Every spring, I find joy in teaching Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.” My students are delighted to discover that the neighbor who chants the misrepresented line, “Good fences make neighbors” is likely justified in his lack of interest in his neighbor, the haughty speaker of the poem. Over the course of the past four years, I’ve become intimately familiar with the meaning of the line. You see, I have a bad neighbor. And while you might leap to conclusions as I say this (for all you know, I am really the worst neighbor of all), I ask you to listen first and judge later.

I offer some evidence: during the 2008 elections, said neighbor (who is welcome to any political views he likes) posted blatantly racist signs in his front yard, one which involved an obscenity, and one which used a slanderous term outdated in the late 1960s (you know which one I’m talking about). If there is a car parked on the street on the same side of his house (mind you, I live in a suburban development), he will block the car in with his car and then approach the driver and scream (again, using obscenities). He has left threatening notes on cars of people who have parked on other parts of the (same public) street that we live on.

Husband and I have lamented this situation ad nauseum. Can we call the police? Should we erect a giant concrete wall? Perhaps we should hire a subtle hitman?

In all seriousness, however, we have a young daughter; I don’t want there to be fall out from anything we do that may result in her being harmed. At the same time, I don’t want her seeing his behavior and thinking that it is in any way acceptable or justifiable. I also recognize that this man’s actions hurt the feelings of other children in the neighborhood. Is it our responsibility to protect all youngsters? When he’s been approached personally regarding this situations, he’s responding by yelling or cursing, so I don’t think that is the solution.

How do you deal with difficult neighborly situations?

Read more from Foster here and at her personal blog, Foster and Boo