Who remembers the Berlin Wall and why it went up?  Who remembers that East German guards shot men and women trying to jump the fence?  I remember.  Unfortunately, the mayor of Tijuana, Mexico played the wall card and chose the wrong wall to talk about.

This is the story:

Tijuana's mayor took a jab at US migrant policies by recently installing a 3-ton gray concrete slab of the Berlin Wall just feet from America's latest stretch of border wall.

"May this be a lesson to build a society that knocks down walls and builds bridges," reads the inscription on the Cold War relic attributed to Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero.

The installation, titled "A World Without Walls," was erected Aug 13. in Friendship Park after Caballero was contacted by the owner of the artifact, Marcos Cline, looking to set it up in a poignant location. 

"Why in Tijuana? How many families have shed blood, labor and their lives to get past the wall," Caballero asked of the US border wall. 

"The social and political conflict is different than the Berlin Wall, but it's a wall at the end of the day. And a wall is always a sphinx that divides and bloodies nations," the mayor said.

A wall is a wall until you read your history and find it that not every wall is similar.

Mayor Caballero did not make the border situation better with her comments.  She confirms historical ignorance and the arrogance of so many Mexican politicians, who always blame the U.S. for the border problem.

Why are people looking to leave Mexico?  Why is Tijuana so violent?  Why does Mexico allow its territory to serve as a corridor for human-trafficking and the drug business?  Don't expect Mexican politicians to answer questions like that.

Is President Biden going to demand an apology from Mayor Caballero?  Probably not.  In fact, no one fears President Biden, and that's why she put up this piece of the Berlin Wall.

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Image: woodleywonderworks via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.