Just over twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall was torn to the ground and the end of the great communist empire of the U.S.S.R cried out in its death rattle.

This was a significant historical event that should be honored the world over. This is not just a day that Germans should be concerned with. This was a day when history was rewritten, and the map was redrawn.

Kids these days don’t remember the influence the cold war had on daily life. In the modern world of terrorist extremism, most people forget the power of the red spectre that haunted so many nightmares.

Most people my fathers age, those from the ‘Duck and Cover” generation, were raised with the menace of the Red Scare and appreciate the falling wall for what it is worth. They remember a time when people whispered, “Better dead than red.” Kids today have no sense of history.

It makes me want to gouge their eyes with dirty syringes. If we fail to learn from and appreciate history, we risk losing what little culture we have left. You would think in a time of such grand globalism that we might make a holiday of the fall of the Berlin Wall but no, we have national Speak like a Pirate day and National Coming Out Day.

When I was 11 years old, I had a chance to see the wall while it was still strong. It was massive and dark and made me feel worried that I could pass to the other side and never get a chance to see my family ever again.

I peeked through the gates and saw a world of grey and depression. I saw a world without hope. Today, that has all changed, and I think it is sad that we don’t celebrate it.
Cheers to the fall of the wall.