Lest we forget

Today is the 46th anniversary of the official construction of the Berlin Wall. On the night of August 12th, 1961, the Soviet-controlled East German government began to run barbed wire around the lenght of the Eastern sector of the city, trapping hundreds of thousands of residents behind the "anti-fascist protection barrier."

For anyone who grows nostalgic for the East, or complains about the state of modern German affairs, it's hard for me not to smack them. Hard. For all of its troubles, Germany is one country again, prosperous, stable and at peace.