1961 began with Johnny Tillotson at Number 1 with Poetry in Motion.
1961 ended with Danny Williams and Moon River.
In the same year Helen Shapiro walked back to happiness, Shirley Bassey reached for the stars, Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers charted and the East Germans (not a pop group!) built the Berlin Wall.
It would seem that no-one climbed the Wall to enter East Germany although many East Germans died trying to leave.
The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin cutting it off from East Berlin and Eastern Germany.
The rationale for the wall was to protect East German's from fascist elements in the West who were 'conspiring' to prevent the 'will of the people' from building a 'socialist state' in East Germany.
Now in America the Trump Wall is proposed, paid for by the Mexican Government although there is no suggestion that Mexico is either a fascist state or seeking to prevent the American people building a capitalist state.
It is questionable that any of the East German's who tried to escape to the West were walking back to happiness rather seeking to escape the deep unhappiness they experienced in the East.
President Ronald Reagan was a Republican like Donald Trump, but unlike The Donald he had no patience for building walls in fact in a famous speech in Berlin he called on President Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall'.
Now wherever you look in Europe walls are being erected whether in Hungary, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, walls to keep people out, like the wall built between Palestine and Israel.
Right wing parties are engendering displays of deep-seated hostility even welcoming the prospect of the Donald trumping the Democratic Candidate with a strong hand supported by the angry brigade consisting largely of white working class men.
Against this however we are left with the words of an admittedly Republican, admittedly elderly, ex Film Actor, whose most memorable lines, indeed whose memories, appear to have come from the scripts of the films in which he starred.
Yet, in his speech in Berlin on the 12th June 1987, Reagan said:
'we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace ...... if you seek peace .... if you seek prosperity ...... open this gate (the speech was made at the Brandenburg Gate) .... Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
The same sentiment surely must be offered when ever walls are built? The peace they represent is and always will be insecure.
Living where I do in the North West of England Hadrian's Wall is a site of historic fascination, but more fascinating is that as peace settled and the warring tribes began to become farmers building homes, villages, communities and with them churches and abbeys, it was the stones from the wall that became the primary source of building material.
Of course it was no surprise when the Pope chose to attack Trump's distorted vision of a wall to hold back not only Mexico but the whole of South America, after all the Pope gets his title from the Latin Pontifex meaning 'bridge builder'.
Rome was a city of bridges and the Pope or Pontifex Maximus was seen as one who built bridges between God and Humankind, between peoples, and so it is really no surprise that wherever walls are offered as a solution to keep people out, to separate peoples, so the Pontifex Maximus must demand that people recognise that, under God, the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.
I moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978, I had moved from Manchester and one of my first jobs was to Preach at the service for the new Lord Mayor.
I preached on moving, as I expressed it, from a city of underpasses to a city of bridges and, in the sermon I rehearsed the names of the bridges over the Tyne, unfortunately my pronunciation of the name of one bridge caused some amusement amongst the congregation and afterwards, whilst I was complimented on the sermon, it was pointed out that the proper pronunciation of Redheugh was Redheugh.
The Berlin Wall was demolished over a period of two years, the Gate was opened in 1989 and the wall finally came down in 1992.
In May 1989 Ferry Cross the Mersey was number one proceeded by Madonna's Like a Prayer and when the wall finally fell it was Jimmy Nail the Geordie actor who had starred in Auf Wiedersehen Pet with the Song, Ain' No Doubt.
1961 ended with Danny Williams and Moon River.
In the same year Helen Shapiro walked back to happiness, Shirley Bassey reached for the stars, Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers charted and the East Germans (not a pop group!) built the Berlin Wall.
It would seem that no-one climbed the Wall to enter East Germany although many East Germans died trying to leave.
The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin cutting it off from East Berlin and Eastern Germany.
The rationale for the wall was to protect East German's from fascist elements in the West who were 'conspiring' to prevent the 'will of the people' from building a 'socialist state' in East Germany.
Now in America the Trump Wall is proposed, paid for by the Mexican Government although there is no suggestion that Mexico is either a fascist state or seeking to prevent the American people building a capitalist state.
It is questionable that any of the East German's who tried to escape to the West were walking back to happiness rather seeking to escape the deep unhappiness they experienced in the East.
President Ronald Reagan was a Republican like Donald Trump, but unlike The Donald he had no patience for building walls in fact in a famous speech in Berlin he called on President Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall'.
Now wherever you look in Europe walls are being erected whether in Hungary, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, walls to keep people out, like the wall built between Palestine and Israel.
Right wing parties are engendering displays of deep-seated hostility even welcoming the prospect of the Donald trumping the Democratic Candidate with a strong hand supported by the angry brigade consisting largely of white working class men.
Against this however we are left with the words of an admittedly Republican, admittedly elderly, ex Film Actor, whose most memorable lines, indeed whose memories, appear to have come from the scripts of the films in which he starred.
Yet, in his speech in Berlin on the 12th June 1987, Reagan said:
'we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace ...... if you seek peace .... if you seek prosperity ...... open this gate (the speech was made at the Brandenburg Gate) .... Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
The same sentiment surely must be offered when ever walls are built? The peace they represent is and always will be insecure.
Living where I do in the North West of England Hadrian's Wall is a site of historic fascination, but more fascinating is that as peace settled and the warring tribes began to become farmers building homes, villages, communities and with them churches and abbeys, it was the stones from the wall that became the primary source of building material.
Of course it was no surprise when the Pope chose to attack Trump's distorted vision of a wall to hold back not only Mexico but the whole of South America, after all the Pope gets his title from the Latin Pontifex meaning 'bridge builder'.
Rome was a city of bridges and the Pope or Pontifex Maximus was seen as one who built bridges between God and Humankind, between peoples, and so it is really no surprise that wherever walls are offered as a solution to keep people out, to separate peoples, so the Pontifex Maximus must demand that people recognise that, under God, the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.
I moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978, I had moved from Manchester and one of my first jobs was to Preach at the service for the new Lord Mayor.
I preached on moving, as I expressed it, from a city of underpasses to a city of bridges and, in the sermon I rehearsed the names of the bridges over the Tyne, unfortunately my pronunciation of the name of one bridge caused some amusement amongst the congregation and afterwards, whilst I was complimented on the sermon, it was pointed out that the proper pronunciation of Redheugh was Redheugh.
The Berlin Wall was demolished over a period of two years, the Gate was opened in 1989 and the wall finally came down in 1992.
In May 1989 Ferry Cross the Mersey was number one proceeded by Madonna's Like a Prayer and when the wall finally fell it was Jimmy Nail the Geordie actor who had starred in Auf Wiedersehen Pet with the Song, Ain' No Doubt.
Hi, Geof!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to say I have only just read your blog on walls. Thanks.
I have an exhibition shown at St Thomas', Haymarket, Newcastle last September called Walls Walls Walls and to be seen again in November this year in Hexham Abbey.
The park for the exhibition was Mark Thomas' observation that every military barrier eventually becomes a tourist attraction.
Looking at Hadrian's Wall, the Berlin Wall and the Israeli Separation barrier, the exhibition suggests that aiming for tourist attraction via international law is a creative route for the Israeli Separation Barrier.
Hope to see you sometime soon – sorry it has been so long.
Best wishes.
Jonathan
PS Small niggle: I wouldn't say that the Separation Barrier is between Israel and Palestine, not even between Israelis and Palestinians. All the language is contentious, but one point is that almost all the barrier is in the West Bank and in many places through Palestinian communities. J
Correcting typos: • for "Geof" read "Geoff" • for "park" read "spark". JA
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