"Tens of Thousands mark Toppling of Berlin Wall"

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Its hard for us to imagine having our city cut in half, with mines, and guards with orders to shoot to kill down the center. But that is what ordinary residents of Berlin lived with for many years. The first time I went to Berlin, I saw remnants of the wall still eerily standing. The two sides of the city are still easily divisible by the blocky communist architecture on the east and the classical architecture of the West. But check Point Charlie is now a tourist trap and shops sell small pieces of the wall as souvenirs. I'm not sure what the message of the wall is, other than that hopefully other conflicts can come to peaceful solutions.

Sam Juster

-In depth editor