Skip to content

Food & Drink

Tearing Down Walls, the Key to Peaceful Political Discourse

We should elect politicians who pledge to bring down walls, not build them

By Seattle Mag July 15, 2016

0816gray-matterswallofshame_0

This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.

This election season seems to have a theme of walls. Donald Trump has proposed building a tall, “beautiful” wall along the United States’ border with Mexico. Some Washingtonians have joked that if Trump becomes president, they’ll build their own wall along the Columbia River.

That echoes a long-held idea in the settlement of the West: that this part of the country was a good place to escape the unpleasant politics of America. In the 1840s and ’50s, some people came west motivated by the desire to start anew and escape the contentious and sometimes violent politics of slavery, or the class barriers that kept ordinary folks from rising through systems run by ward bosses and corrupt political machines back east. A kind of separatism is embedded in our pioneer DNA.

This resurged in the 1970s with the publication of the utopian novel Ecotopia by Berkeley, California–based writer Ernest Callenbach. He envisioned a future in which Washington, Oregon and northern California had seceded from the United States and formed their own, ecologically minded paradise. Designed by forward-thinking hippies, it was envisioned as a country where ecological damage was restored, and people rode sleek Boeing-built monorails and ate locally grown foods. But the population was isolated from the world at large, hunkered down behind protective walls.

That fantasy has played out in real life by those who yearn for a new country called Cascadia—a Pacific Northwest republic that would include British Columbia. Over the past 25 years, Cascadia proponents have advocated a dream and waved a flag called “Old Doug,” which is blue, green and white with a Douglas fir at the center, a tree common to Cascadia’s forested parts. If the rest of the world goes to hell in a hand basket, the dream is that we can create new borders designed to protect our environment.

Walls rarely signal anything good, at least when it comes to politics. They are often defensive, inward looking, hostile. I think of the places that have built walls: Berlin, Cyprus, Israel and the Korean peninsula come to mind. Walls are often the symptom of a problem, not a solution.

In Washington, there is a history of celebrating the lack of walls. We once bragged about the lack of a wall between the U.S. and Canada. In Blaine, there’s the Peace Arch, which acknowledges a friendship marked by one of the longest borders in the world without military defenses. Today’s security concerns make it seem almost outdated—peaceful coexistence without walls. Still, it symbolizes something to which we can aspire.

There’s another symbol to keep in mind this political year. Fifty-five years ago this August, the Space Needle was under construction. The steel beams were reaching toward the tower’s narrow wasp waist. As the Needle’s consulting historian, I have written about the context for the structure—the Space Age, the Seattle World’s Fair, the city’s desire to create a beacon to the world. The Needle’s foundation is set in “New Frontier” optimism, along with nearly 6,000 tons of concrete and steel.

That same month 55 years ago, East Germany began construction of the Berlin Wall. As the East Germans walled themselves off from the politics and culture of the West—as they were building with barbed wire and aiming guns—Seattleites were building a platform to be seen by the world and to expand our own vistas of it. Even in the midst of the Cold War, many people still grasped the importance of being inspired by an expansive, hopeful view of the future. Walls limit possibilities, observation towers expand horizons.

This election year offers opportunities to tear down walls—as Ronald Reagan once urged the Soviets to do with Berlin’s. Can we improve our elections and make them more inclusive? Can we ensure that people of all incomes can afford to run for and hold office? Four of Seattle’s nine City Council members are multimillionaires—is that the right balance? Can our parties find more inclusive ways to pick delegates, to write platforms? Can we have presidential primaries that are truly meaningful to the national process, unlike this year’s? Are we using every means possible to register voters and make it easier for them to cast their ballots? Can we ensure that minority groups are not frozen out of the election process?

And can we tear down ideological walls without giving up our principles?

Republican Dan Evans, arguably the best Washington governor of the last half century (he served three terms, from 1965 to 1977), recently made an appeal for this in a Seattle Times op-ed article in which he laid out his wishes and worries for this election cycle. The hateful speech and hostility in much of our political discourse is putting up walls between lawmakers, politicians, voters. “I thirst for a candidate who would offer us hope instead of eternal political warfare. A candidate who would speak to us as rational adults rather than simpletons whose votes can be bought. A candidate who would propose comprehensive and even difficult programs to open the door of opportunity to all Americans.”

It all sounds so…antique. But we need to stop building walls with vitriol, deceit and ignorance.

This election cycle I am going to favor candidates who aim to dismantle walls that keep us apart, with extra credit for those who know how to shape a society that helps us see farther.

 

Follow Us

Preston Singletary: The Harmonic Alchemist

Preston Singletary: The Harmonic Alchemist

Multi-talented Seattle artist fuses sound, cinema and glass artistry

In Tlingit lore the raven is a supernatural being who steals the moon, sun, and stars from a powerful man. Seattle artist Preston Singletary can be forgiven if he is confused for the modern-day manifestation of the raven, also described as a shapeshifter in mythology.   Singletary has been enlightening audiences the world over for decades with his…

Prominent Seattle Arts Organizations Seal Merger

Prominent Seattle Arts Organizations Seal Merger

ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Co. began discussing the proposal last spring

Eight months after first floating the proposal, two Seattle arts heavyweights have announced plans to merge. ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Co. will officially join forces July 1. ACT’s downtown Seattle space at 700 Union St. will become home for Seattle Shakespeare productions. Seattle Shakespeare Executive Director John Bradshaw will become managing director of…

Secrets of the Sound

Secrets of the Sound

A new mystery novel by local author Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum draws from her personal experiences

Writer Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum grew up surrounded by words. As children, she and her sister enjoyed falling asleep to their mother’s voice as she read books before bed, and their father — a Lutheran pastor and poet — spent every Sunday working on his sermons, reciting the words aloud as he wrote.  “Being around a…

Rain and Red Lanterns

Rain and Red Lanterns

A guide to Lunar New Year events across the city

Midori in Japanese translates to “green.” Though born “green,” violinist virtuoso Midori Goto matured quickly into one of the most coveted soloists in the globe. Now 53 and referred to simply by a single name (achieving the status reserved for megastars like Madonna, Beyoncé, Adele, Prince, Shakira, Usher, Cher and others), Midori headlines at the Seattle Symphony performing Brahms Violin Concerto Jan. through Monday at Benaroya Hall.   Midori will be…