It's extraordinary how knit-picking and petty the USA is being over its new-found zealousness on the border and immigration. A good example is the changes it's making to Canadian access to the storied Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead, Quebec.
Straddling the border line between Quebec and Vermont, the library and opera house were deliberately built right across the border line back in 1904, as a symbol of harmony and cross-border collaboration between the two countries. For over a century, Canadians and Americans have come and gone through the buildings without having to go through any border control or showing any paperwork. A black line through the middle of the library marks the actual border, but people have wandered back and forth across it for decades.
The official entrance to the library, though, is in the village of Derby Line, Vermont, USA, and Canadians have been used to just wwalking around the side of the building to enter it. But now, for the first time, US Border Control officers are insisting that direct access from Canada be closed, so that Canadians would have to travel to the next nearest official border crossing and submit to the usual American security grilling to gain access, even to the Canadian part of the library.
Locals, both Canadians and Americans, are incensed at the decision. There are plans to renovate an old Canadian entrance to the building, although money for such projects is in short supply. They have until October to make such adaptations as they can.
It's just another sign of the mean-spirited times we live in. If this is someone's idea of making America great (again), then it's hard to believe they can be so myopic and insensitive.
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