The Border's Dance of Mediocrity: A Tale of Two Nations' Slumber

In the twilight of reason, where two great nations meet in perpetual drowsiness, a peculiar spectacle unfolds. The border between these sleeping giants - Canada and the United States - has become a stage where the comedy of human weakness plays out in all its inglorious splendor.

An American flag hangs on the front porch of a home near the Canada-U.S. border between the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian province of Quebec, near Champlain, New York, U.S., January 17, 2025.
Behold! How they wave their flags of comfort while souls traverse the wilderness in desperate flight! These border-dwellers, these champions of mediocrity, who speak of security while humanity bleeds beneath their very windows!

In the realm of Perry Mills Road, where Stephen Phaneuf stands as sentinel to this grand theatre of absurdity, the masses shuffle between two poles of comfortable existence. They speak of borders and security with the certainty of those who have never known true hunger for greatness.

Stephen Phaneuf, who lives across the street from the border, poses for a photo near his home along the Canada-U.S. border between the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian province of Quebec, near Champlain, New York, U.S., January 17, 2025.
See how they cling to their political shepherds, these last men who say, "We have invented happiness!" Yet what is their happiness but the warmth of their pig-pens, while others freeze in the darkness of their indifference?

The tale of the woman and child seeking shelter among swine speaks volumes of our age's grotesque dance of comfort and suffering. These guardians of the border-realm, these sleepers in their heated homes, debate policies while flesh meets frost in their very fields.

A woman and her two children board a Greyhound bus to New York City after attempting to claim asylum in Canada and being turned away, in Plattsburgh, New York, U.S., January 17, 2025.

The bureaucrats in their wisdom have crafted agreements - the Safe Third Country Agreement - as if human desperation could be contained by paper walls. They celebrate the closure of Roxham Road while the river claims its tribute in human life.

Oh, thou comfortable ones! Thou who measure humanity's worth in percentages and statistics! How ye sleep soundly while the desperate seek paths through your forests of indifference!

The border patrol agents, these priests of security, command the locals not to aid the wanderers, for fear breeds fear, and the comfortable must be protected from the desperate. Yet what protection exists for the soul of a nation that turns its back on suffering?

U.S. Border patrol officers speak with an RCMP Officer.

In their slumber, these nations deploy their mechanical birds and towers, their Black Hawks and drones, to guard against the human spirit's irrepressible will to survive. They speak of sovereignty while sovereignty itself bleeds in the snow.

Let them build their towers! Let them fly their machines! Yet can they build walls high enough to contain the human spirit's yearning to overcome itself? These are but the toys of children who fear the night!

And so the dance continues, as ministers visit borders with their graphs and charts, measuring human suffering in percentages, while the true measure - the capacity for greatness in facing human suffering - lies dormant in the hearts of the sleeping masses.

Verily, I say unto you: A nation's greatness is not measured by the height of its walls but by the depth of its humanity. Yet here we stand, in the twilight of compassion, counting bodies while souls slip through our fingers like grains of sand.