So, Donald Trump wants to build a stupid wall.
Instead of throwing rhetorical rocks, I thought it would be more constructive to try to find a way to make it a smart wall. And there is one sure-fire way to transform a stupid border wall from Brownsville TX to San Diego CA into a very smart wall. Put a high speed rail line on top of the wall.
Think about it. A Brownsville – San Diego High Speed Rail Line is much more than a border wall. It is an economic development engine! Communities along the border will become high-tech transportation hubs! You will be able to ride from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean in ten hours! And think of the deterrent factor: it’s easy to climb over a wall, but climbing over a wall with trains on top running at 200+ miles per hour? We will be able to reduce the number of border patrol agents and funnel the funds into paying for more trains!
So, I offer this proposal as a grand compromise. Trump gets his wall, the nation gets a nifty new train set, and everybody can be happy with the outcome!
…for more people on both sides to casually and legally cross the border as they go about their business – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Build the tracks a mile north of the border and create a kind of DMZ between the border and the tracks. Sell window seats on the Mexico side to the crazies, and give them the chance to shoot at border crossers with rifles, thereby hunting by rail.
If it isn’t clear, this is not an idea I support.
…a “Modest Proposal”:)
The coal industry will be thrilled by the steam engines!
Okay. But just make you build plenty of foot bridges over it!