30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

ONe of my favorite historian Youtuber:

 

I remember being in the Moscow Metro and watching one of our “adult” chaperones approach a lady who by her attire had to have been the wife of a party member. Her face turned into a mask of sheer terror and she literally sprinted away as fast as all her fur would permit her. At the time I thought she was scared of the American. Later, when old enough to really understand, I figured out what she was really afraid of.

I’m sure if I had been older I would have cried at some of the things I saw. It was surreal to me at the time. Looking back, the way the people spoke and behaved was literally heart breaking. It was so much deeper psychologically than the bread lines, empty shelves, and old women sweeping streets at daylight with a bundle of twigs lashed to an improvised broom stick.

 

Like Fred I was overwhelmed with emotions - it was a profoundly moving experience. It was like watching the world being born anew. You knew for one bright shining delirious instant that you were standing in one of those magical moments in time that few human beings ever get the joy of witnessing, and I consider myself lucky to have been alive to see it. Another sensation I got was one of redemption. All the blood, sweat and tears that had been expended in the twilight struggle for freedom had finally paid off and I felt an enormous debt of gratitude to all the brave men and women who made it possible, especially those who gave the last and fullest measure of devotion to that struggle.

What a BEAUTIFUL day...

 

Wonderful. I think my wife might have that book - I'm going to have to check that out when I get home.

It reminds me of an article written by James Dorn and published by the Cato Institute called "The Rise of Government and the Decline of Morality"

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/cl-12.pdf

and it mirrors what de Tocqueville wrote, but in the negative.

 

Thanks for doing a good job of conveying those feelings through writing. And thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. I hope the correct lessons are learned from this piece of history.

 

It’s a rock, and it just sits on the windowsill by my desk. My kids know what it is so they don’t throw it out when I’m dead.

 

Many of us have learned the correct lessons but many people have either chosen to ignore them or were never taught them in the first place.

This illustrates the danger associated with mass historical amnesia. As the old saying goes, people who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and there are people out there who want to repeat it (ex., Bernie Sanders, AOC, et al). In their arrogance they have convinced themselves that they can ignore and repeat the mistakes of the past and magically produce a different result in the future.

 

It's just a great book and reads like a daily newspaper because de Tocqueville really was a reporter, with his own editorial comments thrown in. His insights, largely because they are emotion free, are also amazing.

I'll check out your Cato link, thanks.

 

I'm mad they they are not giving Obama credit for the fall of the wall, because had he been president he sure would have made that happen,. Why just give the old white guy credit. I say Obama gets a second Nobel Peace Prize for the Berlin Wall, who is with me.....Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

In 50 years, Democrats will attempt to revise history to give Obama credit. They will tie it into his "You didn't build that" speech and how he saved the world from evil Capitalists.

They just need to finish up revising the Civil War first and obliterating their past sins there.

 

I was a kid, at LAX with my family to pickup a cousin flying in from Europe.

There were some Americans in east germany who were flying directly to LAX, and they had been delayed by east Germans for several days in Germany. Arrivals were delayed for hours.

So I got to see them being reunited with their families at the terminal, and the national and local news was there. I got to meet Hal Fishman.


This was life behind the wall...

 

New Reagan Statue in Berlin.

 

Our educational system ensures the history most needed is ignored in my opinion.

Also, we are such a “first world problem” society now, the lessons can’t be related to or comprehended even if taught.

 

Thanks for your service Bucky.

I hear those Bear bombers are some of the loudest aircraft ever made.

 

YW.

Yes, they are quite noisy. They make a lot of "noise" electronically as well.

 

I have passed through checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin two times. Thank god that wall is gone.

 

This is what East Berlin looked like in 1963 when I was there.

 

Still gutted from WW2? Very depressing.

 

I have more photos I took.

 

There are moments for optimism, given the broad concerns, but then something like this happens. https://www.wsj.com/articles/merito...1392?mod=MorningEditorialReport&mod=djemMER_h

 

Still have my never worn Check Point Charlie T-Shirt. )))

 

Much was still like that in 1989. It was incredibly worse than anything I could have imagined and yet the Communists were touting East Berlin, and East Germany, as one their more advanced areas. I must have bought into some of their propaganda because nothing prepared me for what I saw.

 

Were you going as a tourist, Robert? Was it difficult to get in?

 

Legally I was a tourist wearing the US Army uniform. No, it was easy to cross from Checkpoint Charlie. I was at times a bit worried about the officials in East Berlin though.