Given the judgmental attitude of the current government administration toward people who seek to cross borders into the United States, I set out to write this contribution to My Turn as an advocacy for open borders at the boundaries of the country.
I explored the idea of the uniqueness and commonality of human beings as creatures with “astonishing vocal ability, able to create sounds that represented not just objects, but also concepts … [and] speak of danger, hope, and love,” Jon Farrar writes for BBC Earth. “We became storytellers, able to weave together common narratives about who we are and how we should live.” I was prepared to argue that creating borders that divide and/or exclude any human being with these characteristics is contrary to human nature and humanity’s well-being.
However, I have since discovered an article in Psychology Today concerning the territorial tendencies of human beings. This article reminded me of the claim to territorial “rights” on the farmland where I lived growing up. My father put up “no trespassing” signs and “no hunting” signs at the boundaries of our land. He put up these signs after experiencing hunters trampling crops and firing rifles toward the house and barn. One day, standing near the barn, we heard a gun fire and immediately followed by shotgun pellets raining on the barn above our heads.
Also, I’ve had to admit that I have visceral feels of the need for private space, not to be infringed upon by others. Frank McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Knox College, has written, “All societies have some way of recognizing private spaces and punishing those who do not respect the boundaries of these spaces, and this has been true throughout human history … Today, many of our most popular spectator sports reflect our inherent orientation toward territoriality.
“There could not be a functional society without territorial behavior,” McAndrew wrote. “Strangers could wander freely into your bedroom and bathroom, evict you from seats in public places, and drive your car whenever they chose.”
However, part of being human is being able evaluate and modify our impulses. Constructing border walls and barriers for the exclusion of all others may give a sense of identity and belonging but it may also risk characterizing others as lesser beings. A closed border also keeps those inside prisoners to their limited ways of preserving the status quo. While visiting a relative, I once passed a gated community on my early morning run and noticed that the barbwire on top of the fence was tilted inward rather than outward. Those who were inside seem to be unaware that their fence was constructed, not to keep people out but to keep them in!
It seems that neither a closed border nor an open border serves people’s well-being. However, another option is to manage a porous border, allowing the possibility for new insights, innovation and growth. It seems, in my determination to advocate for completely open borders, I had not considered this idea of porous borders. What had been missed is that human beings may include a territorial impulse, but marks of being humans also include the ability to overcome their instincts through reason, empathy and love of neighbor.
Robert Frost noted, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Whenever we wall out a neighbor we are walling out some of the experience of the great variety of human life. These benefits of porous borders have eluded President Trump’s administration. There is no room for the mean-spiritedness of characterizing those beyond the nation’s borders suspect and undesirable. There is room to seek out fellow human beings in all their colors and potential.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.