Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published May 12, 2004

Walls abound in the 21st century

Our son owned a property in Vermont for several years and his land was bordered with a very old stone wall. The carefully chosen stones were all dry-laid. It must have been a handsome sight when it was new all those years ago. Time had taken its toll but each time I visited I never failed to walk its length and marvel at the craftsmanship that had gone into the building of that border.

And always Robert Frost's poem "Mending Walls" came to mind. Frost said, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out." It was in that same poem he wrote that familiar term, "Good fences make good neighbors." Much earlier in the 1600s another writer, George Herbert, expressed the same thought in these words "Love your neighbor, yet pull not down your hedge."

Those lovely thoughts do not fit the conditions thrust on the world in the 21st century. Our technology boggles the mind but civilization has regressed to using the same solutions introduced in the 3rd century when the Great Wall of China was constructed to protect 1,500 miles of the country from the Huns. That defensive fortification has been called the greatest building enterprise ever undertaken by man.

Today walls/fences are going up across the globe at a rapid pace. Israel has almost completed the "separation barrier" to keep Palestinians out. India is working on an electric fence along the Kashmir border to block infiltration by Pakistani-based rebels.

In our land of the free we lived with the belief for many years that we had the natural protection of two great oceans. Sept. 11 shattered that false assumption. Not only the oceans did not shield us but the nation's attention turned to our northern and southern open borders. Many suggestions were heard to fence the borders.

For years a favored crossing for illegal immigrants was the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego.

The numbers making it across the border during the 1990s increased greatly and was beyond controlling. Finally a corrugated metal fence was installed. It began at the Pacific Ocean and continued for 14 miles inland. That effort proved fencing could work and border agents controlled the situation again.

Work began in 1996 to add two more fences in front of the existing fence which would make the barrier three rows of fences with lighted roads in between. Ten miles have been completed but work has stopped because environmentalists are suing to discontinue the project.

Even though the flow of illegal visitors slowed at San Diego it moved farther east to the California and Arizona borders where they traveled across the desert. We see not only here but in Iraq that open borders are an invitation to come on in.

It is sad to see Washington, DC rapidly being turned into a maze of obstacle courses. The newly opened and refurbished Washington Monument is in the process of being protected by a surrounding fence. It is hard to accept the idea that fences make good neighbors in today's world. They are a symbol of distrust. Those on either side feel either protected or shut out. There is no neighborly feeling on either side.

One generation watched the Berlin Wall go up and saw the many unsuccessful attempts to escape. Many of those were still living to see that wall torn down. No one who watched will ever forget the rejoicing. Those were troubling times just as these times are troubling but they do end. Another poet had a positive solution to barriers. Edwin Markham wrote, "He drew a circle that shut me out - Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in."

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.