| | |  Editorials | January 2009 
Border Fence Spoils Symbol of Friendship
 Redding.com
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| | People place their hands on both sides the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Friendship Park in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. The U.S. Border Patrol will close the park on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean to make way for a triple fence, people who were informed by the agency said Wednesday. Friendship Park, in the U.S. which was dedicated in 1971 by then-First Lady Patricia Nixon, draws big crowds on both sides of the border, especially on summer weekends. (AP/Guillermo Arias) | |
Friendship Park has closed. The triple fence will now run through it.
That news from Southern California is a grim finale to recent years' clamor over illegal immigration. Call us sentimental suckers for symbolism, but we don't like it a bit.
The California Parks Department on Thursday announced the closure of Friendship Park's plaza, where a fence of tight, tall posts divided the Mexican city of Tijuana from Border Fields State Park in Imperial Beach, on the American side. Dedicated in the 1970s, Friendship Park was a symbol of solidarity between two nations that, except for the trouble with Pancho Villa, have enjoyed more than 160 years of peace.
That's not to say neighborly relations have always been harmonious. Indeed, thanks to a public fed up with scarcely constrained illegal immigration - as well as drug smuggling and other crime - the federal government is reinforcing the border with Mexico. We're building more fences, beefing up the Border Patrol and increasing electronic surveillance, all in the name of more control. Friendship Park, which both has historic resonance and served as a meeting place for families divided by the border, was in the way.
The tighter enforcement was probably needed. An outraged public certainly demanded it. Better fences might well make better neighbors,
But it's still a gloomy sight when Mexico - still a friendly neighbor, a place millions visit on spring breaks and honeymoons, the nation that gave us salsa and tamales, the "old country" where a growing number of Americans trace their ancestry - is walled off like the Gaza Strip.
We hope our friendship lasts longer than Friendship Park.
Our view: The U.S. needs better border control, but the price on the ground is grim. |
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