Who Brought Down the Berlin Wall?

Were it not for the actions of and support to Solidarity from His Holiness the Pope John Paul II, no one would would be talking about this.

At last, 20 years on, the truth can be told. I brought down the Berlin Wall.

I didn't intend to do it. I was merely visiting the sites in West Berlin on vacation.

And I had some help. From a sausage and a little plastic pack of condiments.

I'd bought some kind of wurst and a bun - knockwurst, horstwurst, I don't remember. Germans have so many of them, more than Nike has shoes. All I know is that it had a nice deep color - I just can't stand the ones with that sort of pasty gray color, you know? And knowing that the sausage stands are not big on ketchup, I'd procured a handful of the little packs at the last McDonalds I'd seen in Munich, stuffing them in my jacket pocket.

So there I was, at the Bradenberg Gate, preparing to spread McDonald's ketchup on my wurst. Someone on the East German side noticed it, and became quite agitated and started shouting. A few more took up the call, and the border guards became quiet upset. They were all prepared to fire on the crowd when one of the protesters managed to get one of the guards to look at me. He became quite angry, and after the pause of a few seconds, swung open the gates so the crowd could put a stop to my sacrilege.

Well, the rest is history. I took to my heels, and have kept quiet about it all these years so as not to stir up bad feelings. But time heals all wounds, and with the help of a 12-step program I'm now off the ketchup, so it's time for the truth to come out.

Happy Anniversary!

Around 1200 people died in the Romanian uprising, to say that "the casualty number was not large" is offensive and stupid

We've seen this story play out over and over again and you have to give the Republicans credit for their solidarity. It goes something like this.

Elect a numbnut, like a Reagan or a Bush, no need to bring up anymore, these few will make the point. Reagan with fortune tellers directing his decisions, Bush I with his thousand points of light and Bush II with his total and complete ignorance and lack of inquiry. Begin the presidential speak; THE PRESIDENT MEANS THIS, THE PRESIDENT MEANS THAT.....

Everyone keep to the party line for solidarity. Repeat and Repeat and Repeat, just how important the President's tenure has been for the world, so that the DUMB electorate, including the media, really believes it.

That's how we came to know REAGAN TORE DOWN THE BERLIN WALL!!!!!!!!!

I think we are forgetting one very important person who was not mentioned, and that man is David Hasselhoff. We must never forget that The Hoff played an instrumental role in tearing down the Berlin Wall!

I was recently asked to identify the least discussed, yet important aspects of the Fall of the Wall.

Listen to the demonstrations, to the protestors, the New Forum: They were *not* asking for capitalism, for a new political system - they were asking those in power to keep to the rules they claimed to adhere to. They wanted a better socialism, one were people are free to speak their mind, to travel, and to live their way of life. They wanted reformation.

In the aftermath, "real politicians" quickly entered the scene, and those untrained protest leaders were soon forgotten. Just when capitalism hit with all its force, many realized the difference.
Play around on http://vis.uell.net/btw/09/atlas.html - election results 20 years after easily show the old inner-German border.

From the people I know, and what I have witnessed, the protests were only peaceful and able to draw such a big crowd because those protesting were not fighting the system - they wanted reforms, honest rulers, free elections, free travel. Reasonable demands that few could honestly reject. Demands bBy people who usually believed in socialism (by the way, the GDR never was or called itself communist) and had become disillusioned by the Party's ignorance.

They are my real heros. Only they didn't know how to put on a show.