Wall No Barrier to Memories
Hughes, Peter
institution (of such hardihood and proven worth) is to invite social chaos--to rend the delicate fabric which weaves a society together. Child development advocates propose to wreak just...
...It is a travesty of politics that the lives of individual persons are so often overshadowed by the general course of history...
...Yet they ignore the painful lesson recent history teaches us: vast federal programs have an instinctive tendency toward uniformity...
...the city has, consequently, become a pawn for great power endeavors...
...Child development advocates propose to wreak just such havoc with American society...
...Since writing this parenthetical remark I have been apprised of a proposed program of divorce insurance, to be taken out immediately before or after marriage...
...Their recommendation will stand as the rule...
...A third social implication is the effect of "growing" thousands of individual children from thousands of individual families under identical hothouse conditions...
...The White House faced what was considered certain defeat when Congress _9 threatened to cut off funds for Cambodia and finally inserted such a cut-off as an amendment to H.R...
...A progressive society relies upon its varied components...
...Still, Berlin's future is closely linked to its political expectations, and so unfortunately all activities in the city are associated with politics...
...However, when West German Chancellor Brandt visited East Germany a couple of years ago the spontaneous and enthusiastic response he received (which proved an embarrassment to the East German government) proved that emotion and fervor are not far below the surface...
...A second social implication of child care programs is the substantial effect they will have upon the children involved...
...Letters From the German Democratic Republic, edited by the reputable phi]oI,~gian Hildegard Baumgard, reveals no great enthusiasm for the prevailing Pankow regime in East Germany, nor does it reveal disfavor...
...It is with no slight effort that the Berliner can still say: Berlin bleibt doch Berlin (Berlin will always remain Berlin...
...Yet despite what has been termed an erosion of presidential power on Capitol Hill, despite the fact "that public opinion polls show that the President's popularity is at an all-time low, Congress has once again shown itself incapable of filling any power vacuum or displaying any leadership potential...
...No city has the greenery and waterways of Berlin, nor its memorable night life...
...Meetings of the community policymaking board will become little more than wrangles over trivial financial matters such as whether or not to install a new sink in the kitchen...
...And indeed they are...
...It is in these early years that the child is the most flexible (and the most vulnerable to programming...
...What prevents a more humane solution to the problem of Berlin is the unfortunate fact that the city's crisis remains the core and symbol of the East-West confrontation...
...It is rather a helpless acceptance of reality...
...East Germany's Pankow regime promptly responded by putting the "criminals" Ithose attempting to escapel on national television to refute the insidious capitalistic s l u r s Not to let events stand with that, they then expelled one of the "criminals...
...What indications do we have that there is more hospitable sentiment between the powers of East and West...
...Berlin is a city of great vitality--not at all because it has become a focus for global political tensions--but because culture blossoms and industry grows...
...In any event, the Wall remains and as one young East Berliner said, "perhaps U1bricht [who was then East Germany's head of statel will realize that the Wall by virtue of its existence has become a fascinating lure to what is beyond...
...Some fear, therefore, that the ultimate solution for West Berlin will have to transcend historical ties to the West...
...This young woman happened to be at the border separating the Russian and American sectors that night and saw that it was unusually active for 4 -x.g...
...Much of the difficulty in overriding a veto undoubtedly lies with the technical requirement of a twothirds majority in beth houses...
...One need hardly subscribe to the doctrine that a child is nothing more than a product of his environment to concede that any individual or program in prolonged contact with the child during his first formative year~ will be a substantial factor d e t e r m h , - ; the type of adult that child beconle...
...The times they are indeed a-changing if the East German government found it necessary to justify its actions on national television...
...Today that access is sealed more than ever...
...By the age of two the infant is very actively looking for models, and help in dealing with aggressive feelings such as hurting, hostility, as well as violent ways of creating movement in other people...
...From the beginning of the Ninetythird Congress in January to its summer adjournment in August, social pundits have spoken of one constitutional crisis after another...
...Like so many other people living in the city of West Berlin (one-fourth of the city's 2.2 million population came as refugees from the Soviet occupied terri10 The Alternative October 1973 tory) this young friend of the family lived and worked in West Berlin while her daughter lived with her parents in the East...
...Indeed, the Wall may have severed with irretrievable finality those last threads joining together the two Germanys...
...Although she was unable to grasp the situation fully, it was with increasing apprehension that our friend realized that if she were to act and bring her daughter to the West, her last opportunity had arrived...
...7447, the Supplemental Appropriations bill...
...No one will stop the standardization of a chain of child care centers from coast to coast...
...In January the so-called crisis arose over the President's impoundment of federal funds...
...It stands as a monument to the Cold War...
...But such communal and sterile child rearing could have devastating effects upon the infant...
...Mistakes parents would have made can ~, avoided with a host of trained psychiatrists, dietitiark% pediatricians, educators, and the like...
...The finest and most elaborate day care center in the world can not begin to compete in this regard with even the average mother...
...An awesome bureaucratic machinery inevitably arises, crushing any lingering elements of creativity or uniqueness or eccentricity...
...The executive branch in carrying out an ambitious new program created by the Congress finds it necessary to set guidelines, draw up directives, and write statutes in order to deal with this vast new grant of power...
...Well, for one thing, when East German refugees recently attempted to scale the Berlin Wall and escape to the West, there was an uproar of public opinion in West Berlin over the "alleged" shootings...
...Child care personnel can never provide that essential component in the child's life...
...At eight o'clock that morning she and her daughter arrived at our apartment...
...The *elevision waves in both countries are ~'.rong enough to be received on either side of the border...
...There is simply no good substitute for a mother's presence...
...The idea attempts to governmentally "insure" a happy married life ---or, more precisely, to "insure" against an unhappy divorced life...
...Hopefully it shall not be America's destiny to discover that brave new world...
...It is the erratic early years that cause future problems...
...And, for the Ber]iners at least, a general conciliation appears to be as far away as ever...
...Nonetheless, the Administration still proves itself a force to be reckoned with...
...is the home of that award-winning perlustration, that monument to advocacy journali s m - t h e Washington Post...
...As the family later learned, this couple had been two of the last people to gain access to the West, two of the fortunate few who had been able to analyze the situation, weigh its alternatives, and act decisively...
...Whereas East Berlin is claimed as the capital of the German Democratic Republic, West Berlin has become "inextricably" linked with the Federal Republic of Germany...
...Both Germanies are expected to be admitted to the United Nations shortly and a flurry of diplomatic recognitions can be expected to follow...
...See Joseph W. Hatliwell, "Reviewing the Reviews on Entrance Age and School Success," in Reading in Educational Psychology, Victor H. and Rachel R Noll, eds., 2nd ed...
...CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS...
...Raskin, director of the Children's Orthopedic Hospital Psychiatry Service in Seattle, Washington, stated: "Give a child two or three years of love, and he's going to make it in life...
...The amendment passed the House by a wide margin (244 to 172), amidst the cajoling, whistling, backslapping, and singing of glory hallelujah by those who supported the amendment...
...But the integrity of West Berlin is no more secure...
...August 13, 1973, marks the twelfth anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall...
...It is said that we are in the midst of an era of entente, detente, and cooperation among the world's major powers, a period which is expected to bear the threshold of a new era...
...A sudden glance at the Wall always brings back the presence of the unrelieved EastWest struggle...
...The House also has a new electronic voting system which permits the House membership and gallery spectators to see how much time is left on a given vote...
...and, the complete and final submission to the imperatives of a science-centered age where every aspect of human life is monitored and controlled by specialists, technicians, and computers...
...The times they are a-changing," go the words of a Bob Dylan song...
...The Wall has accomplished its end...
...As Dr...
...Pr.p-nents of child care centers argue that, yes, indeed, the program will have a substantial effect upon the i n f a n t - - and it will be a positive one...
...The Wall separates Germans from Germans, parents from children, lovers from lovers, and friends from friends...
...But the Washington Post notwithstanding, there has been more to political happenings in Washington in recent months than the Watergate Hearings...
...Where once tens of thousands fled, now only hundreds succeed and many more die or get caught in the attempt...
...Washington, D.C...
...A child's selfcontrol, learning abilities, and cooperation are by-products of the emotional stability that come from being loved and needed...
...Healthy human development is related to many interwoven factors--biological, social, emotional, and intellect u a l - a n d is largely shaped by the events which occur from the time of conception until the age of two...
...it is not...
...With a y,,ung, flexible child, needed remedial services will prove faster and easier...
...these are hardly monuments to peace, cooperation, and freedom of travel and thought between East and West...
...New York: Macmillan, 1968], p.65...
...But on that night of August 13 the erection of the Berlin Wall became a very real and personal experience for me when a young woman arrived at our doorstep with the proverbial child in arms...
...As the seconds ticked away our country's leadership began a The Alternative October ]973 11...
...the field mines and miles of no man's land between East and West Germany...
...No great change can be seen within the immediate future...
...The present calm in Germany is often mistaken for apathy...
...But the continued shoot,~ngs at the Berlin Wall...
...Research indicates that early ,'~trance to school does result in lower achievement throughout the grades when compared with the achievement of later entrants with similar abilities...
...And the cold, mechanical efficiency of child development centers will serve but to fold, spindle, and mutilate the lives of thousands of American children...
...Assuredly the concept of child development holds serious legal and social implications for the future of a free society in this country...
...The attraction of freedom has been countered by imprisonment...
...Thus, ironically enough, my remark (which I intended as purely absurd and rhetorical) is actually being considered by certain feminists, lawyers, and legislators Peter Hughes Wall No Barrier to Memories...
...The question of this city is not being settled as part of the Crerman problem and within the general East-West "rapprochement...
...Indeed, within the concept is the culmination of two of the most disturbing trends of twentieth century America: the achievement of a totally equalitarian society where each member harks from a common background, holds the same ideas, and has identical thinking patterns...
...Federal Republic Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik has made numerous concessions to the Pankow regime in an attempt to promote conciliation between the two Germanies...
...To date not one of the President's four vetoes (The Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, The Second Supplemental Appropriations, The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Congress' attempt to make the Director of the Office of Management and Budget subject to Senate confirmation) has been overridden...
...Even on the local level, necessity dictates that participating parents will relic heavily upon the judgemnt of the "experts" who administer the program...
...Isolation, of course, means insecurity...
...Light armored trucks and East German troops were guarding workers busily erecting wire fences and fortifications...
...More recently the constitutional crisis has been tied t O Watergate, and particularly the Administration's refusal to release, to Senator Ervin's Watergate committee, the White ttouse tapes of telephone conversations...
...And all the while the machine will grind on, stamping out its products from a common mold and programming them with identical data...
...The West German government has recognized the concept of two German states within one nation...
...East German attitudes t~)ward West Germany often seem balanced between admiration and dogmatic opposition...
...the barbed wire and brick walls...
...But the memories of what was, remain--and so do the reality of what is and the longing for what could be...
...Child care advocates argue that each center will remain locally controlled by community policymaking boards made up of parents and neighbors and thus each will be unique...
...Its fate arouses a sadness in all those who cherish the aura of the city...
...The East German regime, carefully manipulated from Moscow, in an attempt to forestall the further depletion of its population (one-fifth of East Germany's population had fled the country before the Wall was erected), has created an almost insurmountable barrier which runs through the heart of Berlin and which isolates the country from its western borders...
...And little wonder...
...To the contrary, the Soviets and East Germans have painstakingly avoided any formal recognition of West Berlin's ties to the Federal Republic...
...The Washingtcm (WASHINGTON)--Our nation's capital prides itself in being the country's political opinion leader...
...I lived in Berlin for many years, and I was there on that fateful August 13, 1961, when the Berlin Wall was first erected...
...Any tendency to reduce human variety reduces the amount of experimentation in the conduct of human affairs, which in turn slows progress and decreases the interest that life holds...
...the watchtowers and concrete dugouts with armed guards, dogs, and military vehicles...
Vol. 7 • October 1973 • No. 1
