My mother was two or three years old when the communist "revolution" took place in Russia. During the ensuing Soviet hegemony, the whole of Eastern Europe fell behind the "Iron Curtain" (Winston Churchill's phrase) with the Soviet Union's assistance.
Following close on the heals of WWII, the Cold War began. I was born at the beginning of that war. I spent my entire youth witnessing from afar the terrible tensions throughout that era - the Cuban Missile Crisis, the proxy wars, etc., etc..
This morning, I was listening to Charles Adler, Canada's best talk radio host. His show featured a clip of Ronald Reagan's famous speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall that separated communist East Germany from free West Germany.
A few days ago was the 25th anniversary of that speech, yet it seems like only yesterday that Mikael Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika movements were in full swing.
Shortly after that famous speech, the whole of communist Europe was gone. It began in Berlin. Reagan's speech had given East Germans hope.
Something that had begun when my mother was a toddler, something that created the Cold War, that defined my generation, was gone.
Poof!! Just like that.
Everything changed.
Years later I learned that German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, had been born on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. She grew up under the real deal, not Communism Lite - ie) Socialism, but the real thing. She is now the only European leader with any sense, while the rest are dealing with the consequences of socialism - with their heads in the sand, I might add.
Charles Adler was born in communist Hungary. He escaped, tucked into a knapsack. carried by his father, when he was a mere toddler.
Listen to his program on his website:
http://charlesadler.com/
The Reagan speech is broadcast on Adler's June 16 Commies and Zombies segment.
He also has an excellent rant about returning to Canada after a trip to Eastern Europe, which also touches on the legacy of communism.
Listen to both of them.
His rant about Canada is item 41 June 1 A Return to Canadian Soil
Hurry. Those numbers and the audio clips may change real quick, just like the world did twenty-two years ago when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.
Regrettably, we still have Socialists amongst us who are doing their level best to impose communism lite on us. No thank you!!
Labels: Cold War, communism, Memory Lane, personal
