Build a Border Wall? Here's What Border Communities Say They Want Instead
Build a Border Wall? Here’s What Border Communities Say They Want Instead
For many of us who actually live along the U.S.-Mexico border, the “Mesquite Manifesto” addresses economic and climate problems by building up industry around the native tree.
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A man on the Mexican side chops trees beside the U.S.-Mexico border wall near the Morley Gate Border Station in Nogales, Arizona on October 13, 2016.
Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Gary Paul Nabhan posted Feb 25, 2019
OPINION
President Trump has declared a national emergency to fund a wall along our nation’s southern border. The border wall issue has bitterly divided people across the United States, becoming a vivid symbol of political deadlock.
But for many of us who actually live along the U.S.-Mexico border, the wall is simply beside the point. We know that a wall can’t fix the problems that straddle the boundary between our nations; nor will it build on our shared strengths. So a group of us—ranchers, farmers, conservationists, chefs, carpenters, small business owners, and public-health professionals from both sides of the border—have come up with a better idea. We call it the Mesquite Manifesto.
Our plan would tackle the root causes of problems that affect border communities on both sides. While the media have fixated on the difficult conditions in Mexico (and other Central American nations) that propel immigrants northward, real problems are on the U.S. side, too. The poverty rate in this region is twice as high as for the nation as a whole, and joblessness drives many into the lucrative drug trade. Poor diets and inadequate health care contribute to high rates of disease: Nearly one-third of those who live along the border suffer from diabetes. And a rapidly growing population, along with rising demand from industry and agriculture, is stressing the region’s limited water supply—a problem made worse by the changing climate.
To address these problems and build a sustainable future for the region as a whole, we look to mesquite, the iconic native tree that grows in every county and municipio along the border. Its gnarly branches have provided food, fuel, medicine, shade, and shelter to indigenous communities in the borderlands for more than eight millennia.
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More at the link.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/build-a-border-wall-heres-what-border-communities-say-they-want-instead-20190225
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