Walls...we use them every day of our lives.  We use them to keep things in and to keep things out.  The weather, cold, heat, rain, all are kept in or out by walls.  Friends, family, fellow citizens, all are, to some degree, kept safe by walls.  Criminals, muggers, gangs, thieves, evil nefarious bad people are all kept out, as much as possible, by walls.

We need and rely on our walls.

However, when is enough enough?  When do we have enough walls?  When does erecting more walls move us from the side of protector to perpetrator?  From justified to paranoid?  From good to evil?

The photos below are of three walls.  One was erected by the communists.  We of the "boomer generation" grew up hearing how evil it was and how it was being used to repress people.  We all collectively cheered when we finally saw its demise and watched happily on TV as we saw it being pulled down in the name of freedom.

The other two walls were erected, more recently, by the United States.  One in the name of protecting a people's way of life and securing their safety.  The other in the name of, well, protecting our own way of life and securing our safety by securing our border against the bad people.

 Can you tell which is which?  Which are the "good" walls and which is the "evil" one?

Probably not.  They are all just walls...  Barriers erected by a people who have run out of ways to control others in constructive ways so they need to enforce their will on people with a wall.

Top to bottom: U.S./Mexico  -  Berlin, Germany  -  Baghdad, Iraq