Walls

 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 7^th 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.”

 Change can happen, the world situation can improve.

Along with many others, I continue to hope.