Legacies of Roads, Walls, and Fences

by Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

"Mending Wall" by Ken Fiery, 2007, from the Robert Frost Series

Roads, walls, and fences, became an important part of the legacy of the poet Robert Frost, and are on a path to achieving the same prominence in the legacy of President Joseph Biden, Jr.

It is interesting how the legacies of Robert Frost, born in San Francisco in 1874, spending much of his childhood on a farm in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Joseph Biden, Jr., born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1942, spending much of his childhood in Delaware, are similar. 

As a graduate, Frost from Dartmouth and Harvard, Biden from the University of Delaware, both faced the decision often faced by liberal arts graduates: how to earn a living? 

Roads

Frost wrote about his career decision to become a poet in his poem “The Road Not Taken” that began:

Two roads diverted in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And concluded with:

I should be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood and

I took the one less traveled,

And that has made all the difference.

Biden, after graduating from the law school of Syracuse University, returned to Delaware and, after making several brief forays at practicing law, he entered the “road” of a politician with local offices, then 36 years in the U.S. Senate, eight as vice president, and so far, three as president. 

As president, his legacy of roads began with his appointing as Secretary of the Department of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who immediately accused the roads in the U.S. of being “systemically racist,” without any explanation of how inanimate objects can be “racist.” 

Sadly, this was no surprise since Pete previously had said the “U.S. health care system is systemically racist,” as was the U.S. systems of housing, schools, and the uniforms (assume he meant the military although there are many professions that wear uniforms, such as police, firefighters, and nurses, etc.).

Walls

Frost’s legacy of walls includes the poem “Mending Wall” (1914) and features the lines:

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 offense

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall

That wants it down.

Biden’s legacy of walls began with his appointing as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, while also stopping construction of the “Trump Wall” across our southern border with Mexico. 

Biden appears to support the lines from the Frost poem “something there is that doesn’t love a wall” and “that wants it down” as he not only stopped construction but after permitting the previously purchased steel (with taxpayer money) to rust before selling it for pennies on the dollar.

Biden appears to respond to Frost’s questions of “What I was walling in or walling out” appears to be “no one” as his declining to build a wall permitted anyone from anywhere, for any reason, to simply walk into the U.S.  

Biden did appoint Vice President Kamala Harris to “address the root causes” of the migration by distributing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to Guatemala and Mexico via her brief “whistle stops” of several hours in each country.

Mending Walls

Frost’s legacy began with writing about mending a wall:

The gaps I meant, No one has seen them made or heard them made, 

But at spring mending time we find them there.

And on a day we meet to walk the line,

and set the wall between us once again

Biden’s legacy began with permitting Alejandro Mayorkas to “pretend,” a nice word for “lie,’ that the border is “under control,” although he did not say who “controlled” it, and was solidified by permitting his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to sue Texas to try and force them to remove the deterrence they had built while he, Biden, was blaming congress for the border crisis.  

Fences

Frost’s legacy includes his line “Good fences make good neighbors” (Mending Wall).

Biden’s legacy was spending $628,000 of taxpayer money, to build a fence around his Rehoboth beach house while denying that a border wall or fence would help keep migrants out of the U.S.

Legacies.

Robert Frost’s legacy of roads, walls, and fences, ended with his death in 1963.

Joseph Biden, Jr, legacy of roads, walls, and fences, is increasing daily and will only end when, and if, he is voted out of office.

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