"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'"

It was 20 years ago today that the Berlin wall fell. I am not sure the youth of today understand the fear that gripped the world during the Cold War. Just as I will never understand the fear that our parents and grandparents felt, about Germany during the forties. I'll tell you it was real. My entire youth there was always that feeling that some day there was going to be an attack by the Soviet Empire. They were the enemies of my youth.

In 1991 I was blessed to go on vacation trip to London. The first Gulf War had just concluded. I remember walking through Heathrow Airport, and I saw many men with machine guns. I was thinking to myself how scary it was to live in a place that men had to protect themselves in a time of war. Never knowing who the enemy was or what they could accomplish. I talked with the Englishmen and they told me how they loved our "Prime Minister Bush" because of what he had done a month prior.

On the trip, I saw buildings with muskets balls in the doors and tombstones were walkways and floors. I saw huge castles with the scars that were left from many years of war. One of the last visits on that trip was a visit to the Imperial War Museum. There at the front entrance of the museum was a large piece of the Berlin Wall standing alone. Even after all the different things I saw on this trip; all the war torn buildings, all history in which I was immersed, this was the one thing that made me cry.

It made me cry for a few reasons. Partially, it made me cry because of what it said ("Change your life"). Partially, it made me cry because of the timing being so close to the actual event. Partially it made me cry because I could see and feel what Berliners felt. But the feeling I felt most, was the feeling of relief. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. The Cold War was over!

Here is the whole speech by President Reagan in June of 1989....