The Red Phone.(The Talk of the Town)(ordinary New Yorkers talk with ordinary Iranians)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 04-FEB-08

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COPYRIGHT 2008 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

On a blustery recent Saturday morning, a small group of volunteers gathered at the entrance to City Hall Park. They set up a folding table and laid out four old-fashioned red telephones, which were marked with the numbers one through four. They unfurled a banner that read, "U.S. and Iran: It's time to talk!" Another banner, draped across the front of the table, announced, "Direct lines to Iran."

The antiwar group Enough Fear had set up the call session as a way for ordinary New Yorkers to talk to ordinary Iranians, although the event's location, chosen by the Parks Department, guaranteed that, apart from a few bargain hunters shopping at Century 21, most passersby would be tourists. The "ordinary Iranians" at the...

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