On All Things Considered today, Jay Keyser noted how much Frost's "Mending Wall" has to say about the current (absurd) controversy over how big a wall to build between the US and Mexico. I'm beat to the punch because he says almost all that needs to be said here. But notice the supreme irony that every wall built (as Keyser says) as a "barrier" "to keep out the unwanted," that is to oppose (or fantasize the possibility of non-) integration with the Other, has been torn down. Or rendered meaningless. Thus, opposition (this time, happily: for those we oppose) in fact serves to engender its own futility.

One response I do have to the story, though, is this: when is a wall just a wall?