German Reunification Day

[Guest Godless]

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a structure that divided families and communities for 28 years. I was only 4 years old when it happened, but the significance of the event has not been lost on me. It marked the beginning of the end of one of the most frightening eras in modern history and ushered in a new era of freedom and unity.

And on that note, aren't these kids just the cutest???

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30597826&id=1427526565

Edited November 9, 2009 by Godless

[talisyn]

Yes those were cute kids! I was 17 when the wall came down, and what I remember most was the complete unexpectedness of the fall. And then total relief that the USA and USSR were not going to blow up the world

[Guest Godless]

I remember my parents getting really excited for reasons I couldn't even begin to understand. Then they spent the next few days dragging my sister and I around the city. I thought it was pretty cool even though I had no clue what was going on.

[Wingnut]

I can't believe it's been 20 years. I was almost 9. Somewhere in a "keep-forever" box in the attic, I have a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Thanks for the reminder, Godless.

[NeuroTypical]

A co-worker was in the military stationed in Germany at the time. He and a buddy managed to get a 500-lb block of the wall into their tiny car, and eventually across the ocean. It served as a coffee table for a few years, and now is in a museum somewhere.

The world owes a great debt to Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Margaret Thatcher for their parts in winning the cold war.

LM

Edited November 9, 2009 by Loudmouth_Mormon

[prisonchaplain]

I just read a column in The Week, in which the author suggests that Germany ought to consider sparing some of the Gorbymania for Reagan. He says that Russian historians accept as fact that Reagan's intentional arms race forced Russia to near-bankruptcy, and led to the softened stance. As my wife was mentioning this to me she quipped that may he, rather than a certain other, should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize, even posthumously.

[rameumptom]

They do not give posthumous Nobel Prizes. Otherwise, Reagan would hopefully be a shoe-in for many of us.

I was in the USAF at the time the wall fell. I'd spent a year not long before in South Korea, watching fence-line at night to ensure no communists poured over the border. I've stood in the small conference building on the North/South Korean border in Panmunjom, and watched the Chinese and North Korean soldiers watching back at me. I wondered if it was as eerie a feeling for them as it was for me. I wondered if they even wondered what freedoms lay just feet from where they stood.

To see the Berlin Wall fall just months after Pres Reagan stood at the Brandenburg gate and utter those powerful words: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" cheered my soul. I don't know of anyone in 1988 who would have believed it would be gone the following year, or that the Soviet Union would soon disappear thereafter.

Thankfully, America stood at that time as a city on a hill, giving hope to those in Solidarity, in Eastern Europe and in Russia, that they could all taste freedom someday. Hopefully, we can someday become that light to the world once again.

[sixpacktr]

Thankfully, America stood at that time as a city on a hill, giving hope to those in Solidarity, in Eastern Europe and in Russia, that they could all taste freedom someday. Hopefully, we can someday become that light to the world once again.

From your mouth to God's ear, Ram...

I remember Reagan's speech. It gave me chills then and still does. It is funny that those that actually move history rarely get the credit for it. Gorby was forced into acquiesence, but since Reagan was the original Bush (in lib's eyes), he is undeserving of the credit, apparently. Reagan and the Iron Lady in GB forced Gorby's hand. Thank you, Pres Reagan. Thank you, Prime Minister Thatcher. If only you were around now....But Europe now, as it did then, must have its Gorbasm.

Because now, instead of forcing our enemies to fear us, and our allies to respect us, and those that are oppressed to hope on us (such as Solidarity and several other groups in those days), we instead ask them to check the grease under the bus after we threw them under there...

Edited November 9, 2009 by sixpacktr

[bytor2112]

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! - Ronald Reagan

[pam]

I have to ditto what others have said. I can't believe it's been 20 years. But unlike others, I will refrain from mentioning how old I was at the time.

[Moksha]

I think the primary contributor to the demise of the Soviet Union was the unrelenting years of the Radio Free Europe and their Radio Liberty Program. Originally started in the late 1940s by the National Committee for a Free Europe. Its main source of funding later came from the CIA, till it ceased official funding in 1972. It went on it own with continuous broadcasts. President Reagan stepped up funding for these broadcasts, which developed transmitters that were able to break free of jamming through sheer wattage and changing the frequency when needed.

Through these broadcasts the citizens of the various Soviet countries softly demanded and welcomed change.

[Moksha]

I have to ditto what others have said. I can't believe it's been 20 years. But unlike others, I will refrain from mentioning how old I was at the time.

Can you remember when President Kennedy declared himself to be a citizen of Berlin, in expressing his support for a free Berlin?

Boy, would Fox make hay out of such a diplomatic statement nowadays, or what.

Edited November 10, 2009 by Moksha

[prisonchaplain]

I think the primary contributor to the demise of the Soviet Union was the unrelenting years of the Radio Free Europe and their Radio Liberty Program. Originally started in the late 1940s by the National Committee for a Free Europe. Its main source of funding later came from the CIA, till it ceased official funding in 1972. It went on it own with continuous broadcasts. President Reagan stepped up funding for these broadcasts, which developed transmitters that were able to break free of jamming through sheer wattage and changing the frequency when needed.

Through these broadcasts the citizens of the various Soviet countries softly demanded and welcomed change.

So you really think TALK RADIO could have that much impact???

[john doe]

Can you remember when President Kennedy declared himself to be a citizen of Berlin, in expressing his support for a free Berlin?

Boy, would Fox make hay out of such a dimlomatic statement nowadays, or what.

Engaging in false projectionism again are we?

[Guest Godless]

Can you remember when President Kennedy declared himself to be a citizen of Berlin, in expressing his support for a free Berlin?

Actually, he declared himself to be a jelly doughnut. I am not joking.

[Moksha]

Actually, he declared himself to be a jelly doughnut. I am not joking.

A Berliner is the term for both a citizen of Berlin and a Jelly Donut. Hopefully the residents of this German city recognized the difference. The line was written by a professional interpreter.

Hopefully the citizens of New York, when call a New Yorker can tell the difference between themselves and the magazine by the same name, when they are referred to as a New Yorker. This gets much trickier in at the State Hospital when you say, "Napoleon". Are you referring to the French pastry or one of the residents?

[Moksha]

So you really think TALK RADIO could have that much impact???

Look at what is has done to coalesce the angry and paranoid into a potent force.

[Moksha]

Engaging in false projectionism again are we?

Of course this was false projection. Fox would never think of making it seem like a Democrat was kowtowing to a foreign power or questioning his loyalty for saying he was a Berliner.

[mesmith]

I was 30 years old and stationed in West Germany at the time. It was really satisfying knowing that I had been able to play a very small part in the process. And Moksha - Ich bin Berliner translates into I am a Berliner(one who is from Berlin), Ich bin ein Berliner translates into I am a jelly-filled pastry(similar to our jelly-filled doughnuts and made in the style prevalent in Berlin).

[john doe]

Of course this was false projection. Fox would never think of making it seem like a Democrat was kowtowing to a foreign power or questioning his loyalty for saying he was a Berliner.

Your hatred for conservatives, or anything resembling a conservative is showing again.

[prisonchaplain]

Look at what is has done to coalesce the angry and paranoid into a potent force.

We are talking about Europe, right???

[prisonchaplain]

Your hatred for conservatives, or anything resembling a conservative is showing again.

How can you say that??? Moksha's LDS, right?

[NeuroTypical]

Can you remember when President Kennedy declared himself to be a citizen of Berlin, in expressing his support for a free Berlin?

Boy, would Fox make hay out of such a diplomatic statement nowadays, or what.

Nowadays, Kennedy would be in the Republican camp. And yes, the various liberal mainstream and dinosaur media outlets would be ripping him new openings all over the place.

LM

[Just_A_Guy]

Nowadays, Kennedy would be in the Republican camp. LM

I dunno. Who's to say his views wouldn't have drifted leftwards like his brother's did?

[john doe]

How can you say that??? Moksha's LDS, right?

Which makes his apparent hatred for the right even more puzzling.