Do you have walls in your life?
Image via Wikipedia The Berlin Wall went up 50 years ago – Aug. 13, 1961, to be exact. Although its builders called it the “Anti-Fascist Protective Wall,” its purpose was not to protect the citizens of East Germany but rather to be sure that a planned economy could plan on the number of citizens it would have. It stopped a population hemorrhage, as about a quarter of the country’s citizens had left all they had behind to escape a society dedicated to building a socialist utopia in a “better Germany.” The Wall served its purpose for the 28 years it stood. As many as 200 people died trying to cross it, but most East Germans , with little choice in a bad situation, turned their small nation into the most economically successful of the Soviet bloc states. Even so, once the books were opened it turned out that East Germany was hopelessly in debt. Twenty eight years is a moment in human history. Some past walls stood for centuries, even a millennium or mor...