the view from here

yesterday i spent the day in bethlehem.the experience was one that i will never forget…around the perimeter of the city is a wall which was built (and is still being built) by the israeli government to “keep the palestinan terrorists out.”the only problem is that a wall like this may keep a few terrorists out, but it also keeps thousands of innocent people in.the people inside are trapped. our driver described it as a prison, people can’t easily go out, and palestinans inside are subjected to the racisim that stereotypes them all as terrorists…the city is dead. the buisnesses are closed, the streets are empty. tourism, which once contributed to about 80% of the city’s economic profit and security is close to non-existent…electiric fences snake through the city keeping playing children out of their own backyards, and the unscalable, barbed wire, and electric fenced walls are covered with angry political and religious grafetti.

my friend who lives here told me that since the wall has been up, there have been no terroist attacks, whereas prior to the wall, on average there was at least one suicide bombing a week…

a wise friend of mine used the wall as an analogy for difficult choices in life…

sometimes the “wrong choice” is necessary.sometimes the choice is only between two evils…

what does this mean for the wall?my heart says it’s the wrong choice…pragmatisim says it seems necessary…

living in this world sometimes forces us to choose between two grossly deficient options…andi don’t like it.