This post is to be brief, because the concept I want to unfold is a simple one. If you can pontificate on its validity after you've finished reading then I urge you to stop thinking because that is surely sending you down the wrong path. This is a matter for the heart. Are you ready?
When you look at a map, drawn all across it are lines, some based on natural contour and others are merely angular and arbitrary. No matter what they look like, they are pure illusion. What is a border? Is it a real place? Maybe when someone has built a wall of fence it might make the illusion more tangible, but nevertheless that wall is still a creation of someone's dimented perception of the world. Ownership is a perception, one that implies power over people and power over planet. It forces people to be across the fence, making them someone else. An other.
Riding the train from New Orleans to Tucson, we passed Ciudad Juarez and folks were talking about how "those people" don't deserve to come here. How "they" exploit our education system and hospitals. How disgusting it is for "those" pregnant women to have their children here so they can gain citizenship. When I questioned them simply about their family's heritage and how they came to live in the U.S., they didn't seem able to make the correlation. When I asked them if they could imagine what someone must be going through to make the deadly trek to cross an arbitrary border in a land that they are originally from, they seemed incapable of empathy or perspective.
Waking up in Mexico, hearing a language I am not well versed in all around me, different smells and tastes everywhere, and somewhere that I am a drastic minority...I am filled with the feeling of love and gratitude. How can I look into someone's eyes, into their heart and see anyone but the reflection of me? You may say, "That's an awfully sentimental perspective. It's not how the world really works." I say shut your mouth hole and stop the story that you think you know something. If you're still convinced that there is a difference between a person and yourself because Colonialist drew a pinche border, then you're lost.
If you don't feel that way and you are someone whose heart is open to those around the world, then you cannot in good conscience sit and watch the destruction of your brothers and sisters any longer. If you don't act with all of your power NOW, then watch it fall apart in front of you. And get ready for that same destruction to come your way.
No muros, nunca. Liberate your mind and the borders mean nothing. One love.n
