Europe’s Schengen
opens gates instead of building walls.
The Schengen
Agreement is a treaty that led to creation of the Schengen Area in which “internal
border checks have largely been abolished.” The agreement was signed in 1985
near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg; its signatories were five of the ten
member states of the then European Economic Community.
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he Agreement
in 1990 “was supplemented by the Schengen Convention which proposed the
complete abolition of systematic internal border controls and a common visa
policy.
The Schengen Area operates very much
like a single state for international travel purposes with external border
controls for travelers entering and exiting the area, and common visas, but
with no internal border controls.
The area
today “consists of 26 European countries covering a population of over 400
million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometers (1,664,911 square miles).”
War forces
migration forces paranoia forces bars
The West’s
foreign interference and wars and arms transfers have forced migration of
millions of people causing them to flee their homelands in search of peace and livelihoods—either
in regional countries or, at the risk of death crossing the Mediterranean, European
countries, often to be met with a hostile reception.
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he rise in volume
of immigrants, a Western manufactured migration crisis, and a few “attacks” in
European countries, such as the 2015 incidents in France resulted in the imposition of a state
of emergency in France and the reinstatement of border controls at international
borders through 2017. Other countries followed: “Austria, Denmark, Germany,
Norway, and Sweden” in 2018 “temporarily imposed the reintroduction of border
controls at some or all internal borders pursuant to Article 25 of the Schengen
Borders Code, citing security threats.”
Wars and
Bars are neither accidental nor inevitable. The minds of men and women who
conduct wars and raise bars can also tear down walls and end wars.
Schengen for
the Americas
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etting aside
paranoia, selfishness, prejudice, the mantra of “dreams” and delusions of “exceptionalism”
(among other isms) toward becoming a better
than narrowly envisioned best — Americans in the United States should be
able to see that a Schengen for the Americas just might be good all
round:
Leveling
the ground of cooperation
Creating
and sustaining fair competition among states
Supporting
human, social, economic and structural progress
Growing
good jobs and varieties of commerce
Abandon the
current model of vultures fighting over road kill—and worse: human vultures
killing and consuming the kill. A Schengen for the Americas is a far more evolved
construct than the current model of killing and eating one’s own kind, even one’s
kin.
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ne stroke of
a pen—backed up with the signed dissolution of the NATO war machine and the crafting
of a permanent treaty of nonviolence to end all aggression, occupation and other
hostility; signed and ratified by Western nations with nations now in conflict particularly
in the East (Far and Near) and South—one stroke of a pen could dawn a new day.
One stroke penning
peace and cross-border free-movement agreements would end massive suffering and
migration.
Enable
peoples of the world to get on with meaningful lives.
Create
respect and understanding among peoples.
End
the public office, headline 24/7, social media circus — the pageantry of grandstanding,
one-upmanship, hostility, threat and demonization within and among nations,
between leaders and their partners, and among sundry sectarian and tribal factions,
parties, demagogues, and ideologues.
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onstant Care and Conversation
are critical—words not war—a welcoming spirit powered by the stroke of a pen. These
will set humanity on a course from self-annihilation and beyond renaissance toward
evolution.
Some will be
outraged by the thought, any thought outside a left/right, black/white,
red/blue, yada/yada dichotomy. I’m
tired of dictatorial dichotomies!
Why not a Schengen
for the Americas?
Sources
Wikipedia
Schengen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area
Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB
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