The U.S. is a land of borders.

Partly because we took the whole continent from one end to the other. The Atlantic Ocean borders all along the eastern seaboard, the Pacific all along the west.

We’re not the biggest country, but we have the biggest border. The longest undefended international boundary, U.S./Canada, 5,525 miles. Not to mention U.S. (Alaska)/Canada, 1538 miles.

And of course our Southern Border. Mexico, and then all those Spanish speaking countries in Central and South America. We have the Monroe Doctrine which gives us a kind of accountability, and then our government goes and supports all those dictators who make life so miserable for their people that the people come north and try to get in to our promised land. We pretended to build a Wall in bits and pieces but that didn’t work. We screen applicants and then throw our own citizens to the wolves. It’s a border of the mind.

We even have world famous internal borders, the Mason/Dixon Line, 233 miles separating slavery from the Civil War, Pennsylvania from Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia.

What is it with the U.S. and borders?

Are we afraid people will cross over and flood in? We did invite them. “Give me your poor, your tired…”

Are we afraid we won’t be white anymore? We fought a Civil War about that but never finished it.

We don’t just keep “those people” out, do we keep us in so we don’t know anything else and keep our minds small?

Are we so insecure that we don’t know who we are and are afraid by comparison we might not measure up?

I can’t explain it.

Can you?