Tear Down That Wall- A Day Imprinted In My Mind Forever
Katerina wrote this interesting post about the wall in Berlin and I thought that I would like to use it to follow-up on my own post on the wall: Memories of the Berlin Wall - I Was Held at Gun Point!
I also have many other memories of the wall -- one was good, it was joining with friends and singing Christmas carols to the East German guards from across the wall.
The day the wall came down in Berlin was a day that I will never forget. My brother was in Germany for the historic event and as the wall starting being torn apart piece by piece he was on the phone with me. This was before youtube, before Iphones and Ipods, before the typical cell phones we have today. But he had access to a phone near the wall and I was able to be there in spirit and an earshot to this event.
Why would this event be so important to us? Memories flood my mind as I think back to this day and to the four years that we lived in Germany right near the border of East and West Berlin. The wall was a big part of our lives for those four years.
How many times we had walked along that wall- the wall between whether you could worship God or not, the wall between whether you could make money or not, the wall between whether you could voice your opinion or not. We were on the freedom side of that wall.
Just a few steps divided two very different worlds. I remember peering through the barbed wire sections especially near the guarded gates on occasion. My eyes were met with such contrast of seeing buildings and structures completely neglected, ugly and depressing and then turning around on our side of the wall to notice the wonderful German architecture with obvious care and attention to cleanliness. As a child things appear much bigger but also more obvious. This contrast affected me emotionally and the work my father was there to do became quite meaningful.
We went to German schools, spoke German in our home and socialized with Germans. Being integrated into German society was a part of my father's assignment in Germany as Naval Intelligence was a big part of encouraging the people of East Berlin to fight for their freedom. All of this helped to form my conservatism and love of our United States constitution.
As you witness what people will do to get just the chance of freedom; it is something you never forget. We saw on the news nearly every night people jumping the wall, ramming the wall, sneaking through in suitcases- knowing full well that they would be shot if they were caught trying to get to the west yet fully willing to take that risk. Being shot and killed for trying to escape the bonds of communism was better than living in the bondage and depressed state. Of course for a young girl to know this, to feel this and to witness this- one can not come away from this experience without having it mold a part of who you are.
My father had a dangerous assignment of smuggling intelligence and smuggling people over, around and through the wall. We were even able to meet some of these men who would hide in the smallest of compartments like only Houdini could do in order to cross the border. Without a full understanding of the nature of his business somehow I felt that he was doing a great duty to expand the love of freedom and help do his part to eventually bring down that wall. My experiences and recollections could fill a book.
So as my brother was giving me the step by step on the wall coming down he promised to bring me back a piece of that wall and he did. I have pieces of the Berlin wall that I treasure. I treasure these broken pieces of the wall because they symbolize that freedom can prevail. They symbolize the blood freely spent in order to bring many to taste the sweet savor of freedom. They remind me never to forget the sacrifices of many military and civilians who helped to break through the barrier and then to tear down the wall. They speak to me saying: never forget and never let it be in vain.
President Reagan did so much to help bring down the iron curtain and the Berlin wall. Below is his world famous speech to Russia's Gorbachev; Tear Down That Wall! Many of you were too young to remember or to young to care but this was one of the most important historic moments in history. Please take the time to watch and listen. This is important to understand the past so that we may have the strength and the fortitude to stand by those being oppressed, to make it possible for those oppressed to know that one day they too, can taste freedom and to never allow tyranny to come to visit us or those we care about. To feel what the people felt, to get a glimpse of what happens when the people have had enough, watch the video below President Reagan's speech. The video is 9 minutes long but very powerful about what happens when hundreds of thousands of people demand freedom.
Let us all remember the day the wall came tumbling down!
Tear Down That Wall- A Day Imprinted In My Mind Forever by Coach Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
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