Why Should We Remember the Fall of the Berlin Wall?

Which is better?

To live comfortably within oppression (even if you aren't one of the ones being oppressed), or to struggle in freedom?

This woman believes to live comfortably with oppression is better. And I think that's awfully sad.

On the other hand, how far are we from this mentality ourselves?

East Germans lost much in 1989, by Bruni de la Motte:

On 9 November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down I realised German unification would soon follow, which it did a year later. This meant the end of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the country in which I was born, grew up, gave birth to my two children, gained my doctorate and enjoyed a fulfilling job as a lecturer in English literature at Potsdam University. Of course, unification brought with it the freedom to travel the world and, for some, more material wealth, but it also brought social breakdown, widespread unemployment, blacklisting, a crass materialism and an "elbow society" as well as a demonisation of the country I lived in and helped shape. Despite the advantages, for many it was more a disaster than a celebratory event. ...

Click through to read the rest. (And you'll want to read the comments, too, because it's heartening to see that people are as disgusted as I am about this woman's attitude.)

And here's a moving video (part one of I-don't-know-how-many) of the happenings of that night. Watch for the man who suddenly - and unexpectedly - runs into a family member who has lived in the West while he has been trapped in East Berlin.

An update from The Corner:

... East Germany was ruled by a Communist elite that imprisoned dissidents, killed defectors who had managed to flee to West Germany, and had hundreds of thousands of informers in every neighborhood and every apartment house spying on their neighbors and even their own families. It is estimated that more than 1,200 people died trying to escape this horrible regime by crossing the 860-mile border. The last person killed in Berlin was 20-year old Chris Gueffroy, who died in a hail of bullets on the night of Feb. 5, 1989. The last known border-crossing victim died just days before the fall of the Wall in November 1989, attempting to swim across the Oder River at the German-Polish border.

East Germany’s ex-leaders and top Stasi secret-police officials always denied they had ordered soldiers to shoot people who were trying to flee across the Berlin Wall. But in 2007, a seven-page document surfaced in the Stasi archives that contained an explicit firing order, including women and children: “It is your duty to use your combat . . . skills in such a way as to overcome the cunning of the border breacher, to challenge or liquidate him in order to thwart the planned border breach. . . . Don’t hesitate to use your weapon even when border breaches happen with women and children, which traitors have often exploited in the past.”

When I visited Berlin, I spent time with my second cousin. Her father was a doctor who had settled in Berlin in the late 1940s. He was there during the Berlin Airlift, when the only thing that kept West Berliners free was the dedication of Allied pilots and the determination of an American president who used an air bridge to feed and supply West Berliners for more than a year. My cousin took us on tours of what had been the Eastern Zone, including one of the churches in East Berlin where the German revolution had simmered.

Many people don’t realize how important the churches were in helping inspire and give confidence to the East Germans who wanted to bring down the Wall and end the Communist dictatorship that ruled them. Although atheism was the state religion in East Germany, churches like the one we visited in Berlin or St. Nikolai Evangelical Lutheran Church in Leipzig remained open. The pastor at St. Nikolai in 1989, the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, held a weekly prayer service for peace that grew and grew as everyone from Christians to non-Christians to those who wanted to leave East Germany came to his services. There were always Stasi spies at the prayer services at St. Nikolai and the churches in East Berlin, but it seemed to make no difference to the attendees. People would leave the services and then march through the streets, holding candles and saying prayers. In October 1989, after the beating and arrest of protesters in Leipzig, St. Nikolai held another prayer service that was crammed full. The churchgoers then joined 70,000 other Germans to march through the streets.

My mother is from Silesia, which is southeast of Berlin. Fortunately, my grandmother, one of the most resourceful and bravest women I have ever known, managed to get herself and all four of her daughters out of what had become the Russian-occupied zone before the border was fortified. My mother and her sisters got out separately with family or friends. My grandmother and her youngest daughter, who was only eleven at the time, didn’t have to cross a mined border -- they only had to dodge Russian army patrols (who were shooting escapees) in the woods in the dead of night....

I encourage you to read that in its entirety, too.

[photo source: Life Magazine archives]

Fortunate

I saw this at The Anchoress' site, and wanted to share.

I'll be back to blogging more next month. (Next week?)

God bless and keep you.

SNL Pokes Fun at The One!

This really oughtn't be news, but since it took them this long, we can call it that.

Not for the Faint of Heart

WARNING! This video contains images from September 11, 2001, which are graphic in nature.

But it happened, and today I'll remember these people and keep them in my prayers.

William Henry, Rescue Company 1, Manhattan

[Note: This is a repost from the past, but I wanted to put it up again. This was a part of the original Project 2996. I didn't sign up anew, but I did pay tribute to William Henry the first go-around.]


William Henry gave his life in service of others on September 11, 2001, when he went into the World Trade Center to save as many lives as he could. Henry, who was single, was a firefighter at Rescue Co. 1 in Manhattan, and was only 49 years old when he died.

His bio from the NY Times said this about him:

Henry Jr., who was known as Bill or Buddy, had a galaxy of friends and admirers that stretched from the Ladder 24 firehouse on West 31st Street to the paddle tennis courts at wind-swept Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways. He spent his vacations in places like Brazil, and his free time fixing up houses for people like his mother, Ethel. People would compliment his work; Mr. Henry tended to agree with them. "Yeah," he'd say, "it's a beautiful thing."

His competitive streak ran deep. "He would say to me, you know, I go to more fires than you do," said John Dopwell, a former colleague at Ladder 24, where Firefighter Henry was assigned before moving on to Rescue 1, also in Manhattan.

He also let all kinds of post-conflagration messiness build up on his coat and helmet, as a sign of how hard he worked. "Outside of his family, that job was what he lived for," said another friend, Paul Stewart.

For a while, he moonlighted as a security guard at Laura Belle, a nightclub in Times Square. "I was his boss, but in all honesty, he was my boss," said Joanne O'Connor, the club's director of catering and special events. "He was always telling me what to do."

Once Ms. O'Connor made a demand of her own. "I asked him, when are you going to take me for a ride in the fire truck?" It became a joke between them. Then one day, the huge red Rescue 1 pulled up in front of Laura Belle, packed with firemen on their way back from a call. In clomped Mr. Henry, who said, "Let's go for a ride."

Newsday paid tribute to Henry, as well.

A Hero Loving Every Part of the Job
September 24, 2001

William L. Henry, a New York City firefighter for the past 20 years, had finished his tour of duty on the morning of Sept. 11 and was preparing to go home when the World Trade Center disaster struck.

Henry, known to most as "Buddy," jumped on a rig leaving his fire station at 43rd Street and 11th Avenue on Manhattan's West Side and raced to the scene. The Springfield Gardens resident was one of three firefighters from Rescue 1 who lost their lives in the building collapse. Eight other firefighters from that same station are missing.

"He loved the job with all his heart," recalls his mother, Ethel. "He was off duty at 9 that morning but he went to the fire. He didn't have to go, but he went."

Friends and family say Henry, 49, a quiet, helpful man brought his skills as a contractor during his off hours to his job as a city firefighter. "He was very hard-working and talented," said Lt. Michael Pena, who recalled how Henry had a knack for setting up electrical wires or solving electrical problems during rescue attempts.

"He was one of our family," Pena said late last week. "We lived with him, ate with him and hung out with him. He was more than a co-worker. He was part of our family."

Henry was equally skilled at making friends and colleagues feel at home, said Ray Kemp, a friend in Jamaica, Queens, who played paddle tennis with him on weekends. When he was assigned to a fire station across from St. Francis of Assissi Church in Midtown Manhattan a few years ago, Henry would volunteer on his off hours in the church's soup kitchen."

Being a firefighter was Buddy's main passion," said his mother. "He loved every part of it - the rescues, fighting fires, being with the fellows. He had an overwhelming love for the job. He never went to work late. Even after work, they'd go out and laugh and have a good time. This is what he did best."

On Thursday, a memorial service was held at St. Francis, where Henry had been a volunteer and made many friends. His body was buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens. In addition to his mother, Henry is survived by his sister, Ellen, and a grandmother, Elsie.

-- Thomas Maier (Newsday)

This article tells more about him, as well.

The following is a list of all the men from his companywho died that day.

Terence Hatton, Captain
Dennis Mojica, Lieutenant
Joseph Angelini, Firefighter
Gary Geidel, Firefighter
William Henry, Firefighter
Kenneth Marino, Firefighter
Michael Montesi, Firefighter
Gerard Nevins, Firefighter
Patrick O'Keefe, Firefighter
Brian Sweeney, Firefighter
David Weiss, Firefighter

William Henry, 49, was laid to rest on September 20, 2001.You can read a transcript of the audio tapes from 9-11-01 here.

Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May the souls of the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

To sign up to pay tribute to a fallen hero of 9-11-01, please go here.

"They won't come and help, sweetie. Make the best of the time you have with him."

Premature baby 'left to die' by doctors after mother gives birth just two days before 22-week care limit

I can't even express how horrible this is. And yet, I'm sure the UK assured everyone that rationing would not happen under a public healthcare system.

First Thought on the Speech to Schoolchildren

FANTASTIC.

Seriously - it was great. I watched it on CSPAN, live, with the girls. All three of us liked it. He challenged students to resist the popular culture's ideas that laziness is okay because you can always be famous for easy stuff. "Chances are, you won't be," he said.

A really, really good speech.

No Blood for Oil?

Lockerbie bomber 'set free for oil' - Times Online: "In a letter dated July 26, 2007, Straw said he favoured an option to leave out Megrahi by stipulating that any prisoners convicted before a specified date would not be considered for transfer.

Downing Street had also said Megrahi would not be included under the agreement.

Straw then switched his position as Libya used its deal with BP as a bargaining chip to insist the Lockerbie bomber was included.

The exploration deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to £15 billion, was announced in May 2007. Six months later the agreement was still waiting to be ratified.

On December 19, 2007, Straw wrote to MacAskill announcing that the UK government was abandoning its attempt to exclude Megrahi from the prisoner transfer agreement, citing the national interest."

Open Veins of Latin America: A Good Way to See Our Policies?

On this thread at Domestic Vocation, I insisted that we ought to pray for Ted Kennedy, that I had no problem with him having a Catholic funeral (though I will leave it to people who tortured themselves by watching it to discuss the contents of said funeral), and that it's useless to throw stones at the man now.

One commenter said she was glad I said such things, then went a step further and said we shouldn't withhold Communion from pro abortion politicians. I disagree, and quite strongly. I gave my reasons, mostly saying that just because we are all sinners doesn't mean that some of us ought not present ourselves for Communion; the Church teaches that there is a difference between venial and mortal sins, and those in mortal sin should not receive Holy Communion. Her answer said that businessmen create horrible situations that should be mortal sins, and then gave Open Veins of Latin America as a good source of information. Unfortunately, this book is not much more than Communist propaganda. This thread can deal with that, as I try to keep most politics here instead of at Domestic Vocation. Below are some links about the book.

• Watching America: Facing the “Open Veins of Latin America” ~~ This link, while favorable to the book and the ideas behind it, clearly shows the book to be a Communist piece. The translator to English was a member of the Communist party in the US after emigrating here from the UK, and left the US in the 1950's. It also discusses President Obama's approval of portions of Cuba's Communist system. (I hope and pray it's only portions of it!) Here's a bit from that:
  
  

  Putting his political identity aside, as a young intellectual, Obama might be able to resonate with some parts of the book. A few years ago, when talking about Cuba, Obama once confessed that when he became aware, from reading, that Cuba has a good medical science education and medical system, he began to see the country in a new light. Therefore, shortly after he became president, he attempted to mend relations between the U.S. and Cuba. This was apparently not done on a whim.

  
  
  
• Mona Charen wrote a bit here, mostly detailing Chavez's totalitarianism in Venezuela. That he gave the book the our president shows that he thinks it's a good one. That alone makes me worry.
• This blog brings up that the author's shining example of what's good for Latin America is...Castro?
  
  

  Galeano’s thesis is that Latin America has provided the fundamental tools–through cash crops and natural resources–for the nations of North America and Europe to grow richer, at the expense of the poorest of the poor of Latin America. He begins with this line:

  The division of labor among nations is [...] that some specialize in winning and others in losing.

  It’s a line fraught with understandable anger. And it’s just that anger that infuses every bit of the raw data Galeano uses to tell his story. His conclusion? That Cuba–and communism–have the answer. Ignoring, of course, the fact that Cubans are just as oppressed and poverty stricken as the rest of Latin America.

  
  
  

More is found online, and feel free to add links in the com boxes.

Me? I'm not convinced that it's a good source. I'll have to look at Kay's other link later, but as for this book, I wouldn't dream of trusting it. For an interesting look at the Church's history in dealing with natives (specifically American Indians), This Rock magazine had a great article recently. Indeed, the Church has been at work building and attempting to save Western Civilization for quite some time.