Christine Smith's Blog

U.S.Govt. Busy Building Walls While World Celebrates Fall of Berlin Wall Anniversary

 The capacity for human beings to repeat serious mistakes astounds me.  One needn’t have suffered serious consequences themselves in order to learn from the experiences of others. 

But wisdom isn’t a word applicable to the U.S. government, nor it appears to many of the American people.
 
For if wise, this nation wouldn’t be hurrying to build walls between ourselves and the rest of the world.

One of the major breakthroughs for freedom celebrated across the world is the tumbling of the Berlin Wall.  And yet, it is the United States who, although vocal in its lip service to commemorating this triumph, rushes forward to build up such walls physically, economically, and spiritually. 

Metaphorically speaking, this nation has built an enormous wall akin to that of the Eastern bloc’s through its militaristic oppression of peoples worldwide, its economic trade wars, and even an actual border wall. 

The invasions and occupations of sovereign nations, the torture, the sanctions, the discrimination against immigrants, and other forms of repression…these are all building a mighty wall between our country and other countries and their people worldwide. 

The discrepancy between the message of freedom and liberty this government proclaims proudly versus the reality of its anti-freedom, anti-liberty policies domestically and internationally is an ever increasing chasm.  Yet the American people have long contributed to this hypocrisy with their unquestioning “patriotic” platitudes which make them feel good about themselves without actually being good.

Devotion to truth will bring far more peace between the American people and the peoples of the world.  Such truth seeking and ending of the unjust workings of this government and the evil it has perpetuated against others worldwide for decades is part of true patriotism…blind acceptance or apathetic ignorance is not.

As millions hail the end of the infamous Berlin Wall twenty years ago (as of November 9, 2009), let us as Americans use its 20th anniversary not for mere lip service to the triumph of the human spirit and its quest for liberty, let us use it rather as a motivator to fight the development of any such tyranny from our own government – be it perpetrated toward us or toward others (which in reality is one and the same). 

Once any degree of tyranny is accepted, it is so much more difficult to extricate a nation from it.  And, yet, such behavior has been accepted for decades, making it all the more critical that those who value liberty reject and expose these affronts against the natural rights of human beings, restore liberties lost, and march forward in strength and control of government – making sure it exist purely for protection of rights not subjugation thereof.

To this goal, let us join with the rest of the world in remembering the fall of the Berlin Wall.  To the goal of tearing down our government’s own walls requires a relinquishment of the walls within which keeps people from identifying with others who suffer at the hands of our government. 

Do not be fooled by the honoring praises of U.S. politicians regarding the falling of the Berlin Wall, for it is likely many of those speaking such fine-sounding words will  be some of those who have either condoned or are responsible for acts which egregiously contradict their words of appreciation for freedom.  Love of freedom and respect for liberty cannot be divided…you cannot say you care about freedom and individual liberty for certain groups of human beings to the exclusion of others.  And, yet, that is precisely what many U.S. politicians do, as the policies they support deny respect for the freedom and liberty of others and their sovereignty.

Just as the citizens of East and West Germany were able to come together once the totalitarian government lost its power to exert control, a reunification of the American people with our brothers and sisters of all nationalities, cultures and traditions will bring prosperity and harmony through peaceful coexistence and connections, trade, and immigration.  What will it take for that to happen?  Perhaps the same factors which brought about and contributed to the collapse of the Berlin Wall: a strong courageous people and an economically strained  government which could no longer feasibly continue its oppression against a people yearning for freedom.  

As Berliners commemorate with a “Festival of Freedom,” let us orient toward the day when we will have our own such festivity….a time when all the artificial walls constructed and maintained by the U.S. government forcing a barrier between Americans and the rest of the world are gone…a time when we’ve returned to a Constitutional Republic which respects the fundamental rights of all human beings…a time when we will celebrate with our own Festival of Freedom.