Opinion: Trump’s border wall prototypes will one day remind us of how intolerant we were

To the editor: The 30-foot-high U.S.-Mexico border wall prototypes are magnificent. (“Trump’s border wall through the eyes of an architecture critic,” Dec. 30)

One day, grass ought to be planted between and around them and the land declared a national monument to intolerance so as to remind all of us that xenophobia is a human condition manifested by a spectrum of intensity within a population and will probably be with us for a long time.

For my money, I’d dedicate the monument, then divert the $12 billion to $70 billion that would have been spent on building the entire border wall instead to fix our roads and bridges (in Mexico too) so as to allow everyone to travel safely back and forth.

Oliver Seely, Lakewood

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To the editor: Admittedly, I often skip architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne’s articles, but the headline for this one intrigued me.

Surely, the shelter-shutout dichotomy created by the tunnel-wall concept — that, in the simplest terms, humans build structures that either connect us or divide us — and its possibility are symbols of the promise (or threat) the president made to his base, which divides us as a nation.

Thanks to Hawthorne for a critical analysis of the reality of a ridiculous multibillion-dollar folly in a world suffering drought, famine, fire, floods, flight from war, homelessness and ethnic cleansing.

Jo’Ann De Quattro, Alhambra

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To the editor: What a nice collection of 30-foot-high walls. Sure, someone is busy making 31-foot ladders right now. What an absolute waste of money.

I’m hoping some fun engineers at Caltech or UCLA will compete to design the best way to overcome the 30-foot challenge.

William Bergmann, Hollywood

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