Twenty Years Ago

The Washington Post had some features in its Outlook Section this weekend reminding us that it was two decades ago that the Berlin Wall fell. I remember watching footage of that historic day on mom & dad's black & white TV, watching with awe that this symbol that utterly defined the Cold War was breached. The joy displayed that night was the enduring image that you remember in a year with historic images.

Twenty years later, some of the leading figures, like President Reagan and Pope John Paul II, are gone, but many of the leaders--Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Gorbachev--are still with us. Twenty years can be a lifetime--like those 21 years between the events of 1989 and the Prague Spring (still the favorite paper of mine from college). But it's a generation later, and most of the young 'uns around here were toddlers during those events. They don't remember the threat of nuclear war, the angry rhetoric, the arms build-up, the summits, the old world order, or the Soviet Union itself. Soviet communism was so defining, and its aftermath was little more than a holiday from history, until Islamic terrorism reared its ugly head (again).

Still will always associate that with the Jesus Jones song..."I saw the decade in, when it seemed/the world could change at the blink of an eye"..."Right here, right now, watching the world wake up from history."

Postscript...Rich Lowry's column Obama is ignoring this anniversary: It's all about W.