Tear down those walls

Tens of Thousands Flee Gaza for Egypt:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile wall dividing the border town of Rafah.

Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or in donkey carts to buy cigarettes, fuel, and other items made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Across the coastal strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, people pushed into buses and piled into rickety pickup trucks heading to Egypt and a rare opportunity to escape months of isolation.

Police from the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action.

“Freedom is good. We need no border after today,” said unemployed 29-year-old Mohammed Abu Ghazal.

Even before they get built

Richard F. Cortez, Mayor of McAllen, Texas,.. Rio Grande Valley:

Most of us who live in the Valley consider the fence a $200 million waste of taxpayer money. We know it won’t stop potential terrorists or illegal immigrants from hiking across the border. It won’t stop those with legal documents from coming to America and overstaying their welcome. And it won’t keep people from entering the country using professional smugglers or fraudulent forms of identification.

What a fence will do is divide communities on both sides of the border. It will provide a false sense of security, betray the Valley’s rich history and encroach on privately owned, agricultural, suburban and urban land.