Big Bend National Park is named for the sweeping bend of the Rio Grande River along the United States-Mexico border in southwest Texas. It is a remote land of beautiful and stark scenery, whose landscape is dominated by the Chihuahuan desert, the Chisos Mountains and the Rio Grande River. (Photo by Jasperdo / Flickr CC 2.0)
In my home state of Texas one of the most beautiful parks in America has long offered visitors respite from the coils and tangles of the modern world and inspiration from the sheer spectacle of nature. That will change radically if Donald Trump builds his wall, as The Dallas Morning News reported before he took office in a powerful editorial that I urge you to read.
They write:
There are few more breathtakingly beautiful places in Texas than Big Bend National Park.
Adventurers can take in the rolling mountains on horseback. Families can hike the Santa Elena Canyon, then dip their toes in the river below. You can raft or canoe the Rio Grande. You might even see a black bear.
Spanning 800,000 acres, it’s a natural playground of deserts and wildlife for lovers of the great outdoors.
Now imagine a big wall running through this glorious park.
That would be shameful.
But that’s exactly what’s on the table if President-elect Donald Trump follows through his campaign promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile Mexican border. Big Bend shares 118 miles of border with Mexico.
Big Bend National Park visitors worry about Trump’s proposed border wall.
As one resident wrote in a letter to the editor: Building a wall through Big Bend would be like “a blanket thrown over the Statue of Liberty.”
We recognize concerns about illegal immigration by wall advocates. But there clearly are ways to address those without building a wall.
Keep reading this editorial at The Dallas Morning News.
