I'm doing a paper on water shortage in the Rio Grande watershed and have become fascinated by images of the U.S.-Mexico border.

A stark contrast:

Photo from jonco48.com

This is a monument for those who have died attempting to cross the US-Mexican border. Each coffin represents a year and the number of dead. Taken at the Tijuana-San Diego border:
Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Small marker, large meaning:

Photo from callum-macdonald.com

More photos here.

It really makes you think about the man made nature of international borders. So many Mexicans want to walk right over that line to a seemingly better life, and whose right is it to say they are not entitled to it? Certainly not me or my family, who were allowed to cross that line, figuratively. Yet what kind of life would we all have if those walls and barbed wire fences were not there?

I've already solved the global water crisis this week; I'll leave this problem for another day.