This past week I have been in Europe to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I went into this trip with a great deal of enthusiasm and an expectation that the heroes responsible for that momentous event be justly recognized. Sadly, I was instead reminded of how much we have willingly forgotten. Over the past several months, the Reagan Legacy Foundation has been working hard to ensure that Berliners remember the vital role my father played in bringing down the wall and defeating communism. Amazingly, there are no major statues, memorials or tributes to Ronald Reagan -- the president, the man who sided with freedom over tyranny. Thankfully, in partnering with the "Checkpoint Charlie" museum, we have now unveiled a Ronald Reagan permanent exhibit to help educate Berliners and their international guests of what would have been an unpardonable omission in modern historical analysis of that period. During these ceremonies I fully expected the legends of this period to be honored, or to at least be mentioned. But over the course of this celebration that included fireworks and a re-enactment of the fall of the wall, I heard nary a mention of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher. This was both frustrating and alarming.
Over the past several months, the Reagan Legacy Foundation has been working hard to ensure that Berliners remember the vital role my father played in bringing down the wall and defeating communism. Amazingly, there are no major statues, memorials or tributes to Ronald Reagan -- the president, the man who sided with freedom over tyranny.
Thankfully, in partnering with the "Checkpoint Charlie" museum, we have now unveiled a Ronald Reagan permanent exhibit to help educate Berliners and their international guests of what would have been an unpardonable omission in modern historical analysis of that period.
During these ceremonies I fully expected the legends of this period to be honored, or to at least be mentioned. But over the course of this celebration that included fireworks and a re-enactment of the fall of the wall, I heard nary a mention of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher. This was both frustrating and alarming.
I should think the whole of Europe should be full of giant Reagan and Thatcher statues. Why don't we start a petition?
a nice nude of pat buchanan would look fetching outside the houses of parliament on the thames bank too.
why stop there? reagan memorials should be on postal stampage, coinage, currency banknotes anywhere we can feel the trickle down of his blessed era. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
(of course not as big a fortune as if you had the actual politicians) Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Thatcher went as far as pleading the USSR off the record to ignore the official Western position and stop Reunification; Thatcher favoured the survival of the Warshaw Pact (take that, Václav Klaus!);
Amazing that the Berliners has not built her any statues.
And while lacking a quote from the Raygun himself, here is his handler speaking:
DoDo:
Bush: As strange as it would seem but on this question you are in the same boat with our Nato allies. The most conservative of them welcome your approach. At the same time, they have to think about that time when such concepts as the FRG and the GDR will become part of the past. In this question, I will be acting with great care. Let our Democrats accuse me in being timid but I am not going to jump on the wall because there is too much at stake here.
Bush:
As strange as it would seem but on this question you are in the same boat with our Nato allies. The most conservative of them welcome your approach. At the same time, they have to think about that time when such concepts as the FRG and the GDR will become part of the past. In this question, I will be acting with great care. Let our Democrats accuse me in being timid but I am not going to jump on the wall because there is too much at stake here.
