Freedom

What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?

Thirty-five years ago, the “WALL” started to come down, dividing West Germany and the DDR. People were given the opportunity to be “free” for the first time since the WALL went up in 1961. East Berlin looked oppressive and foreboding … dark and dreary. There was little on the shelves of the markets, and what was there was extremely expensive (as memory serves). Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion were new ideas for a generation.

Today some have an alternative truth of freedom. When I took this long ago, having the freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion were so interwoven in me that I cherished them. Protecting them from those who would debase them was a duty. Allowing them to be destroyed or withheld for sectarian motives was not part of life.

Now it has slithered into this present time.

Where is the watchman on the wall? How do we value the freedoms?