Tear down the walls and fences, Vote for Obama and Biden!

Here is a photo of the BERLIN Wall in Germany that we took on our trip three years ago. They have left up a section of the Berlin Wall as a memorial and an ugly scar / reminder of how this wall divided the city, the country and loved ones!!

A line in the sidewalk throughout the whole city of BERLIN marks the entire BERLIN wall -- so you can see where it existed to "keep in people" and "keep out people" for many years~

The concentration camps also still stand as a sad and grim reminder to what can happen when humanity, love, compassion, life and respect for all persons is lost through building more walls, fences and barriers to humankind and the world around us through hate.

After returning recently from our road trip to CA and driving along the southern USA, we saw the walls and new fences that are up ---- and going up at the Mexican / USA border today! And then I think of visiting the Peace Gardens in Canada a few years ago with no fences or walls.

It is disturbing to witness these new fences going up firsthand --- with the flags flying over the border --- as we know many real people and real families are suffering from these new walls and fences going up daily and silent fences of discrimination.

We are affected even in Grand Island, NE by these fences, attitudes and prejudices still alive today and how families are being torn apart -- how children and parents are being separated.

And to think that we all have ancestors who came on boats to America from many countries in a similar search for a better life for their families too! And many of them faced discrimination too when they came. Yet even though we have all come on different boats, we are all in the same boat now today and we need to start solving the problems before us!!

Sadly, companies, corporations are making lots of money from Contracts -- building the new fences too -- and the environmentally fragile land near San Diego is being compromised, torn and changed with caterpillars filling in fragile terrain to put up fences -- dumping dirt and sand to build the fences to the sea.

We were stopped driving our car two times on the USA side near the border of Mexico by Homeland Security and then told to go on our way. I am sure if our skin was another color, we would have had a longer wait at these stops and the journey to get to another country would be much different. I almost wondered if we should have brought along our Passports to drive on highways near the border IN THE USA!

And if the lives of folks in Mexico were better, they would not be coming! I also realized that these same lands in the USA were Mexican lands for centuries and we are really the immigrants!

Communion services are being held since June this year by a UMC pastor featured in one of the latest Christian Century magazines! These services are being held at Friendship Park which has stood as a symbol of friendship for many years --- where families meet to see each other on Sundays or other days.

Now there will be more fencing added in the coming months here at Friendship Park so it will be impossible to meet at the park -- but in the meanwhile, the services will keep going on each side of the border as bread and wine are passed through the fence to symbolize a God of LOVE who does not build fences and walls, barriers between peoples!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ and his life on earth invite us to find new ways to peaceably take down the fences and walls.. to tear down the barriers in our Friendship parks and in our world.

Because of the barriers and crises in our nation, I am hoping that we can get a CHANGE of leadership in our country as well through Barrack Obama and Joe Biden -- to start to do more effective problem solving --- taking down some of the barriers and walls in our country and most critically through economic barriers now facing out country. It seems the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer from past politices of GREED, WAR and lack of understanding of respect of all persons by leadership in our nation.

Do you want a change in ideology and growing problems from the past eight years --- to ending the war we are in -- in the middle east??? And do you want a CHANGE to a new kind of respect for all persons whether rich or poor??? And do you want to find ways to rebuild dignity and respect again through quality education for all persons, housing, health care, less poverty, more jobs???

Do you want leadership that cares about everyday workers in this country, creating more jobs and energy alternatives, concern about global warming and working to end climate change before it is too late?

Help tear down the walls, the fences, the barriers when possible in your life and by electing Barrack Obama and Joe Biden ...

Or if you do not agree, then at least I challenge you to VOTE --- and read the two books Obama wrote about his personal journey to get a better idea of his journey and where he has come from and his roots that have shaped who he is and his family. (Audacity of HOPE and Dreams of My Father). They are both very enlightening to read!

We remember that many fought to get the right to vote --- for men first when this country was born and then the suffragettes who fought into the twentieth century for women's right to vote in this country!