Thursday, June 14, 2012

Reagan Was More Than an Anti-Communist

The 'Tear Down This Wall' speech contained another real gem.

Reagan was not afraid to point to:

“...the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere--that sphere that towers over all Berlin--the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.

That sign is quite powerful, eh?  

2 comments:

J. Strupp said...

Too bad that Tower is ugly as sin.

Anonymous said...

Reagan was a union organizer. And a damn good one!