not share in Clemons' ignorance. He lives in a dreamworld thinking that wishes can create reality and that good intentions can sway evildoers from causing harm. As presidential hopeful I hope Barack knows the difference between fences that divide for evil purpose and those that protect.