Memories of Europe's Revolution

The tearing down of the Berlin Wall.....I do remember hearing about this on the news years ago.  I was a freshman in high school.  To be honest, for years I had no real concept of what this all actually meant.  I mean, we talked about it in school some.  I probably didn't pay much attention. As the years went on, I started understanding a little more about communism and about the oppression in Germany and the surrounding countries, but I never really understood exactly how life was prior to this huge event in history for these citizens until I read the stories from this article.

A girl from Romania spoke of being amazed by people in the free world not taking advantage of visiting other places when they could rightly do so.  She had dreamed of seeing Paris, when she wasn't that far from it and was finally able to do just that when she turned 25.  She now chooses to live in the United States.

Several of the people who wrote in reflecting on their memories under a communist rule still think about the event as a true miracle and are still amazed every time they think about it.  One individual, formerly from Bulgaria, who now lives in New York, wrote an interesting piece of information about it being painful to see the Central European countries doing very well economically by having new democratic governments.  But, how he was extremely happy when Bulgaria finally made that transformation.  Then he went on to say "...but let's not forget how fragile democracy is and how quickly we could lose the achievements that many have died for."  

That quote really caught my eye.  Being as our own "land of the free" has been so transformed in the last several years and since it has been so much longer than 20 years since we gained our independence, we have slacked off as a nation in being so incredibly thankful for our freedom. We were fortunate not to have to be scared of our own government.  We were working as a nation to fight off invaders.  The events of 9/11 did seem to wake us up and help us to realize how freedom could slip away in the blink of an eye if the right combination of circumstances were to occur.

Just reading about the darkness, the gloom of everyday life under a communist rule, made me reflect on my past and how life in America is so amazing.  The freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the other wonderful privileges we have seems so much more important to me now.

I pray this country will always enjoy the freedom and security it now has.  May God bless America.