Think back to the earliest days of your childhood. The odds are that you remember smiling and having a lot of fun with your friends in playgrounds, whether you were on the swings or a seesaw. However, you probably wouldn’t expect to see seesaws anywhere near a heavily guarded country border, would you? Well, check again.
Like something out of a fairytale, a set of pink seesaws sprang up right in the middle of the United States and Mexican border. Quite unsurprisingly, the seesaws became an instant hit. Children (and adults!) flocked to have fun on them, not minding the metal border wall that separated them.
Image credits: rrael
The seesaws were installed right across the so-called Trump's wall between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. The geniuses behind this brilliant and playful idea were two professors. They are Ronald Rael, a professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello — an associate professor of design at San José State University
Rael posted videos and photos of the seesaws in action on Instagram. The best part is, everyone loved them, no matter their age! Rael’s post went viral and got over 32,700 likes (and counting), as well as over 870 comments.
Image credits: rrael
“One of the most incredible experiences of my and @vasfsf’s career bringing to life the conceptual drawings of the Teetertotter Wall from 2009 in an event filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness at the Trump's border wall,” Rael wrote on Instagram, talking about how a project from 10 years ago inspired the pink seesaws. “The wall became a literal fulcrum for US — Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side.”
Image credits: rrael
Image credits: rrael
One of the foreign policy things Donald Trump is best known (and criticized) for is his desire to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. According to The Guardian, The US supreme court recently ruled in Trump’s favor and allowed him to use 2.5 billion dollars of Pentagon funds on four contracts to replace existing barriers with fencing to fight the migrant crisis.
While Trump is often criticized for his border wall plans, he is far from the first American leader to start building the wall. Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all authorized projects to expand the border wall.
Image credits: rrael
Image credits: rrael
Image credits: rrael
