On Freedom and the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall-

22 years ago, on June 12, 1987 Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate, in West Berlin, and challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall. His now famous words

"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"

turned into reality a little over 2 years later.



Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an historic occasion which Obama has chosen not to participate in, because apparently he is too dang busy. Of course, he wasn't too busy when he was campaigning to make a grand appearance there, but I suppose that was different. At the time, he was trying to win hearts and minds of the American people and the rest of the world, but since he won the presidency he doesn't have to work so hard. It's actually rather shameful considering what tearing down the wall symbolized.

So, 20 years ago the Wall was torn down and with that came freedom for the East Berlin Germans. Ironically, though the cold war ended several years later, it's been replaced with another war, one far more terrifying because the enemy has no moral compass. At least with the communists there was the whole issue of MAD (mutually assured destruction). There was never really any fear (at least for me) that they would actually attack us. Islamists, on the other hand, would love nothing more than to destroy us and our western ways. And there are no borders. Their terror is not relegated to one region. It is global and far reaching.

As for freedom, we are no longer free. Islamists have constructed an invisible wall, that we have helped to build through our PCness, that may not be so easy to knock down. Our freedom of speech has been drastically reduced. People fear being called Islamaphobic, so they keep their mouths shut. People fear offending, so they censor themselves. The director of 2012, Roland Emmerich, scrapped a scene (where the Kaaba in Mecca was to be destroyed, along with Rio's Christ The Redeemer) because he feared a fatwa. And it's not just the Islamists; conservatives in this country are not free, either. If we criticize Obama and his leftist policies we're called racists and other nasty things. At least we're not killed for our criticism.

It's incumbent upon us to make sure that we don't allow others to infringe upon our freedoms, by fighting the good fight. Tear down the shackles of bondage and let freedom ring!


Take the Spiegel Berlin Wall Quiz for fun. Click here.