It's hard to believe that the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall is this month. A symbol of all that divided East & West, seemingly impregnable and permanent. And then the wall & barbed wire, and the barriers it stood for, was destroyed. It was certainly the most momentous event to occur in Europe since the collapse of the Nazi Empire.
By the end of May 1989 the Goddess of Democracy statue was unveiled a continent away in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan after a nine year occupation.
The Communist Party of Poland voted to legalize Solidarity, the independent trade union that spawned a huge social movement.
In 1989 it was possible to speak of a "peace dividend", when, according to the tenets of the New World Order, all the money that had gone into military spending could suddenly be invested in social spending or reducing the budget deficit. So much for that theory, eh?
Now, in a different era, we face the challenge of remembering and commemorating the demise of one of the great symbols of tyranny.
1989, freedom's spring.
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