Berlin Wall and War Remembrance

Twenty years ago I watched with fascination as I saw people chipping away, even smashing away, at a wall which symobolised oppression and ideological fear. Like the peaceful revolutions which swept Eastern Europe in 1989, this was nothing short of miraculous and for me was best underlined when I told my octogenarian grandparents that I thought they didn't think they would live to see this happen, to which they said that no, they didn't!
Twenty years on, there are many in the former East Germany who suffer economic hardship and indeed had difficulties adjusting to a capitalist life, but likewise many of them have equally argued that they would never want to return to the old regime. The smashing of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Eastern Europe did not represent the beginnings of a Utopia, but it did herald the end of oppression.
Likewise this weekend we have remembered those who died for our freedoms during two World Wars, as well as remembering those who are serving abroad in places such as Afghanistan. The challenges faced are hard and the difficulties immense, but we honour those who have fallen because they helped defend us from tyranny and others from tyranny and it is that which we need to bear in mind and be thankful.