No Phone Calls

Bang, bang.

“Dear Ben,

I’ve just heard the sound of a gun. My mind turned automatically to you my friend who lives near a troubled area. I hoped that nothing has happened to you. I felt that it is not unusual to hear gunfire in your area. I didn’t call, because if it was gunfire, and I thought things would be fairly busy, if it was. I tried to call you but there was no answer so I thought a quick letter to you might confirm if anything was happening. Please let me know if everything is all right with you. A quick note saying ‘Yes I’m still here.’ would be sufficient.

Belfast experienced bombs and gunfire on a daily basis. I’m not trying to diminish your experiences. It would be bad if all we could do was to swap one horror story with another. You know how I am with loud unexpected noises and I worried as you are a friend of mine. I became used to explosions and gunfire most nights.

Forgive me for bothering you because I thought I heard a loud noise that could have been gun-fire. I worry about all my friends who live near the front line. If you want to get away for a while you are welcome to come here, where there is less chance of something unusual happening some distance from trouble.

It brought back a memory that I was hoping I could forget. As you know I am from Northern Ireland and we went through tough times for many years. Two factions in Northern Ireland decided that they did not like each other and they were both hoping they could scare the other side to leave. It wasn’t working and US president sent Senator George Mitchell to see if he could bring and end to “the troubles”. George made friends with people from both sides, and he got them talking to each other. He claims that his role was mostly listening and looking for ways to stop the fighting.

Just write to tell me you are still alive. Anyway, I’m sure nothing has befallen you. I’ll know if someone tells me, or I see a report in the paper.

All the best

Jeff”

“Dear Jeff,

Thanks so much for your letter asking if these times were all right. As you can see, I am still in one piece, but I’m sure you would appreciate it if I said more.

We are in a risky area and we appreciate people asking about us. So far nothing has happened to us. Our neighbors however, are living in a state of uncertainty. They don’t know what is going to happen to them and it is keeping them in’ with doors locked. We went round to see, and they asked us if we could go to the corner shop for them to collect essentials. I have arranged a special knock so that Ali will know it’s me and it’s safe to open his back door. This is not a way I’d want to live but he is quite afraid anyway. I take him some supplies regularly and I have arranged that if he or his wife needs to see a doctor I’d be happy to smuggle them out of his house and take him to a doctor or a dentist and anywhere else he’d like to be.

There are a number of people here who are willing to do the same for their neighbors. There are people who are willing and able to step up. It seems so recently that we were able to live a normal life. We’d used to have parties, we had dinner together, we used to visit in all of our neighbors houses. Those days are gone, we all live in ways where we could be easily identified. So this is our way of life, we hope, for a short time.

Yes, I remember Northern Ireland and “the troubles”. I hope that was not the reason you came to the United States. There probably is similarity in that people live in fear of their lives and their continued existence where they live. Here in America we expect to hear about bombs and shootings almost every night but that has become a way of life. It is when the violence comes from people who have sworn to protect and serve the people that something is very wrong.

You don’t want me to say too much in case it can be heard or seen. Today we live quite differently from how we used to live. So many things go on as usual but with only some of our friends. We still play soccer, we still go to the park which is now such an open air place where we can go.

Your friend

Ben “

“Dear Ben,

It was so good of you to write to me. Still the old ways are sometimes more satisfying than so many of our convenient wase of living. As you know I have always been a bit of a hermit, afraid of noises, afraid of my shadow. I am lucky I have friends like you with whom I keep in touch. I do feel fairly secure here but I don’t feel I can spread my wings with confidence. I am one hundred percent behind what you and your friends are doing I wish I was brave enough to be with you as you go out.

I have taken up a new past times, Sudoku and crosswords. My mind is active the way my body isn’t. I’m still at a beginner’s level but I am getting to recognize patterns. My mind is working hard and that pleases me. Maybe it is working to much. I‘m not getting enough sleep!

I don’t know if you knew, but I once worked for the post office, In the early days of the Post Office people did not put a stamp on their letters. Instead, the recipient was expected to pay for the delivery of letters. I remember a story about a mail man who knew everyone on his round. This was before mail all had to be delivered so the mail man would charge instead. The mail system was optimistic in those days and they expected the receiver to pay for the service instead of the sender. He was used to not delivering to a particular address as the man who lived there never got any letters.

The mail man arrived at his house one day and said ‘Here is a letter I have for you. I know you don’t get any mail, but I think you’ll want this as we both know your son’s writing.’

‘I don’t know, He got enough strength to write to me. I know he is alive, and thinks of me. I can’t afford much and we both know who sent it.’

This is a bit of humor in a horrible situation.

I look forward to your next epistle.

Good luck friend

Jeff“

“Dear Jeff,

I’m glad you are keeping your mind going. We all need to do that to stay on top of this situation. I can understand how you must have felt in Northern Ireland. We have something similar here but it is not two sides fighting each other but the Government wanting to reduce the number of swarthy faces. Of course we are against it and so far we haven’t got to the Northern Irish level. There is also no George Mitchell to help negotiate a peace.

My wife and I are keeping in touch with all that we have going on. When there is nothing in particular we drive the streets and let people know if we have seen any activity. When we see armed and masked men moving in groups. We can blow whistles or make some noise to tell our friends that they are about. Our friends gather in crowds for safety and by means of numbers we discourage these domestic terrorists from try to arrest people. We’ve been quite successful so far and we keep the terrorists at bay.

We need money to fuel our cars, buy food for our neighbors. We can bring it back to some central point where it can be divided and shared. We take nights off so we can rest and be ready for the next night. This movement mobilizes so many in the city, its like we are a peace-loving, caring army. We make sure we don’t bring any guns with us and its like we have ‘a government of the people, by the people and for the people’ to quote, I think Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg speech.

Our friends, Ali’s family have moved out to a secret place where they cannot easily be touched. While they are away we make sure that their house will still be there when they return. We all find this constant watching very tiring and we hope that soon the terrorists will be moved on to another city. It doesn’t seem very civic minded to wish that the terrorists would move on to someone else. It does not solve the problem, but it is like we spread the word that we do not want this thing to grow.

All the best

Ben”

“Dear Ben,

It is odd that mankind can remember things that are amusing in dangerous situations. A pub in Belfast was always receiving bomb threats so when the next one came the customers put beer mats over their drinks in case there was a bomb and it might shake dust and plaster from the ceiling. The beer mats on top of the drinks instead of under the glass was a protection to keep falling parts of the building out of their drinks.

I can only agree with you, it is selfish for me to stay out of this. Fortunately I now have American citizenship so I feel a bit more secure. I am white anyway so I don’t feel threatened. I do know that the news of killings has happened to people like me, white US citizens. Please tell me where we can go and meet up with other activists. I don’t think we can just sit and wait for it to come to us. We can only drive around and alert people. But we cannot, because of our ages and health, be more active than that. We look forward to seeing you both again in a more civilized way.

I think we all use our memories selectively Some incidents stand out and others become part of our lives and we conveniently forgot them.

My mother was always worried about where I would go and what time of day. My father lived through the second Workl War and he was brave about going out. He worked on the other side of Belfast. The route he drove was through areas where the paving stones changed position overnight as young bloods rip them up and throw them at each other. One of his most direct routes was blocked by the Peace LIne to keep Protestant and Catholic apart.

Stay safe

Jeff”