Mr. Trump, tear down that wall! Tear down that wall and remove our xenophobic reproach of our neighbor nations and invite all three of the Americas to unite. Tear down that wall and unite the Americas under a plan of safety and security for all Americans. Tear down that wall and unite the Americas under a plan of peace and prosperity for all Americans. Do this, Mr. Trump, and no wall will ever be needed (if it ever was needed) to keep other Americans out of our America.
Our America, the most favored and powerful nation, has never fully lived up to its role and responsibility as the leader of the Western Hemisphere. Instead of unifying the Americas with a sense of destiny and purpose, at best, we have been indifferent, and at worst, we have meddled in their politics and economics to exploit their resources for our own mercenary interests.
Mistakenly, much more of our time and resources have been spent on other parts of the world than with our own American neighbors. If our America does not rectify this, one day soon, we will regret our arm’s-length attitude towards other Americans sharing this hemisphere. They will inevitably take our imperious insularity against them seriously and believe that we are in fact their enemies and then begin to act accordingly.
Embracing our American neighbors will reap rewards for them and us in ways never fully anticipated. Grievances over other Americans coming to our America will rapidly become irrelevant when all Americans unite, feel safe and become more prosperous. In fact, complaining Americans will eventually realize that the other Americans are very much needed to produce and maintain a prosperous standard of living for their children and grandchildren.
The rising generations will soon awaken to the reality that trying to maintain an acceptable standard of living, while births are declining and debt is rising, will be impossible. They will rapidly realize that ultimately the other Americans are the only ones that can save their America.
Imagine the new American reality, when all Americans realize how much they need each other to live securely. The new American reality will open the doors of opportunity as all Americans unite, striving together for peace and prosperity.
The new American reality will reveal recalcitrant politicians as the blind guides they really are. Their nearsighted view will be rejected and replaced by the new American reality that the Americas are better off united than divided. Sooner rather than later, they will be replaced with political leaders able to see the coming opportunities needed to secure the health and welfare of all Americans. Their vision will help all to see that the wall is not only unnecessary and wasteful but an anathema to security and prosperity.
Mr. Trump, you have a chance to astonish everyone in the next couple of weeks during the negotiations over the wall by unexpectedly breaking open the new American reality — a new reality that can provide an expanding and brighter future for all Americans everywhere.
Decide today that your legacy will not be one of division and derision, but instead, one of unity and dignity. Spend your next two years doing what is right rather than dividing Americans with physical and political walls. Exercise whatever goodwill you can muster and unite Americans at home and to the north and the south of us. Surely, that would be something worth being remembered for.
Stuart Reid
Stuart C. Reid is former Utah state senator from Ogden.