Yep, another pretty big anniversary today: 20 years ago today the Berlin Wall came down and with it, a whole mess of governments and a major realignment in Europe.
I was in college at the time. I heard the news from a friend and went back to my dorm room to turn on All Things Considered and listened to the coverage. I was sitting there using my dial up modem to call into the campus computer system and wrote some emails to a couple of friends who were studying in Germany at the time (yes, email existed back that and I had an account). I also remember it was a Thursday. The next night my college improv troupe had our first off campus show (ever) and did several scenes set in and around the Berlin Wall which was rapidly being torn down at the time.
And of course it was one of the biggest spontaneous parties of the century, probably the biggest since the end of World War II...and I was missing it (yep, that's how college students think).
I have been to Germany, but not near the old border or Berlin. Last year when I was in Romania, I intentionally found several of the places I remembered watching on television when they overthrew communism. I went to the monuments and saw where Nicolae Ceauşescu was made his last appearance before he was executed and even found his grave.
It was just such an amazing time in history. Although there are still some growing pains in some of the former communist countries, the fall of communism in the early 90's definitely made the world a safer and better place.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
The fall of communism in the early 90's definitely made the world a safer and better place.
While that is true, it did have a positive effect, we can not ignore the increased interest in plutonium production that can be used for nuclear weapons by middle eastern countries. With the existance of that capability, I don't believe that we can sit back and feel really safe from nuclear destruction at all.
"Mr Gorbachev, Tear down this wall". That speech still gives me chills. BTW - Helen Johnson has a huge chunk of the Berlin wall in her yard.
There was an interesting interview with Peter Robinson, the man who wrote Reagan's famous speech in which he implored Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall" on this week's On the Media. The most interesting part was that the U.S. National Security Council wanted the line removed but Reagan liked it and kept it in.
You can read or listen to the piece.
When I heard about it, chills ran down my spine. The Iron Curtain was very real to me, especially when I was young. Family members were behind it.
Post a Comment