Building Walls

I really like this quote from Hiroshi Motomura's recent contribution to the NY Times:

Redlining citizenship to exclude millions of children who will grow up in America reflects a vanity that we can solve society’s complex problems if we only pass tougher laws or enforce them more harshly. A wall around citizenship reflects the same sort of false hope that responds to economic crisis in Mexico with higher border fences, or to drugs with more prisons, or to conflict with more troops.

I must admit that the whole birthright citizenship debate -- and the accompanying vitriol -- disgusts me. I actually feel physical revulsion, even hatred. Have I fallen so far off the deep end that I can no longer even engage in a discussion about the merits of an argument? Has the debate become so polarized?

Motomura's theme of building walls ties into something else I've been thinking about lately. I recently read the book, Forever War's projection of what future society could look like (homosex as the norm! human cloning!). That, and the divisive issues of the day have gotten me thinking about norms and definitions. What IS citizenship? What IS marriage? ... What does it mean to be human?