Berlin

[Guyau]

“Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.” —President Kennedy in Berlin (6/26/63)

“In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: ‘We will bury you’. But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. 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.” —President Regan in Berlin (6/12/87)

The Berlin Wall fell twenty years ago tomorrow.

[BaalChatzaf]

The Berlin Wall fell twenty years ago tomorrow.

And all it need was a small push! I think there is a message in that.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Guyau]

Setting: Petrograd 1925

“‘I have to leave Russia before they find me. I’ve just received the money—from my aunt in Berlin. That’s what I’ve been waiting for. They smuggled it to me’.”

“She asked: ‘The boat leaves tonight?’

“‘A smugglers’ boat. They smuggle human flesh out of this wolf-trap. And desperate souls, like mine. If we’re not caught—we land in Germany. If we’re caught—well, . . .”

“They stopped at a fence on an unpaved street. Leo paid the driver. They started to walk slowly. Leo watching cautiously till the sleigh disappeared around a corner. Then he said ‘We have two miles to walk to the sea’. . . .”

“Beyond the snow was the world; beyond the snow was that consummate entity to which the country behind them bowed reverently, wistfully, tragically: Abroad. Life began beyond the snow.”

We the Living

[Guyau]

Prague – Velvet Revolution

“The time of dictatorships and totalitarian regimes is far from over. ‘It may have ended in its classical form as we know it from the 20th century. But new, much more sophisticated ways of controlling society are being born. This means we have to be on our guard, to be cautious and wary; it requires study and the ability to see things from a greater perspective’.” —Václav Havel

20th Anniversary

Oh, Freedom

Memory

[Guyau]

New this month:

Revolutionary Russia 1891–1991 – A History

Orlando Figes

Scroll down here for Introduction.

[Guyau]

.

~not to be extinguished~

[Francisco Ferrer]

Margaret Thatcher: “We do not want a united Germany"

[BaalChatzaf]

Margaret Thatcher: “We do not want a united Germany"

Amazing. Maggie was channeling Neville Chamberlain.

Ba'al Chafatz

[Guyau]

.

Flee from Hitler to US, flee from US back to Germany (East):

Ingeborg's Struggles and Victories

[Brant Gaede]

.

Flee from Hitler to US, flee from US back to Germany (East):

Ingeborg's Struggles and Victories

It appears she was a communist also.

--Brant

[syrakusos]

"The McCarthy anti-communist trials meant that Ingeborg and her husband were at risk because of their left-wing views. So they fled again - back to Germany."

So, it was like 1967, and I was at a meeting of Ohio Young Americans for Freedom and at lunch this old guy sits down with us. "We ought to keep out all foreign ideas," he said. "That sounds like a foreign idea," someone retorted.

Or Woody Allen's The Front: "He can't find work because he's a communist." So what? He's always been a communist. He was a communist in high school. "Yeah, but it's not so popular now."

The only people who are afraid of ideas are those who have no direct experience with them.

[Brant Gaede]

You wrapped a lot of padding around your knife.