The bar was preparing for the lunch rush. Well, it was supposed to be getting prepared anyway. Nobody worked. Then, slowly, customers started coming in. Nobody ordered drinks. Nobody ordered food. Nobody worked.
All of us glued to the nearest T.V., then it happened. The statue cracked at the knees and with a final tug by the awesome tank recovery vehicle - Bam! Down came the dictator. Everybody cheered. Some of us cried. We all knew. We knew that we were seeing what our children would someday be studying in history.
We saw a liberation. We saw people whose life just began regardless of their age. We saw faces smiling a smile, many of us, thankfully will never know. We saw fear being wiped out. We saw gratitude. We saw why Tony Blair and George W. Bush were right. We saw why so many shameful Americans and others were so horribly wrong.
We saw history.
And it was GLORIOUS!
I was late for work because I COULD NOT leave the television. I saw the whole thing, and made my 12-year old watch as well. History, happening RIGHT NOW, right before my eyes. And the jubilation, the gratitude, the cheering and dancing!! I had goosebumps, and I cried. There is nothing like watching people climb out from under tyranny. And WE are giving them a hand up.
Not to pee on anyone's parade, but I was in Paris in August of 1944. Pretty heady stuff! I could not contain my admiration of the stoicism and good cheer Parisians showed during the dreadful winter of 1944-45. Meanwhile, two Républiques later...Jacquot the Jackal.
I had tears in my eyes when the statue of Felix Djerzhinski toppled onto the pavement of Lubyanka Square. Now, we've got a living avatar of old Felix as the duly elected Czar of All the Russias.
Won't even mention the Berlin Wall. Too sad for words. Keep your fingers crossed.
Dear John: I understand what you are saying. The sun will rise tomorrow and the mundane will rear its head to sober the besotted. But I will not let that water the genuine, and rare, emotions I feel when I see the joy on the faces before me. Let them deal with the mundane for a change. No matter what happens, there's a chance for them for the first time in decades. What they will make of it nobody knows.
The seeds of what we've witnessed in other liberated countries were sown in ancient times. We are still fighting the same collectivist ideas in this country, contrary to the individualism of classical liberalism. That is because the ideas underlying classical liberalism were based upon ideas not fully understood even by those who gave them birth. It is all the same struggle.
Today I am happy. I'll take today.