Dave: American politics in Berlin

I was strolling along Friedrichstrasse the other day towards the river, admiring the interesting architecture that can be found en route. The day was pleasant, the warmth of the oncoming Summer cheering the mind and seeming to add an extra ‘va va voom’ to every ones hearts. The Winter months had been long, too long, dark and cold, freezing in fact. The seasons were changing and you could smell it in the air. It was the type of day to spend sitting with friends, drinking wine whilst talking about love, philosophy, music...life! And so it was I ended up talking about the Iraq war with an American expatriate.

He had been standing next to a table, which was plonked on a busy pavement in the hub of the city. Crowds of workers, tourists, students and such like, thronged the streets as far as the eye could see. Upon catching my gaze he had excitedly lumbered forwards and started what would turn out to be, a rather fruitless conversation.

“Hi there! George Bush and his cronies are systematically destroying our planet and heading us into another World War....”

It was at this point he suddenly remembered to ask,

...ah, by the way, do you speak English?”

“Yes but why didn’t you start in German, we are after all in the German capital?”, I replied.

Then he shouted, “Claudia, this is one for you!”

He was an American, I could tell immediately from the accent. He had turned to his female assistant who was handing out leaflets from the table. She was obviously German because the next thing I knew, I was being told the same rhetoric as before but this time in German.

“Hang on lady, I speak English, maybe easier if your colleague continued.”, I interrupted.

“Dave, he is one of yours, couldn’t you tell?”, she said to him.

He came back, a little confused and apologised for not realising I was British. She laughed, obviously finding it rather amusing. Anyway, my initial truthfulness was actually a mistake because for the next half an hour I was on the receiving end of a political monologue. I tried, I did try, to put my views across to him, then to politely leave, a number of times but he droned on, delighted with his chance to spread ‘the news’, or his version of.

“We have to do our bit, you guys in England, with Blair, and us in the United States, with the murderer and dictator George Bush...we have to get all the signatures possible collected together and tell these gangsters that they can’t get away with murder and....”

His face was utterly nondescript, not a feature I can remember to this day, despite having looked at it for nigh on 30 minutes. He wore a grey coat and light brown corduroy trousers. I had guessed he was in his mid-40s, probably from the East Coast.

“...terrorising the lives of countless Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians.”

I politely gave him some time at first, I like politics and knew quite a bit about what he was talking about so it wasn’t completely going over my head and I would have been quite happy to stay longer if he had only been willing to discuss and not preach.

Eventually I managed to prise myself out of the situation. We parted on good terms, I having being loaded with four leaflets and a rather large pamphlet. He was most likely exuberant at having successfully informed another European of the evils that supposedly lie at the top of our political establishments. If it meant he could drink his coffee later that night, safe in the knowledge that the world might not in fact be heading into World War 3 within his life time, due to my enlightenment, then that was indeed, marvellous.

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Dave was a 41 year-old former teacher from Massachusetts. After being fired from his school for burning the Stars and Stripes in front of his bewildered pupils, he had set off for a new life in Europe. Shortly upon arriving, he had met Claudia, a 39 year-old single mother of one, whom he married. Every weekend they attended political rallies, events and meetings where they met like minded souls, usually other expatriates. The topics of conversation varied between the 'evil' Republicans and classic country and western songs from the 1970's.
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