http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/index/ en U.S. Department of State 2010-03-18T00:18:19+00:00
As a Fulbright scholar living in the then-divided Berlin from 1987-88, I was fortunate (if you can call it that) to have experienced the reality of that divided city and it was always sobering: coming into West Berlin from West Germany via automobile, you could only drive on the Autobahn straight through, there were East German police stationed at the exits to ensure no one got off and took the "scenic route." And going into East Germany, where one had to exchange 25 German west Marks for 25 east Marks, was a Kafkaesque experience of grim checkpoints, stone-faced officials, and grey, grey, grey everywhere. Walking around East Berlin was like going back in time to the 1950's in the West. And yet, there was a sense of solidarity among people, see the movie Goodbye, Lenin, to get a sense of that, as it is difficult as an outsider used to certain freedoms to understand. And I'd like to add to the first post a thanks to HRC for so ably representing the United States as SoS.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/travel_diary_brandenburg_gate/ Tue Nov 10, 2009
As someone who was only 2 years old when the Berlin Wall came down, it is difficult to truly appreciate this 20 year anniversary. In my history classes I have read about the fall of the Berlin Wall and how it symbolized, in its own way, the end of an era. It symbolized an entire people finally finding the freedom they had been seeking. I have visited the Newseum in DC and seen a part of the wall. That is the closest I will come to knowing how it must of felt to witness that momentous occasion 20 years ago.

In her post, Ms. Corwin ends by saying that 20 years ago, the hopes of these high school students' parents came true. It makes me wonder: What even will we celebrate in 10, 15 or 20 years from now that my future children will have no remembrance of? What event will be celebrated for the way it changed the world we know? Perhaps it will be September 11. It's odd to think that there is an entire generation of children in America and around the world who have no recollection of life before that day.

Whatever the event may be, it is important that we take the time to celebrate their anniversaries. We learn from the past. Celebrating it provides us the opportunity to reflect not only on how far we have come, but on where it is we are going.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/travel_diary_brandenburg_gate/ Mon Nov 09, 2009
This is a very emotional day for the many of us who remember when and how that wall went up and the unimaginable way it came down 20 years ago today. Everything we had grown up with, everything that wall represented, all the fears of the Cold War and the restrictions of the Iron Curtain dissolved so quickly, and the world was suddenly a very different place.

I am so happy to see our Secretary of State over there for this wonderful celebration of unification,peace, and life.

Thanks, Secretary Clinton, for representing us so well.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/travel_diary_brandenburg_gate/ Mon Nov 09, 2009