Guest: The Wall, immigration and The War Racket

KDVS and Shields Library’s Gary Saylin argues that money should go toward improving life — not furthering death

Most of the immigrants trying to cross the border are children, women and men seeking asylum from the horrific situations in their home countries. They deserve asylum because it is the humane and truly right thing to do.

The billions of dollars proposed for “The Wall” could not only go to getting control of the cartels, but also to safe sanctuary housing, medical clinics, educational opportunities and jobs with decent work conditions and pay for immigrants who are in desperate situations.

You may ask: How are we going to pay for all this?

Well, we have tons of money, including the $5 billion-plus proposed for “The Wall.”

Cutting back the war munitions industry would be a huge start. Bombs are expensive. Billions, trillions. It is insane how much money is funnelled into making more bombs and other weapons that feed a culture of death.

We need to be using the money to, among other things, clean up the environment, help the immigrants, build better schools and give a boost to Planned Parenthood and other humane organizations.

It is a war racket, as folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie sings about, that is killing our planet.

People, this madness is all tied together. Think of all the money and energy that could go toward life — not death and destruction.

We need to get our priorities straight.

Written by: Gary Saylin

The writer has been doing production and programming at KDVS since the 1970s and has served as the Library Assistant at Shields Library since 1988.