THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

By Debbie Bulloch



Today, November 9, marks the 20th anniversary of the tearing of the Berlin Wall. Television images of jubilant men and women bringing down the Wall and walking across the barrier that had formerly separated a nation’s people are still fresh in the minds of most people. Like images of brave students defying Chinese Army tanks at Tian'anmen Square, the images of the Wall’s fall will live forever as a tribute to man’s indomitable desire for freedom.

Following the end of World War II, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin built up a belt of Soviet controlled nations on Russia’s Western border. The so-called Eastern bloc included Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia plus a weakened, Russian-controlled East Germany.

As part of the Soviet plan to keep control over the German people, Russian dictator Nikita Khrushchev ordered the puppet government of East Germany to build a wall in the city of Berlin. The wall would separate Russian-controlled East Berlin from free West Berlin.

On June 15, 1961, two months before the construction of the Berlin Wall started, the chair of the East German government, Walter Ulbricht, stated in an international press conference, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!). It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context.

The record of an August 1961 telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht, however, clearly indicates that Khrushchev ordered Ulbricht to build the Berlin Wall. On Saturday, August 12, 1961, East Germany government officials attended a garden party at a government guesthouse in Döllnsee, a wooded area to the north of East Berlin. It was at this party, that Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall that for nearly three decades tore thousands of German families apart and helped enslave an entire nation.

At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and by Sunday morning, August 13, 1961, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles; they also installed barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 97 miles (156 kilometers) around the three western sectors and the 27 miles (43 kilometers) which actually divided West and East Berlin.



The wall was built slightly inside East Berlin, on East German territory. During the construction of the wall, East German troops stood in front of the wall, with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields, and other obstacles were installed along the length of the inner-German border between East and West Germany.

What followed after the erection of the Berlin Wall is one of the greatest crimes ever committed by an occupying army – a steel and cement testimony to the moral fallacy, emotional bankruptcy and political failure of Communism.

The human spirit’s desire for freedom, however, is far stronger than any man-made wall. During the Wall's existence, there were approximately 5,000 successful escapes to West Berlin.

Early successful escapes involved people jumping the initial barbed wire or leaping out of apartment windows along the line but these ended as the wall was fortified. To solve these simple escape attempts, East German authorities no longer permitted occupancy of apartments near the wall; any building near the wall had its windows boarded and later bricked up.


On August 15, 1961, Conrad Schumann was the first East German border guard to escape by jumping the barbed wire to West Berlin.

To keep its own people from escaping to freedom, the East German government issued “kill orders” for anyone attempting to escape. The East German government repeatedly denied issuing such orders. In October 1973, researchers working after the re-unification of Germany, found evidence that East German soldiers had been in fact issued “kill orders” by their government. In the order, the government told East German soldiers that people attempting to cross the wall were criminals and needed to be shot: "Do not hesitate to use your firearm, not even when the border is breached in the company of women and children, which is a tactic the traitors have often used".

If an escapee was wounded in a crossing attempt and lay on the death strip, no matter how close they were to the Western wall, they could not be rescued for fear of triggering engaging fire from the 'Grepos', the East Berlin border guards. The East German guards often let wounded escapees bleed to death in the middle of this ground. The most notorious failed escape attempt was that of Peter Fechter, an eighteen-year-old East German. On August 17, 1962, Peter was shot and bled to death in full view of the Western media.

The exact number of people who died trying to cross the Wall has been disputed. Alexandra Hildebrandt, Director of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, estimates the death toll to be well above 200. An ongoing historic research group at the Center for Contemporary Historical Research (ZZF) in Potsdam has confirmed 136 deaths. Prior official figures listed 98 as having being killed.



On June 12, 1987, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin U.S. President Ronald challenged Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to tear the Berlin Wall down.

In that fateful summer afternoon, President Reagan spoke these words:

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!



President Reagan then added the following words:

As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, 'This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.' Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.



With these words, President Reagan ignited a worldwide fire that eventually led to the tearing of the Wall, the end of Soviet oppression of countless millions of Eastern Europeans and the ushering of a new era of freedom.



The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is located in Simi Valley, California, within short driving distance of my home. I have visited the Reagan Library on many occasions. I was even there when the President’s body was carried to his final resting place. As a person whose family suffered under the yoke of Communist oppression, I am personally grateful to the man whose brave words were responsible for the demise of Soviet oppression.

There is a section of the Wall on permanent display at the Reagan Library. On my first visit to the Library, I headed straight for the garden area where that piece of the Wall stood in muted testimony to the suffering of the millions of victims of Soviet oppression.



After a minute in front of the Wall, I began to cry. Standing so close to a piece of the Wall that had helped to separate and enslave my own people I could feel the pain of all the other families that had been separated and enslaved by the wall – not just in Germany but everywhere else in the world where the Soviet boot tried to crush man’s aspiration for freedom.

It was the same sensation I experienced when I stood in front of the Holocaust exhibits at the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance and the interment exhibits at the Los Angeles Japanese American Museum. These were the voices of men, women and children crying out for the freedom to which all of us humans are entitled to as our birthright.





On the 20th anniversary of this important moment in history, we should pause and reflect on the importance of the freedoms that we enjoy. More importantly, we should pledge to never rest until freedom rings on every corner of the world.




Editor's Note: The photographs shown here were taken from various archival, historical resources. The photographs are subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. The copyright owners fully reserve all rights to their work. The photographs are used here for educational and illustrative purposes only. No comercial use is intended or implied by their use here.

Editor's Note (Part Two): The comment by "anonymous" reminded me of this 1960s song by group The Rascals:

THE RASCALS - People Got To Be Free

SUNDAY NIGHT PHOTOS AND MUSIC

By Debbie Bulloch






















I was at the beach today, experimenting with various camera and lens setting when I came upon this flock of sandpipers.

Here is what I ended up with:











A pelican resting on the sand...





And here are some moonshots. (I was trying to be creative.)









And now three hits from 1960s British pop diva Dusty Springfield.

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – I Only Want to Be With You



DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – Son Of The Preacher Man



DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me



Have a wonderful week.

SUNDAY MORNING COMICS - NOVEMBER 8, 2009

By Debbie Bulloch







Here are today's Sunday Comics. Read them, enjoy then and then...go out and enjoy this beautiful day.

Yesterday is already gone, tomorrow may never come, so enjoy today.







(Remember to click on image for larger view.)

















CORONA commercial...



And now for something a tad wacky...



The last comic reminds of this song, by Christopher Cross.

BIRD THOR'S REZZ DAY

By Debbie Bulloch



A week ago today, on Halloween Day, was the Second Rezz Day for my dear, dear friend Bird Thor. Unfortunately, I forgot her Rezz Day.

Bird has been a friend since my early days at SL. She was here with me when we created Between Homes (BH) and she has been my friend through the good times and through the bad times. Bird has been my protector, alerting me to problems at BH. Because I cannot be at BH all the time, I rely on her to be my eyes and ears when I am not in world.

Bird is from Sweden; her command of English far exceeds my own rudimentary knowledge of Swedish (yes I can say IKEA, Saab, Volvo and ABBA but that is about it). Since meeting Bird, I have learned that she has a wealth of knowledge of American pop culture. Bird has a “wicked” sense of humor – she continually makes me crack up with her jokes (which lose nothing in translation).

Bird is an all-around talented individual. Although we both came in world at about the same time, Bird has already taught herself to build objects like clothing, furniture and now houses (Bird has tried to teach me how to build but I still cannot build anything more complex than a sign).

This is me in front of a house that Bird just built at Between Homes.



Bird is also a talented writer (she loves to writes about one of her favorite subjects, Vikings); Bird publishes her own blog Bird’s Land.

Now getting back to the forgotten Rezz Day. When I tried to apologize to Bird for my oversight, she simply brushed it off by saying, “you have a lot to do Debbie.” Even though Bird was well within her rights to be upset with me (or at the very least disappointed) for forgetting her Rezz Day, she was gracious and forgiving.

Bird’s generous reaction got me to think about the subject of friendship. What is a true friend? When do you know when a person is a true friend?

Friendship is considered one of the central human experiences, and has been sanctified by all major religions. The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Babylonian poem that is among the earliest known literary works in history, chronicles in great depth the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The Greco-Roman had, as paramount examples, the friendship of Orestes and Pylades, and, in Virgil's Aeneid, the friendship of Euryalus and Nisus, and lastly Robert and Aimee. The Abrahamic faiths have the story of David and Jonathan. Friendship played an important role in German Romanticism. A good example for this is Schiller's Die Bürgschaft.

The Roman writer Cicero believed that in order to have a true friendship with someone there must be all honesty and truth. If there is not, then this is not a true friendship. In that case, friends must be one hundred percent honest with each other and put one hundred percent of their trust in the other person. Cicero also believed that for people to be friends with another person, they must do things without the expectation that their friend will have to repay them.

The Christian Gospels state that Jesus Christ declared, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."(John 15:13).

By any definition, Bird is a friend and I am so very glad that she is a part of “my crew” at Between Homes. More importantly, however, I am glad that Bird is part of my SL life.

This is Bird and I at Gloeing Ember's home. That's Starr, the German Shepherd, in front of us pretending that he is taking the picture. Behind us are the two dolphins who live at Glo's cove - Chico and Chica.



Thank you for being a friend Bird - this is for you!

La Verne and Shirley – Opening Music

BLAME IT ON DISNEY

By Debbie Bulloch



Today is already November 6 and I cannot believe that the year is almost at an end. It just seems like it was yesterday when Glo and I together watched the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl game between USC and Penn State. Oh well, as the Romans used to say - Tempus Fugit!

I also cannot believe that six days have already passed in November and I have not written a single article for the blog. In my defense, I could argue that in the past few days I have been very busy (which I have). The truth, however, is that for some odd reason I have been feeling rather lazy; too lazy to do one of the things that I enjoy the most – writing. Now that the time has changed and it gets dark right after the sun goes down at around 5:30 p.m., I just feel like crawling under the blankets and just go to sleep. Maybe that is the reason bears and other mammals hibernate – lack of sunlight.

Perhaps I just need something to get the creative juices flowing once again. That “something” happened today, when I took my car in for service.

Like most American children, I was “raised” on Disney. Trips of Disneyland, reading Disney storybooks and watching Disney movies and animated shorts were all a big part of my life as I grew up in Southern California. Disney animated films had an especially strong influence in me.

I have always had a strong attraction to the visual arts, especially movies. As a child, I was absolutely captivated by the stories that Walt Disney and his studio of world-class animators brought to life on the theater’s big screen. I can still vividly recall images of Pinocchio being chased by Monstro, the whale, Cinderella’s magical transformation from a cleaning girl to the belle of the ball and Sleeping Beauty’s Prince Charming bravely fighting off the wicked witch who had assumed the shape of a fearsome dragon.

One area where the imagination of the Disney Studio’s animators shone brightly was in their series of animated shorts. If a feature length animated movie is like a novel, then an animated short is like a poem. In an animated short, like in a poem, there is no waste – every frame of the animated short is important, there is no room for “fudging.”

One of my favorite Disney animated short is “Susie – The Little Blue Coupe.” This is the story of a little blue car and her “journey” through life as she goes from a cute and much beloved new car to a neglected and abused “has been” junker to, at the end, a once-again loved and cherished car. I remember the first time that I watched “Susie,” I went from joy, to tears and back to joy during the film’s eight minutes running time.

As an adult, I understand full well that the desire to engage in anthropomorphism is a dangerous fallacy. A car is made of metal, plastic, and fluids. As a child, however, I did not see Susie as an inanimate object. In my child’s eyes, Susie was very much alive, like a pet or even a baby – and when Susie cried and shivered in the cold, I cried with her.

Such is the stuff of a child’s bright-eyed innocence and creative imagination.

DISNEY - Susie The Little Blue Coupe



This morning something happened that made me think of Susie, the little blue coupe. First thing in the morning I took my car (a coupe itself – I guess childhood influences are hard to leave behind) to the mechanic for a service. Normally I wait around for the mechanic to finish working on the car and then I drive to work. This time, however, there were a few things that the mechanic wanted to look at so he asked if I could leave my car with him until the end of the day. Of course, this meant renting a car to go to work.

I called the local car rental agency and they told me that they did not have anything available in the morning. They told me that they would have some more cars coming in at noon, but they had nothing at the moment. It was just 8:00 a.m. and I was in no mood to waste half a day waiting for a rental car. My mechanic is an “old school” mechanic; he is as talented at diagnosing and fixing problems, as he is courteous to his clients. Seeing my dilemma, he offered to let me use one of the “stand-by” cars that he keeps just for this kind of situations.

Not keen with the prospect of sitting around the shop’s waiting room for half a day, I happily agreed to use the “stand-by” car. That is, until I saw what the “stand-by” looked like. Seeing the look on my face my mechanic apologized for the car’s condition. “My other cars are out, this is the last one I have left for the day,” he said. “I know it looks tatty,” he added, “but it runs fine and it won’t give you any problems.”

The car in front of me was a W126 Mercedes 420 SEL. Back in its heyday, the 420 SEL was right at the top of the Mercedes line, just one short step below the might 560 SEL. The “S” class Benz, and especially the 420 SEL and the 560 SEL, was (and still is) the vehicle of choice for top executives, movie producers, the rich, kings, dictators and other heads of state.



This particular 420 SEL parked in front of me had seen better days – it was far, far from its formerly glorious heyday. The car’s paint was peeling off and there were a couple of dents on the side. When I opened the door, I saw that the interior was not in much better than its exterior. There were holes in the seats, there was a certain musty smell and the carpets were stained.

When I looked at the car, I almost did not get in. I must confess that I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to maintaining my cars. My father, who came from the land of Benzes, BMWs, Volkswagens and Porsches, instill in me a deep respect and appreciation for all cars, especially Mercedes. We never owned a new Benz. My father was way too practical and frugal to buy a new car. “Let someone else pay for depreciation,” he lectured me, “buy a used car in good shape, buy it cash, take good care of it, and you will save money in the long run,” he would add. So, instead of new Benzes, we always had older, but lovingly maintained, cars form the land of Stuttgart.

I looked at the big, dirty Benz and I immediately thought about Disney’s little blue coupe. Here was a car than when new must have put a big smile on its first owner’s face. But through neglect, the car now looked sad and forlorn. I got inside and I adjusted the seat and the mirrors. Then, with a turn of the key, the car’s powerful V8 engine roared to life. I love the sound of a well-tuned engine; in spite of its tatty looks, this Benz’s engine sounded like it had just come out of the factory.

I well know the dangers of anthropomorphism. A car is a car and a toaster is a toaster; to see them, as anything other than objects made out of metal is to risk a quick trip to the insane asylum. But in some unknown and inexplicable ways, I just felt that the big Benz was eager and happy to go places with me. I exited the mechanic’s shop and headed for the nearest freeway.



As I drove on the freeway, I was amazed by the big car’s ability to lap up the miles and weave in and out of rush hour traffic. It was like riding an old horse and expecting it to be tired and lame, and then finding out that the horse still has fire in its belly and wants to gallop and not just walk.

As I got closer to the freeway off ramp that would take me to my office I got an idea. What if I do not go to work in the morning and instead take the old car out for a spin. The moment that the idea formed itself in my head, I felt the car’s engine surge forward (here I go again, anthropomorphizing). I passed the off ramp to my office and instead took another road – a road that would take the old "guy" and me over the Santa Monica Mountains and directly to Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

This morning was a foggy and slightly cool morning. As soon as the Benz and I hit PCH, the engine surged ahead, eager to run loose. Mechanics will confirm that cars run better in cool, foggy days because cool air is heavier and richer and burns better in the cylinders. I suppose that is true – it may even explain how eager the car’s engine felt under the throttle. For me, however, there was something far less prosaic at work here:

This venerable old-timer was just happy to be back on the road, especially out on PCH with the roar of the ocean on one side and the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains on the other side. So my new “friend” and I happily tooled along the way, enjoying the cool ocean breeze. By the time we passed Mugu Rock, the car drove and felt like new. I exited on Las Posas Road and then proceeded to drive inland, next to fields where workers busily picked the autumn harvest. The big Benz seemed to love the change from the ocean view to the farm view. Its engine just hummed along, lapping up the miles.

When I finally returned to the freeway and headed back to my office, the old-timer seemed a little sad. But I think that he “understood” full well that I have work commitments and so he went along with me, back to my office.

When I finally returned to work, I parked him under the shade of an old oak tree. Once inside my office, I could look out my window and see the old-timer “snoozing” under the tree’s generous shade. I do not know whether the light was playing tricks on me, but somehow the car’s old, dull paint seemed brighter and shinier. The old Benz, dare I say it, looked younger and happier – just the day he must have looked like that day, many years back when he sat on the dealer’s showroom while people around him ooh’ed and ahh’ed in admiration.

It is almost the end of my workday and I just got a call from my car mechanic. He says that my car is running fine and that I can come and pick him up anytime I want. As I spoke dot the mechanic I looked out the window and saw the old 420 SEL staring at me, like a big, lost puppy. I looked at him and I told the mechanic that I am going to keep the 420 SEL overnight and will return it to him in the morning.

I think that I am going to be late for work again tomorrow. The old Benz and I have a breakfast date tomorrow morning at Paradise Cove.

I am sure that the big Benz will enjoy one more trip to Malibu.

NOTE: Walt Disney had an enduring fascination with cars, trains and airplanes. Here, from Uncle Walt’s Disney studios is a look at what cars might look like in the future (from a 1940’s perspective). Please note that some of the design features depicted on this animated short were, in fact, available in some of the cars of the time. For example, the car with the “step-down” interiors (at 0:45 minutes into the clip) was in fact a real car. In the early 1950s the Hudson Car Company developed a car with “Step Down” interiors (though not as exaggerated as in the Disney short). This design feature, found only in the Hudsons of that era, made the car wider and lower than the competition. As a result, Hudsons had superior handling characteristics. The company’s Hudson Hornet with its powerful flathead straight-six engine and the Step-Down design’ superior handling made the Hornet a fearsome competitor – it dominated NASCAR competition for many years.

DISNEY - Cars of Tomorrow



A Hudson Hornet police “cruiser” (Doc Hudson, voiced by the late Paul Newman) was predominantly featured in the Disney-Pixar film, “Cars.”

DISNEY – PIXAR – Cars

SUNDAY MORNING COMICS - NOVEMBER 1, 2009

By Debbie Bulloch







Here are today's Sunday comics. Enjoy!













(Remember to click image for larger view.)















And from my garden...