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Re: Ich bin Berliner...U2?
As is the case with all of my journal entries composed while on my spring
break, that last entry was a little rough and I wanted to add some more to
it. I've typically been writing from Internet Cafe's with a very public
atmosphere and time-constraints, so it's difficult to remember everything
I want to remember to say. Anyway,....
Another way of looking at Berlin in terms of intertia and nudges is with
its recent history. The walking tour I took gave me at least a little
insight into how much that city and the country as a whole has been
through recently. If you think about it (and I hope you do), it was only
1989, less than 10 years ago, that the Berlin Wall came down. I've never
been anywhere that has had something so important to the rest of the world
happen so recently.
One striking part of the tour was learning about where and how all the
various public and social revolutions/protests took place.Perhaps Lance
was a little too dramatic at times, but not that much. It was so touching
to see how much the city had gone through to get where it is now.
And it hasn't even come close to completing the process of recovery from
those events. Mermorials and statues everywhere still have hundreds of
dents and nicks from artilellery fire. I actually walked past the site
where they are excavating the bunker where Hitler shot himself. The city
is covered in cranes and scaffoliding.
But they're getting there. The streets and the general tone of the people
exhude's hope and a sort of looking forward to the future. It was such a
neat feeling to be walking through the streets of a city that is *in
process* in every sense.
Chris
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