Berlin Wall

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Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 43

On Additional Walls
Monday’s post honored the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall and attempt to stimulate thinking, along with providing a wonderful 2-minute NPR segment. Here are some additional thoughts about walls.

A conversation with one of my pastors produced this analogy: One aspect of Christianity is to turn walls into tables. Now that’s worth thinking about.

Secondly, I continue to see letters to the editor in the Cincinnati paper pointing to President Reagan’s 1987 “Tear down that wall” speech as a single historic moment regarding the wall. Historic? Yes. Significant? Yes. The key event? No. Let’s us not forget World War II and Winston Churchill’s iron curtain speech – “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” – as a line was drawn and the many events to come; including, but not solely, President Reagan. Here’s an interesting column from San Antonio’s Jonathan Gurwitz.

On Jobs and War
NY Times columnist Bob Hebert wrote an interesting column this week focusing on what would he tell President Obama about jobs, the economy, and the war in Afghanistan. Although it’s not about independent moderates, to me he hit the nail on the head about why nonpartisan independents are discouraged. To me his words weren’t based on a party or an ideology, but on a nonpartisan reality. Here’s the column.

On Moderates and Fiscal Policy
One thing Republicans don’t understand about independent moderates is that we tend to be more sensitive to social programs, including health care insurance. One thing that Democrats don’t understand about independent moderates is that we tend to be fiscally sensitive. Although I don’t always agree with George Will, I do appreciate his columns – including this one about fiscal concerns.

On Interesting Football Stat
Cincinnati Bearcat QB Tony Pike guided the team to a 4-0 start before suffering an injury in game 5. Sophomore QB Zach Collaros has started 3 games and produced these unconscious numbers:

  • Record: 3-0
  • Rushing: 33 attempts, 172 yards, 2 TDs
  • Passing: 66-82, 0 INT, 8 TDs

Tonight the Bearcats host West Virginia at Nippert Stadium, one of the great old, on-campus sporting venues. (Here’s a prior post about the stadium.) I’ll be there so watch for me as I’ll be wearing red.

On the BCS
Since I mentioned college football, for those who haven’t seen the latest edition of the BCS Committee meeting from the Global Sports Fraternity, enjoy!

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On Different Walls

There’s the Great Wall of China, Kremlin walls, the walls of Jericho, many fortress walls around old cities, and plenty of famous prison walls. Although sports has walls as the Seven Blocks of Granite, the Steel Curtain, and the Green Monster, all of them pail to what the true sense in this post. Twenty years ago today (on November 9, 1989) there was an announcement of the opening of a famous modern-day wall that would eventually come down – the Berlin Wall.

While listening to NPR’s All Things Considered last week, I heard an interesting segment about walls – of which I will provide the link at the end of this post. Meanwhile, think about walls.

Walls gave any purposes. Some divide/separate, some keep others out while some keep others out. Some isolate while some protect or even define boundaries. Some are sacred and others are grim reminders of historical events.

We commonly think of physical walls, but let us not forget about the mental and psychological walls individuals but in place (for a variety of reasons). Think about the behavioral walls we put in place by our collective behaviors as a society and/or a culture.

So on this anniversary of a famous 20th century wall, I encourage readers to think about walls – especially for a perspective different from their own.

Meanwhile, this NPR segment is worth 2 minutes and 15 seconds.