The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 20 Years Ago

I'm not much for politics, but this subject means a lot to me.  I will admit, however, that I didn't remember the anniversary on my own.  I was reminded by my virtual-blogger-facebook friend Petya (who I've never met in person) at the beginning of the week.

I've meant to blog of the subject since Monday, but haven't had time with all of my work.  However, I don't want it to be perfect before I mention the event.  It's important.

At this point, I'll suffice it to say that I didn't know how much of what I'd learned about communism was true.  Media, propoganda, movies, books, school, rumor, etc. were my education.  I didn't live it.

Here's a short list of learning influences, good, bad, accurate, and inaccurate.  Communism, oppression, repression, the Cold War, etc.  overlapping, analogy, metaphor...

Duck and Cover
Gotcha!
We The Living
"Four legs good, two legs bad"
Red Dawn
"We will bury you"
Bond girls
Anthem/2112
1984
"Ich bin ein Berliner"

None of these paint a picture of what life under Communism must have been like.  Turns out some was accurate and some not...

If I never come back to update this and flesh things out, I leave you with my own little story of that day.

I was in a vanpool, coming home from my job at USC, when I heard about the Wall on the radio.  This was before everyone had a cell phone, and I was anxious to get home to call my dad.  My father is from Germany, was once a Berlin Wall guard in the American Army, and we'd talked many times about how awful that wall was.  I wanted to see how he was doing after the news.  I called him an hour later, and I could tell he was crying a little.  Just so you know how a few average Americans took the news, there were some tears in the van, too.