Mimi Johnson's Essay on the 30-Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

In other news around the globe, today marks thirty years since the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. I remember Peter Jennings reporting it on ABC news. I was in 4th grade and had a different understanding than most American children. You see, my mother and grandmother fled a third world communist country and even at a young age, I understood the significance of this wall coming down, uniting broken families and overthrowing a systematic, oppressive government.

Next month, it’ll be thirty years since Romania gained its independence from communist dictator Ceaușescu. The people and militia rose up against 50 years of starvation, lack of water, medicine, jobs, fear for their lives, women being taken against their will by the communist police and raped, having no clothes, shoes, standing in line for bread, milk, being rationed everything and having no free choice of anything; they finally had the courage to say ENOUGH, yet after all that, I cannot believe the global sentiments.

It’s amazing to me, how quickly we forget the pain and suffering millions of people endured and how hard they fought to eradicate totalitarian regime out of their lives. Yet here we are, at the end of 2019, and there has been a massive global wave wanting to bring back this horrific and failed system of government citing “justice for all.” The apropos motto would be “justice for none.”

I wish society viewed communism in the same vein that they view other atrocities, such as slavery and the holocaust; history must not repeat itself. My friends, think hard before you champion something like this coming to our shores. I implore you to talk with people who have experienced horrific tragedies and escaped to tell the story. There are many proud immigrants in this country that are seriously frightened about their existence here in their new chosen home land. Not because they will be deported, but that their haunting history will follow them here, feeling as if they could never escape the proverbial prisons in which they lived.

The U.S. is at a major crossroads and it’s evident every single day. The communist ideology has already snuck in. I watch video after video of people being beaten and spit on for their political beliefs, or losing friendships over opinions, no tolerance for anything that is different from their wavering thoughts. We have become a society of carnivorous animals waiting to pounce on innocent, unsuspecting prey. The offense monster is terrorizing a city near you. No one is civilized anymore.

We now have natural segregation occurring, yet still complain about race relations. If a member of one race attempts to ingratiate themselves into another, there’s an uproar! How dare you! The U.S. has gone beyond being a nation of multiculturalism, more over putting everyone into groups and not assimilating to our inherent value system that makes this nation so appealing to the masses. True multiculturalism is bringing the best things from your country and melding them with others, not segregating yourselves in cities where no one unlike you is allowed.

Our freedoms are disappearing under our noses, yet no one seems to care. Instead we idolize political leaders and follow them like rats to the pied piper. Political figures aren’t deities, yet we expect them to be. This is serious and dangerous behavior and thought.

Even terms like “open-mindedness” have become an oxymoron because the caveat is that you’re only open-minded if you think “this” or “my” way. We the people are responsible for our societal demise, not politicians. The inherent truth is that we are a melting pot of religions and ideologies, however, one message that resonates loudly in most religions is to love thy neighbor and do good unto others.

Let’s get back to that original premise.