And The Wall Came Tumbling Down

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of The Berlin Wall.  Erected upon the order of the East German leader Walter Ulbrecht in 1961, The Wall was long a symbol of the Cold War confrontation between America and the now defunct Soviet Empire.  For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, the Cold War defined our lives - we never knew when we went to sleep if nuclear might break-out before we woke up.

The Wall, however, also represented the stark contrast between freedom and slavery; liberty and totalitarianism; self-determination and oppression.  Its fall also revealed that history need not always inexorably move toward greater government and tyranny - that, indeed, the spirit of liberty could conquer the ghosts of oppression.  Its fall should remain an inspiration to all freedom loving people across the world (including here at home) that fighting for liberty against impossible odds is well worth the effort.