Remembering the Berlin Wall

Well surprise, surprise! The Anointed One, Barrack Hussein Obama (mmm...mmm...mmm), is sitting out the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I'm guessing that he couldn't figure out a way to make it about him so why bother going. The other likely reason is that since he doesn't believe in individual freedom why would he celebrate the greatest single event that symbolizes freeing individuals?

In 1985, I had the great good fortune to visit Berlin - East and West. At that time no one, especially a dozen teenagers from small town Idaho, could imagine that the Berlin Wall would be rubble a mere four years later. We could hardly even imagine the powerful statement President Reagan would make two years later demanding that Mr. Gorbachev tear down the wall. The wall looked permanent and immovable just like the Soviet Bloc. Towers shielded by reflective glass looked grimly down on gray concrete wall topped by miles of barbed wire. As if emphasizing the differences between East and West, the buildings of West Berlin looked bright and cheerful while those on the East side of the wall looked like they were built in gray scale. In East Berlin, all colors seemed muted and when visiting the other side, it was as if some unseen creature was sucking the joy from your soul.

Crossing into East Germany and East Berlin was a daunting prospect. Our bus was boarded by soldiers in dingy olive uniforms armed with sub-machineguns at the checkpoint. They checked our passports closely, counted us several times, and checked to make sure we weren't carrying contraband print material (especially bibles) into East Berlin. On the way out, we were counted several times again to make sure we weren't smuggling anyone out.

A small group of us accompanied by chaperons crossed at Checkpoint Charlie to catch dinner and the State run opera company on the East side. Again, there were queues and a maze of narrow halls lined by unnamed and uncounted East German soldiers; all on guard against the 'evils' of western freedom. Then we emerged behind the Iron Curtain, potential prisoners of the state just like the millions of East Germans that the wall was built to contain; blissfully unaware of the Stazi (East German KGB) officer likely trailing us. (And this isn't idle, anti-Communist paranoia; the officer was equally likely there to ensure our safety as to spy on us. After all, the last thing the East German government needed was an international incident involving American teens.)

Then there was the wall itself. On the East side, it was bordered by a no-man's land of bare ground dotted with land mines and a second wall. The wall cut through Berlin with the same disdain of human desire and hatred of freedom as the system that created it. Once busy streets now dead-ended at the wall. Subways were cut off by the wall. German friends and families were cut off by the wall. The western side became a graffiti covered running commentary of Germany's Cold War with itself. In an age before the blog, all manner of people 'blogged' on the wall. Missives against communism and capitalism dotted the wall. Here and there one could find lamentations for those trapped behind the wall, exhortations for unity, disarmament, and peace. Then there were countless names with and without dates.

Berlin and Germany left an indelible impression in my mind; one that has and continues to inform my political opinions. The close experience with the naked totalitarianism of the Soviet system is partially responsible for my conversion from an ordinary center-rightist to a Crusader.

Mine was the last generation of the Cold War. Many of those born a mere five years after me were barely aware of the rest of the world when the Berlin wall fell. If there is a down side to the end of Soviet/Warsaw Pact totalitarianism, it is that the Millenials and beyond will not be able to see firsthand evidence of the evils of Communism. The soft socialism of Europe and the velvet-gloved Communism that Red China projects to the world look far less insidious than they really are. These things make us susceptible to the idea of government as a benefactor. We begin to fall for the idea that we have rights to health care, housing, food, water, cable television, and a whole list of the things most of us know we have to work for. As we begin to embrace soft socialism we will indenture ourselves to the government. We will accept George Carlin's 'happy face fascism' because security is easier than freedom. And one day, we will have given away enough freedoms that government can take off the velvet glove to reveal the iron fist. If that day comes, this time there will be no wall; no bastion of individual freedom left to fight against it. What Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and like minded individuals failed to do by force, we will do to ourselves through soft words and good intentions.