November 9, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the liberation of East Germany and the reunification of a divided nation.
November 9, 1989 It was on June 12, 1987 that President Ronald Reagan made his famous challenge, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
Reagan's words turned prophetic when the wall was torn down two and a half years later. It was possibly the most significant victory for democracy and freedom in the past 50 years, and its symbolic impact was even greater.
Ben Stein used images of the fall of the Berlin Wall in his inspiring conclusion to the film,
Expelled, as a metaphor for academic freedom.
It was an event that righted the course of western civilization and was hailed around the world as a victory for all humanity.
It is being celebrated today in Berlin and around the world.
But
our president will not be there.
It is inexcusable and truly shameful for the President of the United States to be absent from this event. I might even cut Obama some slack for having urgent business in Washington, were it not for that visit to Copenhagen to lobby for the Olympics, or his upcoming trip to Oslo to accept his (laughable) Nobel Peace prize.
If any man in the past 50 years deserved a Nobel Peace Prize, it was President Ronald Reagan, who had the courage to stand up to the bullies everyone else appeased, and demanded freedom.
In 1999, my wife and I visited Germany for the first time on a family history research tour. In a cemetery in Oettingen, Germany, we were surprised by an elderly German woman who approached us. She recognized we were Americans, and she began to seemingly pour her heart out to us about how the Americans helped rebuild Germany after World War II. My wife spoke only a little German and was barely able to keep up, but I videotaped some of the conversation and we translated more after we got home. The woman told us how the Russians trashed Germany everywhere they went, but (here her toned changed dramatically) the Americans helped restore the country.
The woman expressed deep concern for how young people in Germany were forgetting what socialism did to East Germany. She then took our hands and said to us, "Danke shoene," then still grasping our hands, said, "Vergessen nicht Deutschland!" ("Do not forget Germany.")
OettingenThe old woman's gratitude was not for us, but for our country, our soldiers, and our presidents who helped liberate Germany not only in World War II, but in the Cold War.
I am ashamed our current president is not representing them today and is not personally recognizing the significance of this day in the history of the free world. This is Germany's day, but it is also a day to acknowledge of the role and responsibility God has given the United States as a force for good. The United States of America is the reason there is a "free world."
I believe this is what the old woman in Oettingen was telling us. While Germany was freed from the grip of a socialist regime, we need to make sure
our people do not forget what socialism did to Germany.
"Vergessen nicht Deutschland!"
Labels: Berlin Wall, Germany, history, Obama, Reagan
