Walls - Who lives in the ghetto?

As we have prepared for our journey to the Middle East, one of our fellow travelers asked the question: "Will we able to get around?" She was concerned that she would not be able to go where she needed to go in order to talk to the people that she wanted to talk to and get done what she wanted to get done. There are real limitations on movement within the West Bank as a result of the barriers that have been constructed to separate Jews and Palestinians. I was reminded of other barriers famous and infamous, old and new that have been used to separate one group from the "other". Whether a barrier is a security fence or an apartheid wall seems to me to depend on which side of the fence you are on and who built it. When people look at these pictures of various walls of history, they can readily identify the Warsaw Ghetto, the Berlin Wall and the barrier between Israel and the West Bank. The one that they have trouble with is the last one. This is surprising since it is the one closest to home. It is in San Diego and separates the US from Mexico. The newer barriers may look more high tech than the older ones, but they serve the same purpose. We seem to have learned very well from the Nazis and the Soviet Union. (Anything you can do, I can do better.) When fear causes us to wall the stranger, the other, the different out, we at the same time wall ourselves into our own ghetto. Some evolutionary biologists like E. O. Wilson would argue that this behavior is part of our genetic code, evolved over millions of years as protective defense mechanism. We are coded to identify and exclude those that are not members of our tribe as they are potential enemies who would destroy us and prevent us from surviving. This behavior is not good or bad, but is morally neutral. Others, I among them, would argue that we are created in the "image of God" and have the ability to make a moral choice based on our "God given" sense of what is right. We may, however, choose to ignore this "voice of God" and this choice certainly is affected by our cultural environment. In the US our politicians have influenced this environment by succeeding in making the term "pre 9/11 mentality" a pejorative term. George Bush accused John Kerry of having a "pre 9/11 mentality". During the Dubai Ports World controversy the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued this statement: "Republicans have a pre 9/11 mentality" As we cower in fear behind our barriers and in our ghettos, maybe what we need is not less of a "pre 9/11 mentality" but more.
In the Gospels, the apostle known to the church as Mark, has Jesus say " whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." When I read this passage, I am reminded of words from our now 7 year old granddaughter when she was 3 years old. As we were walking with her in Denver, she announced: "I'm Carly Liebich and everybody is my friend" Talk about a "pre 9/11 mentality". Of such is the kingdom of heaven