Watching #BerlinWall - 3 2 hr episodes about 3 sisters around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the wall that, in my childhood, we thought would stand forever. However - in a lesson we seem to have forgotten terribly quickly - walls between us never last forever.
The end of this episode arrived at 9 November 1989, a date that will give me chills till the day I die. Even now, I know it was Thursday because my friend Lou had committed suicide 5 days before on Saturday, 4 November 1989.
I was still reeling, and I sat in front of the television, unable to look away, unable to push down that sprig of hope, that feeling of joy, even as I wished that Lou could see this.
The next night, @DanRather, the second news anchor of my life (my first being Walter Cronkite)
The next night, @DanRather, the second news anchor of my life (my first being Walter Cronkite)
was in Berlin and scaled the wall.
The hope. The joy. The belief that after decades of the Cold War, there was light, and hope, and maybe it was almost over and a clear march to a liberal world order, freedom and prosperity for all, peace.
The hope. The joy. The belief that after decades of the Cold War, there was light, and hope, and maybe it was almost over and a clear march to a liberal world order, freedom and prosperity for all, peace.
But we forgot. We forgot that our stability had been rooted in there being a single axis of good and evil, that crystal clarity and we forgot to be vigilant and do the work to root that stability, to build the infrastructure for the world we hoped would be.
So much happened: the Iron Curtain fell, South Africa's apartheid regime fell, Northern Ireland brokered peace.
But we forgot a law of physics and life: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And we are there now, in a place much darker than we hoped it would be,
But we forgot a law of physics and life: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And we are there now, in a place much darker than we hoped it would be,
but still on that pilgrimage to freedom.
It is dark, and it has been dark for a long time, but no little of that is reckoning with past evil and ugly truths we've avoided for centuries, millennia even. That may not feel like a good thing, but it is the needed medicine.
It is dark, and it has been dark for a long time, but no little of that is reckoning with past evil and ugly truths we've avoided for centuries, millennia even. That may not feel like a good thing, but it is the needed medicine.
Stay - as on those days leading up to the 9th, we are standing together.
As Rachel Remen's grandfather would remind us, the journey to freedom from slavery is too precious for Him to leave to an angel - He will always lead that walk Himself.
He's out in front.
Hang on.
As Rachel Remen's grandfather would remind us, the journey to freedom from slavery is too precious for Him to leave to an angel - He will always lead that walk Himself.
He's out in front.
Hang on.
@threadreaderapp unroll, por favor. Shookria!
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