Major Democratic and Faith Leaders from Indiana switch sides - Build that Wall!

We have changed our minds.  Based on projects in Canada, Switzerland, Venezuela and elsewhere, we have a wall proposal we can get behind 100%.  

No more infighting, no more shutdown - let the bulldozers roll.  We stand with Donald Trump...  we need a substantial, tangible and yes, "beautiful" wall on our Southern border, indeed on all our borders.  It will be a monumental project, it will enrich and educate and set an example for the world.

But, you must do it this way, or we will fight you tooth and nail until the name Donald Trump is a distant memory.  

President Trump, here is your wall:

A perfect border is not a wall at all, but a welcoming place - it is parklike, serene, well-designed and built to accomodate both man and beast.

It isn't a wall at all, but a Palisade.   

DEFINITION of PALISADE

Thus, a palisade.  Not so much a physical barrier (although that infrastructure exists, at the push of a button), but a long, nearly endless barrier that defines the border of our country, and is well-stocked with the smartest and most unobtrusive technology science can provide.

You see, if we want to avoid human trafficking, drug trafficking and terrorist, we should count spiders.

One of the most environmentally diverse, sensitive and spectacular areas in the United States and deep into Mexico is the border.  Defined by the winding, often invisible thread of water that is the Rio Grande river, like all wet environments in the desert, life flourishes.

Trade flourishes

and People need to both flourish and travel freely in commerce, peace and for family and personal reasons.

So - we build Palisades.  Beautiful fences as President Trump says, but fences with frequent and wide and natural openings, fences that block neither beast nor bird nor butterfly (the Mexican border is critical for migration of Monarch butterflies and the incredible Southern Tarantula (both species in severe decline).

At these openings, at these natural and human bridges across this palisade, there will be young people and professors....

Watching....

Listening.....

Counting spiders..... and birds......  and antelope......  and butterflies.

And if someone is so desperate, so criminal, so foolish or so uninformed as to try to sneak in?  That is laughable - it is absurd!!

Why?  If I am sitting there on a Harvard University grant in a research station, well concealed, perhaps even underground, watching instruments and COUNTING SPIDERS.

I am DAMN SURE GOING TO NOTICE SMUGGLERS AND REFUGEES IF THEY APPROACH.....   If I am watching for elk or owls, spiders or butterflies, using the most sophisticated equipment imaginable, NOTHING WILL PASS unobserved.

If there is a problem, I become VERY concerned.  And as a scientist, believe me, I will take action.  If I am there at the border, all I must do is push the big red button...  and help arrives INSTANTLY.  Things get real lively till those folks and that problem gets handled...   and I go back to watching bugs.  

Watching bugs.

We will welcome the hungry, house the homeless, clothe them and comfort them....  "Welcome to America".   We will defend ourselves against enemies with drugs, people-traffickers, and others who might do us harm....

THAT is America

THAT is the land of the Free

and THAT sets an example, for all mankind.

John Edward Hubertz

Carl Zehr Professor of Moral Economics and

Chancellor, New Hope Peace Academy (Indiana, USA)

Foundational Elder (Founder) "Ordinary" Anabaptist Church, Worldwide

BA Purdue, Fort Wayne

MS Miami of Ohio

Dr.D Ordinary Anabaptist Seminary, (Europe)

Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels

Member, Order of the Good Time (est. 1606)

Winner, 1985 Peace Oratory Contest, Indiana and National Award Winner

Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities, 1986

This essay was prepared with the enthusiastic cooperation of our entire faculty, board of directors, staff and students.  Special thanks to Rabbi Avram Friedman, Trelinda (Jackie) Thompson, the Carl Zehr family foundation and library, Hope Library at Goshen College of Indiana, Purdue University school of Agriculture and many others.