I marveled this week at the celebration taking place in Berlin. It’s hard to believe that 20 years have passed since the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.
Growing up, the wall was taken for granted by most people my age; for us it had always existed. As long as there was a cold war, which didn’t show any indication of ending, there would be a wall surrounding the area known as West Berlin. The idea that this symbol of oppression would come down, signaling that eastern Europe was opening up to the world, was pure fantasy.
Built in 1961, the wall came down in November 1989, not even two and a half years after President Reagan’s famous “Tear down this wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate. When you examine Reagan’s speech, it becomes clear that he understood the wall’s symbolism, but more importantly he also saw hope, by defeating the oppressive socialism for which it stood:
“President von Weizsacker has said, ‘The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.’ Today I say: As long as the gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.”
Reagan went on to explain how the Marshall Plan, crafted in 1947, would help rebuild a devastated Berlin, reeling from the end of World War II. “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos,” Marshall had said.
On the day of his speech Reagan took note of an artifact in a display commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. It was a photo of a burnt-out and gutted structure being rebuilt. There was a crudely-written sign that read “The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world.” Reagan pointed out that the sign could have been from almost any former Axis nation or Japan; they all enjoyed political and economic rebirth. In West Germany and West Berlin, the standard of living doubled from 1950 to 1960. However, while the west enjoyed prosperity, things weren’t going so well in East Germany and East Berlin.
“Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor,” Reagan said.
Yes, freedom was the victor 20 years ago, but I wonder what Reagan would say about his own America today were he still alive and of sound mind.
The Iron Curtain eventually succumbed because government control of virtually everything was ineffective; impractical. Yet we’re running into more government interference in the United States every day.
Government takeovers of banks. Nationalization of General Motors and Chrysler, and giving shareholder control to the unions, while shutting out retired investors who held bonds. Bailouts of major financial institutions. Stipends to those who receive Social Security to compensate no raise, even though raises are tied to inflation, which fell. A new health care plan that includes the possibility of fining people who don’t buy insurance. Freedom? Bah!
All of this takes place while a majority of the national media takes an apathetic approach. One cable network is too busy “fact checking” Saturday Night Live sketches that involve President Obama. Tea Party demonstrators are called “extremists” by some media outlets, that is when they’re not childishly termed something that is a sexual play on words. Can anyone say TASS?
Speaking of public protests, Reagan took on people demonstrating against his appearance at the wall on that day in June 1987, but he took a diplomatic approach rather than one of derision: “I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they're doing again.”
President Obama, I would like to point out, was conspicuously absent from the 20th anniversary events in Berlin. That tells me plenty about his feelings on the fall of socialistic oppression in Europe.
And now we turn to America. It’s not too late, but we need to make noise and prevent a different type of wall from being built.
John Hopkins is the night city editor of the Tonawanda News. His column appears Thursdays. Contact him at john.hopkins@tonawanda-news.com.
