On November 9, 2009, thoughtful leaders from throughout the world will gather in Germany to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The will celebrate the end of the Cold War and the victory of liberty over tyranny. And they will honor the memories of the millions who perished under the brutal yoke of communist oppression.
For nearly 30 long and painful years, the Berlin Wall served as Marxism’s monument to its own barbarity. Like a jagged scar across the face of Europe, it reminded all that communism and freedom are diametrically opposed. That those who would embrace the latter must consistently oppose the former.
From John Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner,” to Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” the words and deeds of Americans and their allies relentlessly chipped away at this obscene symbol of oppression. And they paved the way to a unified Germany, the liberation of the Captive Nations from the stranglehold of Soviet-style Marxism, and the freeing of the world from the fears and tears of 70 years of Soviet aggression.
So, the collapse of the Berlin Wall is truly a landmark moment worth celebrating – by most. And international leaders ranging from Lech Walesa, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown, and even Kofi Anan will be attending the festivities and honoring the legacy.
One well-known dignitary, however, will be conspicuous by his absence. That dignitary is U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama.
And free peoples the world over have a right to ask why.
After all, he was more than happy to journey to Berlin during his campaign to bask in the applause of adoring crowds as he declared himself a “citizen of the world.” He was eager to take his entourage to Copenhagen to personally peddle the ill-fated Olympics. And, naturally, he’ll be jetting off to Oslo in December to accept his Nobel Prize amid accolades aplenty.
But, a trip to Berlin on the historic anniversary of fall of the “Evil Empire” simply did not fit into Barack Obama’s schedule. And the thought of a U.S. President churlishly disdaining such a momentous occasion is as unconscionable as it is unfathomable – unless, of course, one considers the source.
Barack Obama was born into a tradition of Marxism and deliberately immersed himself in its rabid ideology. As he reveals in his own self-idealizing autobiography, Dreams From My Father, he intentionally patterned himself after a father who was a zealous Marxist , one who, perhaps not so coincidentally, believed in redistributing the wealth by taxing personal income at 100%.
As Obama wrote:
“It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, Dubois and Mandela.”
Even in his earliest, most impressionable, years, Obama sought out the counsel of strident Marxists to help shape his thoughts and deeds. Again in his own autobiography, he identifies Franklin Marshall Davis — a member of the Communist Party and a Soviet sympathizer — as his childhood father figure, a male role model and mentor whose thoughts he eagerly assimilated.
Here’s an example of Mr. Davis’ thoughts — this from his blood-curdling ode “To the Red Army”:
Smash on, victory-eating Red warriors!
Bears today the golden fruit of victory!
Drive on, oh mighty people’s juggernaut
Entering politics, Obama turned to one Alice Palmer to be his personal guide and political guru. Ms. Palmer, a disgruntled member of the Illinois State Senate, took great pride in assailing the United States from her perch as a contributor to the People’s Weekly World, a house organ for the Communist Party, USA. In fact, she was a correspondent for the People’s World Weekly from the 27th Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow.
When not learning at the knee of Alice Palmer, Obama was hobnobbing with “some guy in my neighborhood” named Bill Ayers, and of course, Mr. Ayers wife, the lovely Bernadine Dohrn, infamous for her celebration of the Tate-LoBianca massacre. It was, in fact, the self-proclaimed communist Ayers who helped launch Obama’s political career at a cocktail party in the Ayers-Dohrn Hyde Park mansion (some Marxists are apparently more equal than others).
And all the while, Obama was seeking out the counsel of the man he has described as his “spiritual mentor”: Rev. Jeremiah Wright. That’s the same Jeremiah Wright who applauded the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers, bellowing, “G*d damn America!” The same Jeremiah Wright who each and every Sunday trumpeted from his pulpit the dangerously divisive Marxist Liberation Theology – while Barack Obama contributed more than $20,000 to keep the dogma frothing forth.
But, one not need judge Obama merely by the decidedly Marxist company he has historically chosen to keep. His actions and appointments since coming to office resoundingly declare his affinities as well.
On the domestic front, by nationalizing the automobile, banking, health, and mortgage industries, or dictating compensation for private sector CEOs, Barack Obama is doing all in his power to prove his Marxist mettle and make his mentors proud.
And on the foreign front, his warm embrace of Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez, his outreach to Fidel and Raul Castro, and his angry insistence that the people of Honduras reinstate impeached Marxist despot Manuel Zelaya have firmed up Obama’s credentials as a man who at best underestimates the horror of communist hegemony.
That said, it is really no wonder that Barack Obama has precious little appetite for participating in the festivities celebrating the legacy of November 9, 1989. For him, it is quite simply not worth commemorating something as nebulous as the fall of Marxism and the Soviet Union.
He does not recognize the horror of their ways. He does not appreciate the sacrifice of those who fought and died to toss off their brutal yoke. By precept and practice, his own personal mindset and political agenda gainsay those who celebrate their fall.
So, in the final analysis, it is probably better that Barack Obama simply stay at home on November 9. In the name of all that is good and decent, he should let those who actually fought the fight celebrate the victory.
