The wall as metaphor

Not often does life present us with the kind of spot-on metaphor that is a staple of literature. However, I can’t recall a better marriage of man and metaphor than Donald Trump and his Wall.

We build walls to separate and divide, to keep people apart.

Yes, they provide security, or at least the illusion of security, but at a cost.

What is it we are trying to wall out? Not just “them,” but also our fears. Fear of others, fear of losing our jobs, fear of losing our identity, fear of change. A wall tells the world we are a fearful people.

But walls don’t just wall out; they also wall in. They wall us in from the rest of the world. They don’t say, “America first.” They say, “America alone.” In trying to wall out our fears we wall them in. Rather than facing and mastering them, we become their servants. As our walls become bigger, we become smaller. Is that who we are? I hope not. Walls are unworthy of America. Which makes a wall the perfect metaphor for the most divisive president in modern history. If he was a man of letters I would recommend a poem by another president’s favorite poet. Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down...We do not need the wall. -Robert Frost Walls are unworthy of America. Glenn R. Anderson Lviv, Ukraine The author taught history at Apopka and Winter Park high schools for 27 years and currently teaches at Lviv Polytechnic University in Ukraine.