"In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: 'We will bury you.' But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor. . .
"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!'"
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'"
~ Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987
A.Rogers Dec.2007
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Taken from back patio
facing west toward Thousand Oaks, California
The plaque beneath reads, "An authentic section of the Berlin Wall, donated in April 1990 by the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group to President Reagan for his unwavering dedication to *humanitarianism and freedom over communism throughout his presidency. This segment measures 3.5 feet by 10 feet and weighs approximately 8,000 pounds"
*With today being Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, what a great day for this post!
The plaque beneath reads, "An authentic section of the Berlin Wall, donated in April 1990 by the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group to President Reagan for his unwavering dedication to *humanitarianism and freedom over communism throughout his presidency. This segment measures 3.5 feet by 10 feet and weighs approximately 8,000 pounds"
*With today being Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, what a great day for this post!
A.Rogers Dec.2007
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
This piece is inside the library.
A.Rogers Dec.2007
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
A picture from the wall of the Cold War Exhibit.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signing the 1987 INF Treaty at the Washington Summit.
Since my computer crashed last week and I had all my files rescued, I have been looking through my pictures to see what I can delete. I came across a file of pictures I took back in Christmas of '07 when I was back home in Southern California. My mom, Kelly, and I went out to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that is in Simi Valley, just next to my hometown, so that we could see Air Force One before it left. One of my favorite things to see at the library is the piece of the Berlin Wall that sits on the back patio. It has been just over 21 years since the Wall came crashing down (November 10,1989), and I was only 10, but I will never forget the images I saw on the television the day the Wall fell; images of West Berliners helping East Berliners over the wall, thousands of eastern Germans standing on the top of the wall, singing and dancing on top of the wall in the middle of the night, citizens hammering at the wall to get a piece of the awful memory, and complete mayhem. What a miracle in so many ways! Who would have thought that we could have a temple on the other side of the Wall this quickly?
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