Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

What's old is new: Yesterday's Berlin Wall and today's news

What's old is new: Yesterday's Berlin Wall and today's news

Sixty years ago today, on August 13, 1961, the East German government closed the border between East and West Berlin. It commenced the construction of the Berlin Wall.
On that day, my wife, Karen, and I were in Budapest, Hungary. On the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.

The streets filled with anxious people. They were watched over by a large number of Hungarian and Soviet soldiers. Everyone knew that there was an international crisis.

No one seemed to know what was really happening.

A few days later, we arrived in Vienna and read the International Herald Tribune. We learned about the Wall. We witnessed the debate concerning whether the United States and its European allies should have intervened.

President Kennedy could have confronted the East Germans and Soviet Union militarily. If he had, we could have been interned in Hungary as enemy aliens.

We were on a two month trip through Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We were in a group of nine Minnesota students and a professor from the University of Minnesota. We were traveling and doing research on a variety of subjects, earning academic credit from our respective colleges and universities.

Beginning in Berlin, we traveled through Poland, the Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian and Uzbek Republics of the Soviet Union, and out through Hungary. We knew enough Russian to converse.

The real impediment to discussion –particularly in the Soviet Union— was an almost complete misunderstanding of the West by the people we encountered.

There was no Internet. Western television and radio couldn’t reach people in those areas. Or it was jammed. Newspapers were government controlled. Many books were banned.

In conversation with our young Georgian hosts, it was almost impossible to describe the United States in terms that they could understand. They had been taught that our workers were essentially slaves. They could not believe that our working class had decent homes, cars, and social security.

When we finally made some progress in describing life in our country, they announced that they did not believe us.

They said we would not be in the Soviet Union unless we were part of the privileged class in the United States. They said we must have wealth and status that would allow us to travel.

We emerged from that experience with a deep appreciation for our freedom to read, learn, and speak.

Over the entire history of the United States, a free press has been fundamental to our lives and freedoms. In recent years, the ways in which we receive and process information has changed greatly. Our news media is encountering increasingly difficult challenges.

Corporations and private equity investors focused on profit alone have aggregated, trimmed and shuttered a large segment of our print media, in both major metropolitan areas and local communities. Intelligent discourse has often been replaced with sound bites and tweets.

Across the country many people are experimenting with media alternatives to counter these adverse trends. The Eden Prairie Local News is one such example.

We are fortunate that Eden Prairie has an identity based on nearly identical municipal and school district boundaries as well as healthy residential and business sectors.

We hope to do our part in maintaining a source for information and a forum for debate in the future. We have seen the consequences of the lack of a strong and free press. Let’s not go there.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
JD Vance Warns Europe Faces “Civilizational Suicide” Over Open Borders and Speech Limits
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
×