Tuesday, February 15, 2011

30 day song challenge - Day Seven

Day 7 - A song that makes you think of a certain event
"Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones

The Revolution Will Be Televised...

I am truly a child of the '80s. No lie. When I read this day's topic, I immediately thought of this song, and the environment all of us children of the '80s grew up in. We got to witness on TV, live and right in front of us, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the jubilation and exhilaration of all of Europe as the balance of power shifted from oppression to freedom.

Hell, we even got to see David Hasselhoff in a jacket studded with little lights as he sang on top of the Berlin Wall.

It was a crazy, crazy time. And my young eyes had never seen anything like it.

Fast forward to now, and I'm watching TV as Egypt's government implodes and Mubarak is removed from power. I'm watching the protests, the announcements, and the celebration. I'm watching as men and women take to the streets peacefully, and I'm then watching them celebrate after a many days struggle to get their message across.

And I'm automatically drawn back to this song.

Right here, right now there is no other place I'd rather be.
Right here, right now watching the world wake up from history...
How many of you are reading this who do remember the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gates, the Cold War and the Red Scare? How many of you lived there? Lived in Europe? Traveled to Eastern Europe when it was in the shadow of communism? Poland? East Germany? Do you even remember there was an East and a West Germany? I remember being in German class and learning about BDR and DDR, and the cities on either side of the "fence." I remember reading about how Berlin was carved in half, how there was a FREE "western" half of Berlin, in the middle of East Germany. How insane is that?! Traveling in and out of Berlin was a nightmare for anyone who had to do it. How they kept that insanity alive for so long is beyond me.

How many of you reading this are too young to remember or weren't even born yet and have no idea of what happened in the 1980s when President Reagan said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall..." Berlin is part of your history books, it touched on lightly as you gloss over the end of World War II in your history classes in high school because it is the end of the year and you still have to cover the 1950s, Korean War and the Hippies. You have no idea what happened, and just want to get a good score on the test and get on with it.

Well, kids... you have the opportunity right now, if you're paying attention, to pay mind to the Middle East. The fall of Mubarak's government, the revolution in Egypt, and the shift in power that is happening across the Middle East is reminiscent of what happened in the '80s with the fall of the Soviet Union.

My only fear is that freedom, which is being called for and demanded by the people, will not be the result. I also remember the '70s with Iran... and what has happened in the last 30 years there.

My hope for Egypt is that a truly democratic state rises, and that the people who cried freedom will look back in 30 years and say "see? We did it."

Right here, right now.

2 comments:

  1. Is it okay to immediately think of "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel when I read this post?

    ReplyDelete
  2. interesting connection P! I like that!

    ReplyDelete