The Fall of the Wall

vince

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Moments ago I watched live coverage as Lech Walesa push over the first of about 1000 dominoes, symbolizing the fall of the Berlin Wall. How appropriate it was to for him to the one to start the dominoes falling again.

Twenty years on and it's hard to imagine how different our world views were back then. Now the EU and NATO reach all the way from the Atlantic to the borders of Russia. Russia is no long isolated and seen as the Evil Empire.

But lets' not forget the walls that still exist. The blast walls in Baghdad and Fallujah. The walls separating Jews and Muslims in Palestine. The walls of hatred and intolerance separating races, nations, religions, sexes, political philosophies.
Let all the walls come tumbling down. (Pardon the idealism.. it's a feel good moment :cool: )

Oh now they are saying Gorby is going to push over a set of dominoes. Great.
 

Ericsson1228d

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Moments ago I watched live coverage as Lech Walesa push over the first of about 1000 dominoes, symbolizing the fall of the Berlin Wall. How appropriate it was to for him to the one to start the dominoes falling again.

Twenty years on and it's hard to imagine how different our world views were back then. Now the EU and NATO reach all the way from the Atlantic to the borders of Russia. Russia is no long isolated and seen as the Evil Empire.

But lets' not forget the walls that still exist. The blast walls in Baghdad and Fallujah. The walls separating Jews and Muslims in Palestine. The walls of hatred and intolerance separating races, nations, religions, sexes, political philosophies.
Let all the walls come tumbling down. (Pardon the idealism.. it's a feel good moment :cool: )

Oh now they are saying Gorby is going to push over a set of dominoes. Great.

What has happened to our world? We used to have real leaders like Gorbachev, Walesa and Reagan. Now we have the "ditherer in chief" who doesn't attend a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I'm not being partisan here, on the GOP side there is nobody like these three either.
 

vince

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I'd bet the farm that if he'd gone to Berlin and then skipped Ft. Hood, you be bitching about that as well. It would go something like, "The partier-in-chief' went to Berlin for a photo-op and to hobnob with the snooty Europeans that love him so much, instead of honoring the victims at Ft Hood. He didn't even have anything to do with wall comimg down."

As much as expect from your President, you can't expect him to be in two places at once can you? The party in Berlin was Monday night. On Tuesday (today), he must be at Ft. Hood for the memorial service. He then leaves for the trip to Japan and China, which he delayed so he could attend the memorial.

That much travel in such a short time is not really practical, even with Air Force One at your disposal.

Must every current event be turned into an attack on some politician?
 
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L_Lynn

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I'd bet the farm that if he'd gone to Berlin and then skipped Ft. Hood, you be bitching about that as well. It would go something like, "The partier-in-chief' went to Berlin for a photo-op and to hobnob with the snooty European that love him so much, instead of honoring the victims at Ft Hood. He didn't even have anything to do with wall comimg down."

As much as expect from your President, you can't expect him to be in two places at once can you? The party in Berlin was Monday night. On Tuesday (today), he must be at Ft. Hood for the memorial service. He then leaves for the trip to Japan and China, which he delayed so he could attend the memorial.

That much travel in such a short time is not really practical, even with Air Force One at your disposal.

Must every current event be turned into an attack on some politician?

Hear, hear! To both the above and the OP.
 

QuiteOne

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I had the good fortune of being in Berlin when the wall came down. I was one of the boisterous revelers celebrating ON the wall at Brandenburg Gate on New Years Eve drinking champagne. It was an amazing time of unfettered joy and hope. I still have several pieces of the wall that I chipped off myself.
 

Ericsson1228d

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I'd bet the farm that if he'd gone to Berlin and then skipped Ft. Hood, you be bitching about that as well. It would go something like, "The partier-in-chief' went to Berlin for a photo-op and to hobnob with the snooty Europeans that love him so much, instead of honoring the victims at Ft Hood. He didn't even have anything to do with wall comimg down."

As much as expect from your President, you can't expect him to be in two places at once can you? The party in Berlin was Monday night. On Tuesday (today), he must be at Ft. Hood for the memorial service. He then leaves for the trip to Japan and China, which he delayed so he could attend the memorial.

That much travel in such a short time is not really practical, even with Air Force One at your disposal.

Must every current event be turned into an attack on some politician?

Nice try, but it was reported by CNN even before Ft. Hood happened that he wasn't going to Berlin.
 

B_VinylBoy

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Nice try, but it was reported by CNN even before Ft. Hood happened that he wasn't going to Berlin.

That's not his point.
You, just like many other dissenters adopt this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" attitude towards the current administration. Like vince stated, if Obama went to Berlin then you would be here talking about how he went there for a photo-op... how he doesn't pay enough attention to matters on our own shores, and probably how he takes too much time off from work and costing you tax dollars.

Let's not act as if nobody can read between the lines here.
 

SR_Blarney_Frank

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Proving my theory that every thread no matter how distant will quickly disintegrate into Obama conspiracy theories and random bashing.

Now given that there is no other non-European world leader in attendance, I don't particularly see why there's an expectation that Obama attend. At best it's optional.

Back on the real topic, I was too young to appreciate this when it actually happened but it gave me chills watching today.
 

vince

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Proving my theory that every thread no matter how distant will quickly disintegrate into Obama conspiracy theories and random bashing.

Now given that there is no other non-European world leader in attendance, I don't particularly see why there's an expectation that Obama attend. At best it's optional.

Back on the real topic, I was too young to appreciate this when it actually happened but it gave me chills watching today.
1989 was a year to remember. Revolution was in the air!

In Beijing, the Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent massacre had us transfixed for six weeks in the spring. So sad.

Then Solidarity won the elections in Poland. Those were the first free elections in eastern Europe and the Poles had been pushing for about ten years. That's why I was so happy to see Lech Walensa push over the first domino.

From August through the last week of December we saw Hungary open it's borders with Austria and declare it's self a free republic. The Berliners push their way through the wall, the Velvet Revoultion in Czechoslovakia, the 30 year dictator of Bulgaria resigned and the most satisfying of all, the Ceauşescus executed by their own army for crimes against humanity.

One year later, the USSR itself was consigned to the dustbin of history.

In just a few months, the geopolitical reality (or delusion) that we had lived with all our lives, for generations, was gone!

Plus.. The Ayatollah Khomeini died and fell out of his casket!
 

SilverTrain

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I crossed from West Berlin into East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie, many moons ago. Quite an experience. I was gratified to find that the East Berliners I met seemed possessed of at least as much positive spirit as their counterparts across the way.

Years later when the Wall came down, I had one of those rare sometimes-the-good-in-humanity-prevails feelings.