Monday, November 17, 2014

Celebrating a "Miracle": The Wall Comes Down

From the November 9, 2014, Chicago Tribune.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that an irrepressible yearning for freedom brought the Berlin Wall and called it a "miracle" the Cold War barrier was breached without a shot fired.  Germany would always be grateful for the courage of East Germans who protested the Communist dictatorship.

Photographs:

To mark the 25th anniversary a 9.3-mile-long "Border of Lights 2014" was switched on where the wall once stood.

From a 1989 photo: East Germans pour through the newly-opened Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz.  There are also people atop the curved top, one bravely standing (easy to fall off) and the rest straddled on it.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was there and waving to onlookers as he walked across Pariser Platz.  Earlier he had had strong words warning the U.S. and Russia over the current growing tensions that he believes will put the world "on the brink of a new Cold War."

One of the world's greatest statesmen.  he could have ordered mass shootings when all of this was taking place 25 years ago, but didn't.  And still looking for peaceful coexistence.

Like I said earlier, I never expected to see this happen.  At various parts of my life, I thought the Vietnam War was going to last forever and that there would always be a Cold War and a Berlin Wall.

--Cooter

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