Walls, Walls, Walls
Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down this wall, ! Tear down that wall, Mr Obama! Tear down that wall! Mr Natanyahu.
Today, they are celebrating the breeching of the wall that separated East and West Germany. Whether the wall is seen as a way of keeping the East Germans in or the West German out, (with all their dangerous capitalist ideas) depends on your point of view. We in the west have been told it was a great good. Freedom and the material bounty of the West would become available for the East Germans. In twenty years it is not as simple as that. Not all East Germans shared in the new found life. The East German sector still lags economically behind the West. And now we here there are those who think life was better for many behind the wall, under the socialist policies of the Communist governments. There was an equality, work, free education, free medical care, security. Perhaps, the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/08-1
The lesson of today is that walls do not work in the long run. The German wall ultimately could not keep people in or ideas out. We should be questioning if the wall the US is so eager to build between to hold back the tide of Mexicans some feel are a threat to the existence of the Nation. Also, the Israeli wall, enforcing keeping out Palestinians making them prisoners in the West Bank and Gaza.
In this spirit, I share with you this poem by Canadian, Joy Kogawa
Where there's a Wall
where there's a wall
there's a way
around, over, or through
there's a gate
maybe a ladder
a door
a sentinel who
sometimes sleeps
there are secret passwords
you can overhear
there are methods of torture
for extracting clues
to maps of underground passageways
there are zepplins
helicopters, rockets, bombs
bettering rams
armies with trumpets
whose all at once blast
shatters the foundations
where there's a wall
there are words
to whisper by a loose brick
wailing prayers to utter
special codes to tap
birds to carry messages
taped to their feet
there are letters to be written
novels even
on this side of the wall
I am standing staring at the top
lost in the clouds
I hear every sound you make
but cannot see you
I incline in the wrong direction
a voice cries faint as in a dream
from the belly
of the wall
Joy Kogawa
Joy Kogawa knows about "walls". She and her family are Canadians of Japanese ancestry. They were interned during the second world war behind the wall of the the Rocky Montains. This was a mistaken attempt to make all Canadians feel more secure, unless of course you were one of the Japanese-Canadians whose life was uprooted, your property and business taken by the government. This "walling up" of our fellow citizens achieved little other than harm to members of our Society. It was a national shame for which the Canadian govenment finally apologized. Japanese Canadians, shamed us all by quietly putting their lives together after the war and continued to contribute to Canadian society as the loyal citizens they were all along.
Joy Kogama's award winning semi-autobigraphical novel, Obasan, about her families internment has been considered the most important Canadian historical work.
Walls takes many forms. They need not by physical. Dissidents among us are often walled off in various ways for the "protection" of the rest of us. One who knew the sting of this and rose above it was Paul Robeson, the remarkable, singer, actor, ethnologist, socialist, black American. He had his passport taken by the government to limit his free travel abroad. He was seem as a threat to America. He and his ideas were subversive. There were ways around this wall.
Cross that Line
Paul Robeson stood
on the northern border
of the USA
and sang into Canada
where a vast audience
sat on folding chairs
waiting to hear him.
He sang into Canada.
His voice left the USA
when his body was
not allowed to cross
that line.
Remind us again,
brave friend.
What countries may we
sing into?
What lines should we all
be crossing?
What songs travel toward us
from far away
to deepen our days?
Naomi Shihab Nye
We all need to examine the walls that surround us, physical and psycho-social. Do they serve us well and achieve what we think they do. A serious inquiry would show that they do not accomplish much worthwhile. My friend, Lynne, it today visiting the Great Wall of China, the greatest of all walls, and yet it did not keep the Mongolian Hordes out.
posted by Tossing Pebbles in the Stream @ 2:23 p.m.
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3 Comments:
Beware the revenge of the walnuts!
I am struck by the sheer hypocrisy--the U.S. counsels Germany to tear down its walls--then we allow or tolerate Israel building its wall, and we in turn build our own between the U.S. and Mexico.
We should take our own advice.
Interesting collection of poems. Wonderful line: "Where there's a wall, there's a way." One must deal with underlying causes, not simply try to cover them over and let them fester.
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