Donald Trump’s television programs, “The Apprentice” or “Celebrity Apprentice,” have been on TV for several years now and probably most people have watched at least one program. His familiar conclusion is always, “You’re Fired!” Everyone knows what the term means to be fired even if you have never had a job. In trying to find out where the term originated I found two different but similar answers. Both stories apparently originated during the dark ages. The first story had its origin in a coal mining village, ‘If any man…do pick or steale any lead or ore to the value of xiiid, the Lord or his Officer may arrest all his lead and Oare House or hearthes with his Grooves and Workes and keep them in forfeit… and shall take the person that hath soe affeended and bring him where his house or worke and all his tooles and instruments are… and put him into his house or worke and set fire in all together about him and banish him…’ You are fired! The second story is a little less brutal, it is said that, ‘If a community were not happy with a neighbor family they would burn their house down when they were absent, causing them to have to move away. Thus the term,
‘You’re fired.’ Fortunately, in our day community problems are resolved without coming to the same finality of resolution. Our family, fortunately, has been very happy with our neighbors and never to my knowledge had unkind words to say about any of them. I think that most people living in a Christian society will try to follow the admonition of the Bible, to ‘love your neighbor as thyself.’ At least like them. I believe that most people, Christian or not, try to be good neighbors. Neighbors are often good friends and many times are relied on to watch out for the neighbor’s kids or property and vice versa. At the same time there is occasion when the papers report problems between neighbors, some of which are very serious. In the midst of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt came across a newspaper clipping about the ancestry of England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine. The newspaper article noted the couple’s common heritage with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the “Mormons” in Utah. As Roosevelt and Churchill had become friends by this time, the president sent the clipping to the prime minister, accompanied by a light hearted letter. Roosevelt said, “Hitherto I had not observed any outstanding Mormon characteristics in either of you,” he wrote. “But I shall be looking for them from now on.” He further added, “I have a very high opinion of the Mormons…they are excellent citizens.”
More recently, one Orthodox Christian commentator observed that the faith (Mormon) produces “exemplary people” who in turn “make good neighbors.” Today there is a growing body of independent research suggesting that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes nicknamed “Mormons,” do indeed make good neighbors and citizens. Recent studies reveal that practicing Latter-day Saints tend to be healthier, happier, better educated, and more committed to family values. They are also more likely to be socially connected and engaged in volunteerism and charitable giving. This link between what faithful Latter-day Saints believe and what they feel impelled to do with that belief is an incredibly powerful force within the faith. During my undergraduate education program I reluctantly enrolled in an English literature class as a required group filler. A section of the class dealt with poetry and one of the more interesting poems was by Robert Frost entitled ‘Mending Wall’—the poem is printed in its entirety below.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: ‘ Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’ We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’ Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. 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 offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him, But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
I believe the poet does not like fences from his statement, but even more importantly, he believes that nature does not like. fences,’ “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” He describes as mystical how the rocks keep falling from the top, he blames the frost from beneath and hunters searching for rabbits. He even blames elves for tearing it down. Fences are to keep the cattle in and there are no cattle here, only pines and apples trees. The fact that he went to get his neighbor to help him replace the fallen rocks describes someone who enjoys being a neighbor and the wall is a barrier to that kind of social exchange. The neighbor on the other hand appeared to have no opinion of his own but only knew what his father had always said, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Fortunately with most of the populations living in cities, fences to keep cattle in check are not necessary. Yet fences are commonplace and I suppose in some cases they do make for better neighbors. Fences primarily mark the land boundaries in our day. It seems we all need to know exactly what is ours and what is the neighbors. In that respect maybe good fences do make good neighbors.