PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

It has been almost 30 years ago that U.S. President Ronald Reagan, while in Berlin, uttered his now famous line:

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Today, we are contending with the reverse. Someone, no less than President-Elect Donald Trump, wants to build a wall. The purposes, I suppose, are similar in some ways to the Berlin Wall.

According to the History Channel, back in 1961, the official purpose of the Berlin Wall “was to keep Western fascists from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state.”

This time, with Trump, the purpose is to bar Mexicans from entering the U.S, where, beyond being, in some cases, illegal, they could undermine our economic state.

And many Americans seem to be saying, “please, build this wall.”

Retired Marine General John Kelly, who supervised U.S. operations in Latin America and is now the director-designate of the Homeland Security Department, says he has long shared Mr. Trump’s concerns about border security.

But, in his confirmation hearings this week, he told Congress that, if the U.S. built “a wall from the Pacific to the Gulf Mexico,” it would still need to be backed up by border patrols and technology. He said border security hinges on building stronger partnerships in Latin America.

“A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job,” General Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “It has to be really a layered defense.”

So, in the tale of two walls, one was torn down about 30 years ago and another is poised to be built.

My view is that General Kelly was dead-on when he made the point that effective border security hinges, not on building barriers, but on building stronger personal relationships with other countries, especially in this hemisphere, but also around the world.