Monday, November 09, 2009

November 9th

On this day in 1989, Germans, separated by a gigantic wall built by the communists, started to crumble the Berlin Wall into pieces. Nearly a year later, there was a formal reunification of Germany.

It was a bizarre yet hopeful time. I imagine living in East Germany (how droll that sounds these days!) was horrifying, as it was living anywhere in the Eastern Bloc. Not being able to go anywhere or do anything without being watched by some malevolent government just freezes my nerves. That changed with a few hammers and millions of people thirsty for a chance at a normal life.

Forget Gorbachev and the other communist octopi. They were never the real characters who mattered in this drama. It was the Reagans, the Pope John Pauls, the Lech Walesas and- in this case- the Germans who stand out.

You can't keep walls up forever.

Check these photos out.

3 comments:

RuralRite said...

What a shame that they're putting the wall back up with the EU secular/socialist dictatorship.

Osumashi Kinyobe said...

I think some Europeans see this union as security. However, I spoke to a European fellow and he told me that friction would occur if the EU passed a law or resolution that could curtail a member state's economy. For example, if the EU imposed a moratorium on logging you could stop another country's economy in its tracks. This doesn't sound positive to me.

RuralRite said...

Europeans must be a pretty insecure bunch.
Apparently you have to have your exports equal as well. All the vegetables and fruit have to be the same size. They don't like competition.
Secular socialism at it's sickest level.