by Vanessa Johnson
From Frank News:
In the spirit of the European Union and specifically the Schengen Agreement, I propose that the Americas enter into a similar union that enshrines the right to mobility on a hemispheric level. I propose a Pan-American response that allows for full participation in society. People may live, work, go to school, and travel freely. I propose this as a form of reparative justice, for wrongs committed to peoples across the Americas, as a way of rectifying historical moral injustices.
. . .
Enshrining the freedom of mobility and a breaking down of punitive borders would serve as not only a form of reparative justice, but it would address other societal problems that plague late-stage capitalism in the region, including growing inequality, anti-democratic movements, lack of educational opportunity, and climate crises due to drought and more intense weather events.
What a concept! I can just imagine the cold hearted GOP response to such a radical idea. The obvious problems with this idea are the comparative larger sizes of countries in the Americas, from Canada, through Mexico. I don’t believe there are many countries in Europe that take more than a day to drive across, and that right there limits any mobility such a union might provide.
I have often proposed that as a hypothetical idea to local high school students (in the context of explaining the European Union) and they are almost always opposed to it (I’m not, but they are).
I see how well that is working in Europe the last 15 years.
Great idea!
Excellent analysis! Yes, we need to bring a moral perspective to policy reform, to right the wrongs of the past and present. Will it gain traction in this Congress or the next? Alas, probably not.
let’s get the band back together!!!
What could go wrong?