Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall came down. An act that literally reunited a country. Families that had been forbidden to see one another anxiously awaited cousins, mothers, and grandparents. The young climbing the wall and literally tearing it down as they crossed. A sight to be seen. An image to be captured and held as the most important act of modern day Germany.
Well, depending upon who you ask. East Germany was poor. West Germany was not. It was like two different worlds. East Germans knew they had it bad. What they did not know, was how bad. That is until the wall came down. Imagine a world with streets paved with gold, big beautiful houses, new and exotic foods while you live in world with dirt streets, ramshackle buildings, and gruel. And it all depended upon which side of the wall you were on.
Ich liebe Deutschland. I love Germany. My love for D-land started in the 7th grade when I first started taking German. I fell in love and never looked back. I am a firm believer that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. Ummm, so what the hell is the United States doing? I am reminded of another wall.
One that does not divide a country, but one that divides people. The wall between the US and Mexico. This wall divides a people from their native land. Ummm, yea cause the US took that land way back when. They aren't sneaking into our country. They are returning to their ancestral land.
Well, depending upon who you ask. East Germany was poor. West Germany was not. It was like two different worlds. East Germans knew they had it bad. What they did not know, was how bad. That is until the wall came down. Imagine a world with streets paved with gold, big beautiful houses, new and exotic foods while you live in world with dirt streets, ramshackle buildings, and gruel. And it all depended upon which side of the wall you were on.
Ich liebe Deutschland. I love Germany. My love for D-land started in the 7th grade when I first started taking German. I fell in love and never looked back. I am a firm believer that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. Ummm, so what the hell is the United States doing? I am reminded of another wall.
One that does not divide a country, but one that divides people. The wall between the US and Mexico. This wall divides a people from their native land. Ummm, yea cause the US took that land way back when. They aren't sneaking into our country. They are returning to their ancestral land.
I don't want to get into the whole immigration thing. Is control needed? Sure. But Mexicans are not the only ones sneaking into the US and living here "illegally". What was my point? Oh, walls. I don't think this wall will work anymore than the Berlin Wall did. If somebody wants something bad enough, then nothing will keep them from it.
Germany is still struggling with effects the wall had on the people, the economy, and the country as a whole. In some people's mind, the wall is still there dividing them. Financially, one part of the country is prospering and the other is struggling. I wonder what the effects this US/Mexico wall will have on the US 20 years from now.
Anywho, I am celebrating with Germany today. It was a monumental moment in German history. I hope that foreign policy makers take a pause today and remember what the wall did, and did not do, for Germany. Maybe, just maybe, they will rethink this whole US/Mexico wall.
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