First of all, I wish you all, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We all want to be safe. It is with a desire to be safe, that we have locks on our cars and doors. We have alarm systems on our homes and cars, and store our metals and documents in a safe place. We have fences constructed around our property, and record deeds to prove ownership of our home, farm, or business. Many millions live in gated communities for safety, and millions carry or have guns handy for safety. Safety takes on all sorts of plans, devices, locks, and walls.
I have just finished a wonderful book, titled simply, “Walls.” It’s by David Frye and if you like to read, you’ll love this one. He’s an excellent writer, and “Walls” is about walls, of course, but it’s a history book as well, and the walls in the book date back to Mesopotamia in 2000 B.C. down to the Berlin Wall of the 1980’s, and the current brohaha about a wall on the Mexican border. All nations and civilizations have built walls for their safety, and to keep out armies, thieves, murderers, plunderers, and undesirables of all sorts. On page 64, Frye says, “The Chinese and Romans were not the first to distinguish between those who built walls, and those who lived outside them.” On page 104, he notes that, “The source of Rome’s security, and key to its prosperity, was to Aristides, obvious: Walls, “unbreakable and indissoluble.” Greek walls, Chinese walls, German walls, and hundreds and even thousands of other walls around the world, throughout history are noted, described, and their history recorded.
America has built a lot of walls. As an example, a wall I had never heard of, was “A 125 mile barrier along the Tunisian border with Libya, to prevent the movement of Jihadists. This was the second such wall funded by the United States under President Barack Obama, who in April 2016, publically dismissed border walls as “wacky.” (Trump was running for President, and efforts had begun to trash him from all angles). On page 139, is an interesting quote: “A series of Clinton Administration initiatives, aimed at tightening security on the porously fenced Mexican border, led to the extension or enhancement of physical barriers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The earliest Clinton Walls were “Operation Blockade” and “Hold the Line,” in 1993; “Gatekeeper” and “Safeguard,” in 1994, and “Rio Grande,” in 1997, were succeeded in 2006 by the passage of the “Secure Fence Act,” which saw the Clinton-era walls extended by hundreds of miles under the Bush and Obama Administrations. In public comments on the 2006 act, proponents commonly resorted to the folk saying, ‘good fences make good neighbors.’”
Not to bore you, but I now know why Europe is besieged with unwanted immigrants. From page 240: “The walling of much of North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia during the early 2000’s had an unintended yet profound impact on Europe. The Somalis, Sudanese and Ethiopians, who arrived in Saudi Arabia through Yemen; the Afghan and Pakistani migrants who sought entrance into India; and the would-be Syrian migrants to Jordan; all found they could no longer cross borders that had once been porous. The alternative routes took them across the Mediterranean or through Turkey, and into northern Europe. In 2011, Greece, the chief entry point into Europe, finished a wall along its border with Turkey, cutting immigration by 90%.” Continuing, and most of this was unknown to me, “The walling crept north in 2015, when Hungary constructed a 109 mile electrified fence along its border with Serbia; Austria constructed a barrier on its border with Slovenia; Slovenia commenced work along its 400 mile border with Croatia; Macedonia added a second line to its pre-existing barrier with Greece; and Turkey built a 500 mile, ten -foot-high concrete wall, topped with razor wire, which shut off its border with Syria.” And the Democrats vote against a protective wall with Mexico?
Enough about safety through walls, other than one more quote from page 243: “Before Trump, previous administrations had built miles of concrete walls, corrugated steel walls, and flat steel walls along the Mexican border, always careful to refer to all barriers as “fences.” I do try to keep my columns free of politics, but this book “Walls,” is rife with descriptions of thousands of walls around the world, throughout history, and all designed for, and in 99% of the time, to give safety to those within, from those without.
The stock market has taken a real plunge, and where it stops no one knows. The Drudge Report remarked that ‘all 2018 investments have been wiped out.’ Sorry Mr. Drudge, not all. Our silver and gold have done quite well, as opposed to a remark on page 113 of “Walls,” when the author remarked about Rome. “By the mid-third century, the cash-starved emperors had so debased the currency that Rome’s “silver” coin, the denarius, contained no more than 5 percent of the precious metal.” Rome, 1500 years ago, was doing better than are we, with 5% silver in its coins. Our silver coinage disappeared 54 years ago. Two silver dimes then, bought a gallon gasoline, and the same two silver dimes today, will still buy a gallon of gas. Silver and gold walls of safety, protect us from the thief of inflation. A wall of gold and silver, protects us within, from government printing presses without. Don Stott – don@coloradogold.com