And on a day we meet to walk the line/And set the wall between us once again.

Odd to be that person reporting from behind a wall. One of my earliest memories, maybe the first time I was really aware of the world outside third grade, is the fall of the Berlin Wall. And now, fifteen years later, I'm here behind another wall, wondering whether anyone will ever learn from the past.

The Mongol hordes breached the Great Wall of China.
The Scots ignored Hadrian's wall.
The Berlin Wall was torn down after 28 years.
There's a "peace wall" in Belfast, which has so far accomplished very little.

"Good fences make good neighbors," they say. And yet, and yet.

A line of concrete snakes across the hills here, casting dark, cement shadows over the dust. I see the shadows from one side of the wall, but when the light is right, they fall on both sides. That's the sharp edge of building walls. No matter how high you build them, you don't just keep things out, you keep them in, and you keep yourself in cloistered shadow.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.
-PF