EduClaytion

Let’s see if I can slip one past the censors here like Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam.  The Berlin Wall–the very symbol of the Cold War between capitalism and communism–came down twenty years ago today.  You won’t hear too much about this monstrously historic day from media types hell-bent on leading America towards some of the same failed ideas symbolized by that wall.  You also won’t hear about it from President Obama who is skipping the international celebration of the event!  What?

Well, forgive me if I’d like to celebrate the failure of the Soviet Union and the victory, yes victory, of America and the free world in the Cold War led by President Reagan.  Such statements may shock your American sensibilities, so let’s check in on Europe where they are prominently celebrating this historic anniversary, the commemoration of the day freedom won out, when our open system conquered the veiled evil, yes evil, of the Soviet’s communist empire. 

The Berlin celebration will balance glitz with sobriety.  World leaders such as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Sarkozy, Russian President Medvedev, and more will be there to speak.  Yet Obama won’t.  As the German news publication Der Spiegel put it, “Barrack is too busy.” 

Obama has already made more international trips in his first year than Bush and Clinton combined, yet he doesn’t have time to go to Berlin.  Now, thanks to a little something called high school, I know a thing or two about getting blown off.  I’ve heard plenty of excuses in the “I have to wash my hair all weekend” mode.  So I feel qualified to say that Obama is full of it.  Sorry Berlin.  Like Molly Ringwald in Pretty In Pink, you can keep putting on all the makeup you want, but sometimes he just isn’t going to show no matter what he says.

This just in from the Not Speaking Of Makeup department: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending in Obama’s place.  Oh goodie.

I thought liberals and conservatives were able to at least agree on the simple things.  I’m thinking about stuff like human rights violations being evil and freedom being good.  Couldn’t Obama even check in for that?  The Cold War preoccupied the U.S. for half a century under presidencies of both parties.  The Soviet standoff defined generations and cost lives.  How could any American Westerner, let alone the president, skip this commemoration?  Forget Reagan and Republicans, I bet Democrat legends Truman, JFK, and LBJ are rolling over in their graves. 

I guess that’s what happens when you view America’s past as a big mistake that requires apology rather than remembrance.  Forget all the psycho partisanship out there too.  I don’t want to hear spin on this from anyone on either side.  This decision is wrong.  Even Newsweek tried to mask the fact that Obama is snubbing this momentous event.  Liberals, democrats, and Americans should be embarrassed by this decision.

Here’s how it sounded when Rich Lowry of the National Review sounded off.

“An American president will skip events marking the end of a struggle to which we, as a nation – under presidents of both parties – devoted blood and treasure for 50 years. For Barack Obama, 1989 is just another far-away year – and the Democratic party of such men as Harry S. Truman and JFK has never seemed more distant.”

It’s hard enough to teach history, to explain to people young and old where we’ve been and why it matters.  Most students blink at me when I try to explain how big of a deal the Cold War was.  This day was a great opportunity to reflect on the lessons of history, but our president doesn’t think we can learn anything useful, at least to his purposes, by doing the right necessary thing.