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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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.

On July 8, the Wall Street Journal published a special section commemorating its 130-year anniversary.

Kudos to the Journal for its positive impact on real journalism in this country.

At least, one item caught my attention. It was a photo of President Ronald Reagan delivering memorable words in a speech, as follows:

“For decades America has led freedom-seeking people around the world in their struggles to destroy and dismantle the oppressive barriers that divide countries and restrict liberty. Today, many of those battles have been fought and won – the barricades that once stood between countries no longer exist and their citizens are able to live together in freedom and prosperity. With this in mind, we – as Americans – are faced with a new challenge. The Cold War is over and now we must break down the tariff walls that restrict the free flow of trade on our continent. The North American Free Trade Agreement can bring us that victory.”

Of course, Reagan, in another speech in Berlin in 1987, uttered the now famous line – “Tear Down This Wall,” referring to the wall separating East and West Berlin.

The Berlin Wall, referred to by the President, was built by Communists in August 1961 to keep Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin. The 12-foot concrete wall extended for about miles, surrounding West Berlin, and included electrified fences and guard posts. The wall stood as a stark symbol of the decades-old Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia in which the two politically opposed superpowers continually wrestled for dominance, stopping just short of actual warfare.

So, turn to today.

What do we have?

Every other word uttered by “our” President Donald Trump seems to call for building new walls, not tearing down walls.

Some of the walls advocated by Trump pertain to tariffs.  Some pertain to a wall he wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico, his supposed solution to what he calls the problem with immigrants from the south.

Trump’s trait is to build walls that separate people, not tear down walls, as Reagan put it, “to dismantle oppressive barriers that divide countries and restrict liberty.”

God bless Ronald Reagan.

Not the same for Trump.