20 years ago today the Berlin Wall fell. 20 years ago today the Cold War ended.
Free minds, free markets, and Ronald Reagan won the day. Marxism, detante, and Jimmy Carter lost.
While Barack Obama doesn't think this is something to be celebrated (gee, wonder why...), I do. Unlike our President, I visited Germany and Berlin back when each was divided into East and West (1983). I travelled in the DDR (East Germany) and saw a real Marxist country in action. I saw the Wall - from both sides - and saw the dull, dreary Marxist East Berlin so directly contrasted against the free, capitalist West Berlin.
While I thought myself a Republican before, a week in Berlin (East and West) made me understand why. It crystallized on a West German train heading to Berlin, when we were forced to stop at at the East German border for passport checks. The East Germans customs agents made us stay in our seats and put up the windows, while border guards with AK-47s stood on the platform. One young guard, in his green Grenztruppen uniform, funny helmet and Kalashnikov, walked up to our window, staring in. I asked, rather rhetorically, "I wonder what he wants?" An elderly German woman sitting next to me replied, in English: "He wishes he were you." Pow.
So in celebration, dear readers, here is today's required listening: Right Here, Right Now.
And lest we forget, today's required reading: Murderous Idealism.
2 comments:
Good to see this here (although not personally surprised).
During a conversation a comment was made that I thought was pretty profound; "You can tell who the real Americans are; they're
the ones that remember and remind others of the day the wall came down."
I knew you were a real American ;)
Great story.
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