by my skis are cooler than you.

Created on: December 02, 2008

At the height of the Cold War, when Germany was divided into East and West Germany communist East Germany had poorer living conditions than West Germany so citizens rapidly emigrated from East to West. To prevent this emigration the East German government built a wall around West Berlin to keep people in their county. This wall divided families and business and was the cause of extreme opposition by the people, because they had to live harsher lives under and oppressive government. Although this was meant to keep people in, it was a divider that had negative effects on people living on both sides of the wall. This wall was eventually torn down when political situations relaxed due to the disbanding of the Soviet Union, and the reuniting of Germany. Now on the borders of the U.S. and Mexico, and Israel and Palestine modern barriers very similar the Berlin Wall are being built. These modern are not caused by political situations that could cause nuclear war, but they still need to be removed and replaced with a more effective systems that do not make living conditions for the average citizen excruciatingly difficult.

People put fences around their yards to keep people out. This seems reasonable because they want to protect their personal property, but is it just to put a fence around a country to keep people out? On the borders between the U.S. and Mexico, and Israel and Palestine, massive border fences are being built to keep people out. These fences are three times the height of the Berlin wall and just as heavily guarded. These fences divide cities in half and interrupt many people's lives. Because their land is divided by these fences, they can no longer go to work due to border patrol and can not sell livestock and produce because they can not cross borders to the markets. Is it fair to make people live a harder, more poverty stricken life because governments feel that terrorists may have an easier time coming through these borders, or do these fences just add to the hostility, causing more terrorism and more determination to get across to a "better" life? These fences and barriers need to be torn down and replaced with systems that still limit terrorism and drug trade, but allow people living in border communities to still have easy crossing.

On August 13, 1961 East Germany made the decision to construct the Berlin Wall because of what they believed to be circumstances that could only be solved by closing the borders. The reasons for closing the border are

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