… knowing how quickly (and non-violently) even the worst regimes can fall.
(The best parts are toward the end. Of the article, not the regime.)
NOTE: The article is an oldie. But a goodie. Thought we could all use the reminder and the encouragement.
… knowing how quickly (and non-violently) even the worst regimes can fall.
(The best parts are toward the end. Of the article, not the regime.)
NOTE: The article is an oldie. But a goodie. Thought we could all use the reminder and the encouragement.
“The Berlin Wall, which was breached 20 years ago on Monday” confused the heck out of me until I spotted the 2009 dateline. I was in Germany at the time, and I bloody well knew it was more than 20 years.
Oddly enough, one of my strongest memories of the time was… dead and dying Trabants everywhere, and the gov’s concern about what to do about them all (reputedly, the resins used in cheap fiberboard components included goodies that qualified them as toxic waste).
Yes, it’s an oldie-but-goodie. I should have noted that; sorry.
As to Trabants … were they ever not dying? 😉
Yeah, but until then, we didn’t see very many in then-West Germany. But they got an awful lot of people to this side of the Wall, so I guess they worked well enough.
Thanks Claire.
[At the end, the state socialist project could not retain its credibility. Its restrictions, its shabbiness, its reliance on snooping… flew in the face of the ideals it supposedly stood for.]
Hmmm, sounds familiar. 🙂 Credibility is the single most important factor, and the federal govt is losing more every day. Just think how little they will have when the dollar dies. Kinda hard to blame it on somebody else!
I had some work in West Berlin in 1980 and went through Checkpoint Charlie to visit the other side for a day. The article is correct about the vast difference and the shabbiness.
Thanks for this. I needed this reminder this evening.