Germany Struggles to Save Berlin Wall.........

[global1]

17 Years After Berlin Wall Fell, Germany Struggles to Preserve Its Remains. Check out this link.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3461675

I visited Berlin last November. I have to say much of the wall that remains looked questionable - but I expected that. I didn't expect the wall to be in pristine condition. Yes - a lot of what I saw was subject to graffiti. Again - I expected that - but - those sections where they had an artist come in and enhance should have been better protected against grafitti.

Given the historical importance of this wall - I feel it needs to be preserved. I would hope that the Berliners would feel that they need to preserve these important monuments to oppression as a reminder that this sort of thing should never be allowed to happen anywhere in this world.

Maybe there should be a 'preserve the Berlin wall fund' set up so that people from all over the world could contribute. Perhaps if the have the artists come back to repaint their works - those sections can be preserved in museums around the world. Perhaps even a traveling exhibition to major art museums around the world.

It's interesting to note that as this wall is a reminder of oppression - that our own government is now in the process of building their own wall. Haven't we learned anything. Haven't we learned that there are better ways in solving our problems than building walls?

[David__77]

1. A small section should be preserved.

It's an important relic of the cold war. It should be remembered that the wall came down at the initiative of the leadership of East Germany and the Soviet Union, Reagan and Bush were not responsible. To say otherwise is historical revisionism.

[JVS]

2. Gorbachev was a fuckup!

[David__77]

3. I agree.

I think he destroyed not only his own country, but he harmed other countries as well. That said, he was in large part responsible for the "fall of the wall." It can be argued that this was a tremendously destabilizing chain of events from an international perspective, and laid the basis for the current, turbulent world state of affairs.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

4. I hope Berlin is willing to pay for it

West Germany is sick and tired of forking out money to try and rescue dumb and dumber over there.

[Igel]

5. Every few days I walk past a piece of it.

There's a chunk of it on the Rice University campus; I doubt most of the students know what it is, I occasionally walked past it for over a year and just assumed it was some modern art (?) before I read the little bronze marker.

It retains its original graffiti.

And every time I walk past it, I ponder what it represents.