This month (November 9) it’s 34 years since the Berlin wall opened to free movement. The day after that ordinary citizens began dismantling the wall.
Various Americans have talked about building a wall between
them and Mexico, between them and Canada.
Parts of the Great Wall of China were built as long ago as
the 7th century BC to stop nomadic groups from invading.
Hadrian’s wall began to be built by the Romans in 122 AD.
Robert Frost has a poem called ‘Mending Wall’ and here’s a
quote from that:
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 offense.
Something
there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That
wants it down.
We build walls around ourselves in many ways, shutting out others whom we fear.
I believe that we need to respect boundaries e.g. I don’t
want people to enter my house without permission, I don’t want to push for
answers to personal questions if someone isn’t willing to talk about them.
However, I also think that we need to do all we can to
break down artificial walls between individuals and countries – stereotypes,
biases, hate and fear.
There are plenty of examples of people working to change
attitudes and situations.
Because I’ve been working for a long time on a novel about
Germany and have done a lot of research into recent history (e.g., WWI and WWII
as well as the years after) I’m well aware of things such as the Marshall Plan,
and the Berlin Airlift, which were both either initiated or greatly supported
by the USA. Cynics may say that
Americans benefited by creating markets for their goods, creating reliable
trading partners, supporting the development of stable democratic governments
and spreading their influence, but they also assisted European countries,
including Germany, to recover more quickly from WWII. In a speech Secretary of
State George Marshall said in part, “The truth of the matter is that Europe’s
requirements for the next 3 or 4 years of foreign food and other essential products
– principally from America – are so much greater than her present ability to
pay that she must have substantial additional help, or face economic, social,
and political deterioration of a very grave character.”
I know that foreign aid can be a complex and loaded policy,
but if carefully done, it can be a way
to break down walls and turn enemies into friends.
Here is a short excerpt from the novel I’m working on, which
is a fictional account of some of the events I’ve experienced:
My parents are shaking their heads; my throat
holds a lump, tears perilously close. I think all three of us are waiting for
guns and bullets, but none of that happens. We’ve lived in Canada for more than
thirty-five years and even here the wall has significance. Not only for us and
others of German descent, but also for countless people who have seen it in
reality, and for those who have known it only through photos and movies.
“Not in my lifetime,” my father
mumbles. “I never thought I’d see this.”
Along with many others, I continue to hope.
