Usually, when I sit down to put together a blog post, I have some idea of what I am going to say. I don’t typically have the entire post in my mind, but I know where I am starting. Today, my mind is pretty much a blank. So, let’s see where this goes.

Okay, let’s start with a joke. Last night, we arrived at the shiva for Edie’s aunt a little early. There were a few family members there, plus the retired rabbi from their synagogue, someone I have met ten times or more but – perhaps because I don’t pay dues – he never remembers me. Or maybe he does remember me, and thinks I never remember him. Okay, that was my first digression.

As the conversation proceeded yesterday, someone said something that reminded me of a joke. I knew the rabbi must have heard the joke a hundred times, but I decided to tell it anyway:

An old, very religious man in Jerusalem went every day to pray at the Western Wall. There could be no doubt of his devotion and sincerity as you watched him over and over again. He was so fixated on his prayers that he didn’t even talk to others around him. But one day, someone was curious about him, introduced himself to him, complemented him on his devotion and asked him a single question. “How does it feel to be so in touch with God, to feel so close to him and to converse with him like you do every day?” The old man smiled, looked at his questioner and responded: “To tell you the truth, it’s like talking to a wall.”

The rabbi laughed and told me he had never heard that one before, and that he was going to file it away and use it some time. I felt like I had performed a mitzvah. And to think that the writers’ strike is still on.

And here we go. That joke reminds me of walls (not sure why), and walls reminds me of our southern border and the State of Montana. The joke also reminds me of Israel (not sure why), and Israel reminds me of the State of Montana.

Here is what I read yesterday (but don’t remember where) – a new entry into the Senatorial primary on the GOP side in Montana believes it is important to “complete” (I say that because I don’t know if anyone knows what that would mean) the building of the Trump wall. In fact, he thinks this would be so important that, although he is a supporter of Israel (apparently), he believes that Congress should cut off all funding to Israel until the wall is built. What that old saying that starts “With friends like that….”?

Robert Frost it was who said “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”. I myself am not Robert Frost. I am indifferent about walls. Frost also said that “good fences make good neighbors”. I am indifferent about fences, as well.

Republicans seem to love the border wall, and many Democrats seem to hate it. Republicans seem to believe that the wall works to keep people out; many Democrats believe either that any wall doesn’t work, or the wall we have doesn’t work . I don’t know why politics, or romantic emotions, should enter into a discussion about a border wall.

Instead, we should be trying to answer two questions, one political and one technical: first, who do we want to let into our country and who do we want to keep out, and why, and second, once we decide that, what is the best way to implement that policy.

Neither question is easy: we have had immigration policies that favor certain countries, family ties, refugee status, economic status, educational skills and so forth. What do we want now? I don’t hear anyone talking about this in a serious way. As to the technical question (which depends on the answer to the political question), it should then be left to technical experts as to how the border should be protected to best implement that practice. If it is to “complete the wall”, so be it. If it is not change the type of wall, so be it. If it is to use no wall, so be it. The question is how to operate on our border to implement our policies. It is not a question of loving or hating walls.

Of course, as they say, we are a nation of laws. But, in the case of immigration, we are a nation of outmoded laws, which are still in force, which we often ignore, and which we seem to be incapable of updating. This brings up one more wall. The wall between Republicans and Democrats.

Something there is that doesn’t like that wall.