Big Picture History within your own Lifetime?

Where were you when the Berlin Wall fell 30 years ago? What were your thoughts at the time?

I was at home near Phoenix, AZ ... My thoughts were "Wow, I never thought it would happen during my life-time."

The Wall is what prompted President Kennedy to draft me ... and many others ... which experience provided me an inside look at our military. I was discharged before the Tonkin Bay "incident", but seeing and knowing what we were doing before that horrible mistake turned me into an Anti-War activist.

At the time, I was thrilled that all of Eastern Europe, under the thrall of the Soviets for decades, was able to break free of that yoke. It felt like maybe the end of the Cold War, the defining struggle of my lifetime between the then-two Super Powers. I wondered what would become of Russia: a swing toward some form of rule by popular will, or the substitution of another form of autocracy? I worried that the humiliation of the Russians would only fuel further enmity.

Yes, most of us assumed all would be well after the collapse of the Wall and the Soviet Union, but all it seems to have done is fracture everything that mutual fear of the Atomic menace had held in check.

>4 Rood: It certainly doesn't look like it ushered in a new era of cooperation and good will. One wonders how well our neural systems, evolved for survival in the Paleolithic, have equipped humankind for successfully navigating the world we have created.